Liam's prison consisted of glass, silence, and pain. He floated in a cocoon of eternal stasis. Reflections of his past life were reflected in each shard of the mirrored prison. Sometimes he would see himself, other times his family or Jack. The images of Aiko were ever-present and the most painful to relive. As each scene played out in various shards of his mirrored prison, he tried to escape, but it was no use. As soon as he attempted to touch a panel, another painful scene was called forth.

  I'm so sorry, I failed you.

  He tried to speak, but his voice came out as ripples across the mirrored floor. The sound never reached the edges—it bent, folded, and came back to him warped.

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  For a moment, he thought he saw Aiko, holding Emma's hand or standing alone in the barn.

  “I’ll never stop looking for you.”

  His throat tightened. He pressed his palm against the mirror, and the glass answered with a low hum. The mark on his hand glowed faint silver, a perfect mirror to hers.

  The corridor shivered. Light pulsed once through the lattice, alive and aware. Sometimes his own reflection burst into a thousand versions of himself, some died, others survived, but none saw Aiko again.

  Then the glass sealed over, the hum fading to nothing.

  He stood alone in the silence, heart hammering, whispering her name into the endless light.

  “Aiko…”

  The sound echoed back, soft but certain—like a promise that the world wasn’t finished with them yet.

  ***

  Worlds fracture, reflections bleed, and truth bends—

  but some bonds are written deeper than reality itself.