Ray stood in a white room. There was blood all over it, but it wasn't his blood. There was another person in the room but he was far beyond the realm of the living. His body was unrealistic shredded to pieces, though you could still recognize it. The stench was unbearable and you could tell that by the look on Ray's face. The blood which was spread all over the room looked more like art rather than a gruesome murder. He looked at his own hands, and there as well was blood, which was still not his. There was something on the wall that was drawn with blood. It looked oddly familiar to Ray. It was the Noroi mark along with some words which were written in a language unknown to him, but at the same it was still oddly familiar.

Ray tried to recall what he was doing there but he could not remember anything other than working on the Mechs in the lab. There seemed to be only one other thing besides Picasso's masterpiece in the room and that was a barely visible white door. Ray frantically tried to reach for the door handle but it retracted as soon as his hand touched it. The lights in the room flickered wildly as Ray tried to process what was happening. The light died completely just as he felt something breathing on his neck. When it came back, he saw that all the blood had disappeared along with the body.

Ray found himself staring ahead blankly, looking at something that wasn't there at all. He felt the walls around him start to close up on him. It was a claustrophobic's worst nightmare. He put his hands around his ears and closed his eyes and waited for his impending doom. Except it never came. He looked up and saw Kayla's lifeless body hanging from the ceiling in the derelict room where she had been kept. He blinked and it was gone. Ray was pretty sure what was happening to him by now. He was hallucinating although it felt real, like it was actually happening. He wished to escape this madness but just couldn't. He was trapped in an endless nightmare. Ray remembered that he was carrying a strong inert anti-hallucinogenic drug in his bloodstream. It was supposed to activate as soon as it detected a hallucinogenic drug, but it had been removed somehow.

The torture went on endlessly for as long as Ray could endure it. He saw all manners of carnage happening right in front of him. Every muscle of his body was being stretched to its limit. Every bone dislocating with a loud crack, caused by a snapping cartilage.

Eventually, it stopped. Ray awoke in a derelict room to the screams of someone familiar coming from the other side of the wall. His grip on reality was gradually returning and he found himself unwilling to listen to the screams. He tried to cover his ears with his hands but could not move them at all. The wave of melancholy was quickly replaced by a sense of helplessness when he realised that it was indeed Kayla whom he just heard. He tried reaching for the door frame but couldn't do so. His consciousness left him just as he fell on the rat infested floor.

～の～

Meanwhile, Zandra had been growing increasingly impatient with each passing hour. Kayla had never been offline for this long. Perhaps it was the cell coverage at that time which was causing such discord but then again, the calls and texts were going through. There was just no response. Perhaps it could be that Kayla had to evacuate the city and could not grab her phone in time? Who's to say in dark times like this. The entire way towards her house was completely void of soul. Even the various fauna which had populated the dense city were gone.

The empty driveways and alleys were hinting towards the flight of the civilians in terror of another impending attack. Businesses and shops were closed and watched closely by sentries posted on and about the streets and walls of every building. The sky had also become overcast and was ready to pour at any moment. The part of the city which was blown up by the mechs was closed off by several automated roadblocks which were automated to kill anyone who would breach them. There were no humans except the few military patrol cars or mechs who were going around the city and advising people to skip town. Amidst all of this was Zandra on her bike, making her way towards her school and her favourite coffee shop. She had thought about bringing something for Kayla. The automated robots did serve her what she needed but it felt depressing to not see any beings of her kind there. The constant overhead traffic was also gone. The only human she was able to see was the gunner that was manning the heavy weaponry on top of a tank passing by her in the opposite direction.

She tried reaching Kayla once more but there was no answer from the other side. Not even a "hello". The clouds were getting more and more furious as she neared her home. The road she usually took which led straight to her home was closed for "construction" which was suspicious enough because the whole city was empty and there was no need for that. Zandra instead resorted to using the back alleys and underpasses. At one point, she sees a black car casually driving by the empty houses and parking lots. The car had tinted windows and with a number plate made of gold which read "W4LL" It did seem odd to her so she decided to discreetly follow the car, often hiding behind dumpsters and the like to conceal her presence.

