> VOICE (DISTORTED):
> "Memory isn't what you think. It's not a book you read—it's a song you replay.
> Change the song, change the story."
PRESENT — SCHOOL LIBRARY, HIDDEN STACKS
Kevin, Kim, and Ren regrouped behind the sealed archives, where Wi-Fi was dead and the walls were too thick for audio surveillance.
Kim held the cassette like it was radioactive.
"What happens if someone plays it?"
Ren bit his lip. "I don't think it plays *music* at all. It's like a key—a digital *cipher* that, when interpreted by the right system, initiates a complete overwrite."
"Of memories?" Kevin asked.
"Worse," Ren said. "Of identity."
Kim glanced toward Kevin. "You said Sora just gave it to you?"
He nodded. "No emotion. No warning. Like she didn't even *know* what it was."
Ren turned his laptop. On-screen: a file labeled **ECHO-1//SORA**.
"I dug deeper into the facility's architecture. There's another chamber under the signal room. Codenamed: *The Echo Chamber*. That's where they built her."
---
**FLASHBACK — DR. HARROW'S LAB, 4 Months Ago**
Sora sat upright in the chair. Wires trailed from her spine, her temples, even her wrists.
Amari was there, too—half-conscious, half-fading.
DR. HARROW: "This won't hurt. Not in the way you fear."
Sora looked at Amari.
SORA: "What happens to her?"
HARROW: "She becomes *you*. Or rather, you become... what she could have been."
He pressed a key.
A resonance tone filled the room—low, throbbing, ancient.
Sora's eyes went wide.
---
PRESENT — BASEMENT TUNNELS, NIGHT
Ren's voice crackled in Kevin's earpiece. "You're close. Twenty meters east, then down. There's a service ladder."
Kevin moved fast. Every step deeper into the tunnels felt like diving into someone else's dream.
A metallic hum grew louder. Not from the pipes—but from inside his own head.
He reached the chamber. This one was colder, darker. The floor etched with concentric rings. A podium at the center held a single object:
[cassette deck]
Identical to the one Sora gave him.
Then:
[VOICE:]"Please insert tape."
Kevin froze.
The deck had powered on by itself.
SYSTEM READY
ECHO-1 COMPOSITE: STANDBY
NEURAL MATCH FOUND: KOBAYASHI, KEVIN
"Why me?" he whispered.
Another voice spoke—familiar.
SORA (recorded): "If you're hearing this, it means you followed me. You weren't supposed to."
[PAUSE.]
"I think... I left myself in there. In the tones. I don't know who I am anymore. But maybe you do."
Kevin looked down at the cassette.
Then slid it in.
MEANWHILE — ROOFTOP
Kim stood beside the Amari-lookalike, who had fallen silent, eyes glazed. Something in her was *replaying*.
A tone resonated from her throat. Faint, but climbing.
Kim backed away. "What are you doing?"
The girl blinked once.
Then spoke:"I remember *dying*."
_ECHO CHAMBER — SIMULTANEOUSLY_
The deck clicked.
Kevin's head filled with sound—not music, not noise, but *memory*.
Amari laughing.
Rain on the piano room window.
Sora's voice saying, "Don't trust Dr. Harrow."
Then—
Silence.
And one final phrase:
"You were always the key, Kevin."