City Hospital - East Wing (Condemned)
It took three days and two fake ID badges to get inside. The East Wing had been sealed off for over a decade after a fire no one could explain-and no one wanted to.
Amelia led the way.
She had no memory of being here.
And yet every turn felt familiar.
Alexis followed, gun drawn, scanning every corner.
They found Room 303 at the end of a dark corridor. The door was marked with old burn scars-and the spiral, charred into the wood as if by lightning.
Amelia reached for the handle.
It turned by itself.
---
Inside Room 303
The room was untouched. Dust hung in the air like frozen ash.
At the center: a metal chair bolted to the floor.
Straps frayed. Blood long dried.
A mirror faced the chair.
But it didn't reflect them.
Instead, it showed something else:
A girl. Maybe seven. Screaming.
A doctor with spiral-shaped gloves.
A tree growing out of her shadow.
Amelia gasped.
"I've been here."
Alexis looked at her sharply. "When?"
"I don't know. I don't remember-but I have."
She touched the mirror.
The room changed.
---
Mirror-Realm: The Rooted Mindscape
They stood now in a twisted version of the hospital, where vines hung from the ceiling and the walls pulsed like muscle.
Voices murmured from the ground.
Amelia's hands were turning pale-bark-like.
Alexis grabbed her, but her own skin shimmered faintly, like scales beneath flesh.
A voice thundered:
> "The Spiral doesn't infect.
It reveals."
A shape moved at the far end of the hall. A tall, impossible figure with antlers made of bone and a face that shifted between everyone Amelia had ever trusted.
Alexis pulled her weapon.
The figure raised a single hand. All went dark.
---
Back in the Real World - Only One Returns
Jonas was waiting outside the hospital with backup. He only saw Alexis stumble out.
She was bleeding from the eyes. Shaking.
"Where's Amelia?"
Alexis looked at him.
Then whispered: "She's still inside."
Jonas looked at the building.
It was gone.
There was only an empty lot behind her.
And in her hand: a spiral-shaped seed.