"Sir, there is someone following us." was what an agent wearing tactical armor said to the other person in the car.

"Following us? That's very strange." came the reply.
"Truly, it appears as though it's a teenage girl on a bike."
"A teenage girl? Interesting. Can you ID her?"
"Of course. Our thermal imaging shows that she's hiding behind that wooden fence as we speak. Running the face scan now."

Zandra peeked out of cover for just a second to see that the car was moving incredibly slowly. She felt like it had detected her but the car picked up speed just after a second and was gone swiftly. By the time, Zandra peeked out again she had lost it. She decided to leave that stone unturned and just continue on her journey. Her bike took her to Kaylas home, outside of which was a truck parked which looked to be from the military itself. She parked her bike and hid far from her home in a bush to spectate the scene.

"Zandra Helkit, 17, orphan, Malris High, close friend of Kayla Ryen"
"Ah so that is the friend I was told of."
"What do you want to do with her, sir?"
"We follow the standard procedure of the op"
"That's fine. Understandable."

Zandra witnessed two people who were likely from the military emerging from Kayla's home in full body armor carrying some cardboard boxes. One of them dropped an object from it which Zandra saw was Kayla's glassius. It was given away by the pink stained glass it was made of. By now, she was convinced that there was something odd happening here. The next thing the two agents did was unload a massive box from the truck and proceed to take its belongings inside the house. She turned around to the sound of a twig snapping behind her only to see something she wasn't supposed to see. It was Kayla who had snuck on her.

"What the f*ck are you doing here?" said Zandra
"I live here!"
"You live in the house not the bush"
"I know"
"What do you me-" Kayla put her hand over Zandras mouth in an attempt to suppress her voice.

The attempt was successful but it was unnecessary. Zandra was surprised at first but she came to understand what Kayla was trying to achieve. The real panic set in when Zandra noticed that her hand was laced with an anesthetic. You could see the shock and pain in her eyes as she tried to free herself. However, Zandra wasn't completely knocked out. She saw Kayla disappearing with her eyes barely open. Kayla wasn't there at all. What Zandra actually saw was secret military tech able to the take the form of any person. It was used to extract her out of that place. 

The soldiers that were seen earlier were actually there to remove all the evidence of the Ryens. Since no one was around to see them, they did the job swiftly. By the time they were done there was not an ounce of evidence that could prove that someone named Kayla and her parents lived here at all. All of their personal belongings were discreetly transported to be disposed of. Zandra's bike was also picked up and thrown in the trash where it should have been since the start for fucks sake. The sky had started to pour and with each passing minute it was growing wilder. The black car which Zandra was tailing was present at the house and appeared to be on the same side as the military who were cleaning the house.

Inside the car was the man who had authorised this wipe. It was none other than San Wallace. He was there to ensure that there were no loose ends circling his operation.

Zandra was taken to the same place as her friends except she woke up in a room which contained an empty pool. The room's state was better than the ones Kayla and Ray were in. The room was well lit and was very white. The pool was filled with clear water which cleared any suspicions of a secret door at the bottom of it. Zandra was puzzled at first. She knew that she was kidnapped but she wasn't really expecting to be kept in such a room. Zandra came closer to examine the water and judge its depth and saw that the clear water she just saw was filled bodies of dead people. The water was filled with blood and the stench was maddening. She screamed and tried to run away, but lost her balance amidst the confusion and hit her head hard on the floor. 

After recovering, she saw she was losing a lot of blood from her head. Suddenly, seaweed started to grow on the wall of the room at one side. Its roots grew wildly and the whole wall was covered in it in just a few seconds. Zandra could not understand just what exactly was happening to her. There was a long pause in which she did absolutely nothing but stare at the weed infested wall. She turned around to the pool and it was clean once more. She washed the blood off her head using the water from the pool but as soon as she looked into the water, she saw Ray standing behind her in the reflection. Zandra looked behind her but he wasn't there at all. She seemed to be imagining it all. Something pulled her into the water whilst her back was turned.