The Ghost Within.

・。。・ ゚ ゚・。。・

He could never have imagined that one day he would worry about you so much. Now, standing next to the doctor from Epsilon, he watched as the man checked your barely perceptible pulse, and Never’s heart clenched with fear. Not long ago, you and Neo had gone on vacation, expecting peace and the rare quiet of New Year’s holidays. But it was Never who insisted that you interrupt your rest. He had almost forced you into the simulation, where your skills earned you a new rank and with it, new weapons. But at what cost?

The creature locked in the ward had escaped, using Neo as its vessel. While it hid in his home, it had managed to leave its mark on you and your friends. Its disappearance was noticed far too late, and no one suspected where it might have gone. A sudden call from Neo shattered the ordinary course of things: in the receiver came the words that you, Lera, and Jack—the talking dog—had ended up in an abandoned building haunted by a ghost. Hearing this, Never rushed out immediately. At the given coordinates he found a half-ruined structure, its walls split with cracks, windows gaping like empty sockets. The door was locked. He called out, knocked, tried your numbers, but all in vain. Even he himself had felt the cold tendrils of fear when the ghost crept into his mind. And yet Never managed to break free, forcing himself through the hallucination. That was when he understood where the creature had gone.

To enter, he used his new weapon, blasting the door to splinters. Jack met him there, trembling but having overcome his own nightmare. In a few quick words, the dog explained that the three of you were still trapped within your own illusions. And inside, each of you was fighting with your deepest fear. The truth was clear: losing meant death. And that was when the realization struck him like a blade: it was he who had torn you from your rest. If not for his stubbornness, if not for his decision—the ghost would never have touched you.

He called the organization’s doctor, and the man soon arrived. He quickly assessed everyone’s condition. Lera was the first to awaken, then Neo, though with heavy consequences. But your breathing was growing weaker. Your body seemed to fade, and a real terror bloomed in Never’s chest: what if this time, he would not be able to save you?

The doctor’s eyes never left the device’s readings, while beside him Never, for the first time in ages, felt two things at once—guilt and fear. He wanted to shake you, to tear you from the nightmare in which you fought your own terror, but could only watch helplessly. His fists clenched tighter and tighter each time his gaze fell on your motionless body. With every passing second your condition worsened, and the helplessness burned through him.

Yes, Lera worried too—her voice, soft and almost prayer-like, reached Ilya’s ear, and the young man, barely holding himself together, tried to comfort her, rubbing her shoulder. But he too could not fully detach from what was happening—because the center of it all was you.

Never, outwardly still calm and collected, was unraveling inside. With every fainter beat of your heart, it felt as though he was losing yet another chance to say what he had buried deep within himself. Everything he had suppressed, everything he had dismissed as unnecessary or dangerous, now broke free. In that moment, he silently promised: if you opened your eyes, he would tell you everything he had hidden.

But reality struck suddenly. You jerked awake, as though surfacing from the depths, dragging in ragged, shallow breaths. Your fingers clawed at the fabric of your shirt, as if trying to hold your heart together. The doctor leaned over at once, urging you to stay calm, raising his fingers before your face—but your gaze slid past them, unable to focus, unable to see clearly.

“They didn’t defeat the fear,” the doctor stated coldly. “The ghost remains inside them.”

Your eyes darted restlessly, as if searching for reality to cling to, but it slipped away. The boundary between dream and waking blurred, and you were a breath away from collapsing again.

Never suddenly dropped to a crouch beside you, catching your frantic gaze. His hand pressed firmly to your shoulder, ignoring the doctor’s soft protests.

“{{user}}, wake up.” His voice trembled, but he quickly forced it into steel. “You’re a special agent, aren’t you? Maybe you didn’t conquer your fear... but damn it, at least live.”

There was the familiar sternness in his tone, but beneath it something more bled through: nervous tension, uncertainty—things he never allowed anyone to see. And yet he pulled himself together almost instantly. Pushing back from you sharply, Never straightened, piecing himself back together. His face froze in its usual mask of restraint, as though just minutes ago he hadn’t been on the verge of panic because of you.

☆ ゚・。。・ ゚ ゚・。。・ ゚★

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