The room stayed quiet after the lights flickered.
Too quiet.
The nurse stood frozen near the foot of the bed, her fingers still tight around the clipboard. The words he'd spoken lingered in the air, heavy and wrong.
You were supposed to stay dead.
The monitor continued its steady rhythm.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Kenji kept his eyes on the corner of the room.
Not the nurse.
Not the machines.
The corner.
The shadow behind him stretched across the wall beneath the dim fluorescent light. It looked normal again.
Still.
Exactly where it should be.
But Kenji knew what he had seen.
It hadn't moved when he did.
The nurse cleared her throat.
"I'm going to get the doctor," she said quickly.
Kenji didn't answer.
Her footsteps retreated. The door opened, then shut again.
Silence returned.
Kenji swung his legs slowly over the side of the bed.
The floor felt colder than it should have.
His feet touched tile.
The monitor reacted instantly.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Faster now.
He ignored it.
He stood carefully, testing his weight. Pain answered from his ribs—but it felt distant. Muted. Like it belonged to someone else.
He took a step.
Then another.
The room tilted for a second.
But his balance held.
Strange.
The nurse had been right about one thing.
He shouldn't have been awake.
Kenji moved toward the wall.
Toward the shadow.
The light above him hummed, flickered—then steadied again.
He stopped an arm's length away.
The shadow stood exactly where it should.
His shape.
His outline.
His movement.
Perfect.
Except—
It was breathing.
Slow.
Subtle.
Kenji frowned.
His chest didn't move.
But the shadow's did.
A faint rise.
A faint fall.
Like something inside it had learned how.
Kenji raised his hand.
Slowly.
The shadow followed—
almost perfectly.
Almost.
There was a delay.
Just a fraction of a second.
Kenji lowered his hand.
The shadow followed.
Again—
too late.
Behind him, the monitor skipped.
Beep—
Kenji turned slightly.
That was when the temperature dropped.
Not gradually.
All at once.
Cold pressed into the room, heavy and unnatural, like something had stepped inside without opening the door.
Kenji's eyes shifted toward the doorway.
Someone stood outside.
Not moving.
Not knocking. Watching