The Hollow Core

The lab sat just two blocks from campus, nestled between the research library and an unassuming parking structure. During the day, it looked like any other university affiliated facility with whitewashed walls, tinted windows, and a small bronze plaque that read: Neural Cognition Research Unit. Officially, it was still operational, funded by a private foundation for Alzheimer’s studies. But Jessica knew better.

They returned after hours, under the cover of darkness. Jessica crouched near the rear entrance, her breath shallow, one hand resting on the butt of her pistol. The night air was laced with the scent of wet leaves and distant rain. Leanna worked the lock, a small LED flashlight clenched between her teeth.

“This feels familiar,” she muttered, voice muffled. “You, me, borderline felony. Just like the good old days.”

Jessica didn’t smile. “The stakes were lower back then.”

A soft click. The lock gave way.

Inside, the lab was still humming with life. There were low lights along the corridor edges and soft electric buzzes from machines left on standby. It wasn’t abandoned. It had simply been cleaned. Sanitized.

They moved in silence, flashlights low, cutting narrow cones of visibility through the sterile dark. Desks were cleared. Files gone. Screens locked behind biometric logins. Most of the rooms were eerily pristine.

“Nothing,” Leanna whispered. “It’s like no one ever worked here.”

Jessica turned a corner and stopped short. At the far end of the corridor, a door labeled Neuro-Mapping Bay was slightly ajar.

Inside, a machine sat beneath a heavy tarp. The shape of it was unmistakable. It wasn’t medical. It was experimental.

Jessica peeled the tarp back. Beneath it was a device the size of a small table, with a molded headrest and a frame designed to cradle the skull. Wires trailed into a console filled with obsolete ports and blinking lights.

“This is it,” Jessica murmured. “This is where they did it.”

Leanna looked at her. “You sure?”

“I remember the sound.”

Jessica pulled a modified flash drive from her coat pocket, a gift from Olivia. “Plug this in. Olivia said if we find a local server, she can try to remote in.”

Leanna located the console’s port and inserted the drive. A green light blinked. Somewhere in a hotel room a few blocks away, Olivia was already at work.

Jessica stared at the machine, her fingers brushing the metal frame. And then it hit her, a flash. The room flickered in her mind. Bright lights. Clinical voices. The smell of antiseptic and sweat.

“Damaged merchandise.”

“She was never supposed to make it this far.”

“Just clean it up. Start over.”

A hood over her head. Cold metal on her skin. Pressure at the base of her skull. And then… pain. White-hot and total.

Jessica staggered backward, her legs giving way.

“Jess!”

She hit the floor hard, her skull striking tile with a sickening crack. The seizure tore through her in waves, violent, merciless. Her back arched, hands clawing at nothing. Her body convulsed again, her muscles locking and eyes wide but unseeing.

Leanna caught her before her head slammed again, sliding to her knees. “Hey… hey, look at me. Jess!”

The only response was more convulsions and the sound of air rasping through clenched teeth.

Leanna cradled her head, panic seizing her voice. “Jessica, stay with me… hey! You’re okay. You’re okay. Please…”

“Don’t do this,” Leanna whispered, voice breaking. “Please don’t do this to me.”

The tremors slowed. Then stopped. For one terrible second, Jessica went still, her chest refusing to rise.

“Breathe,” Leanna begged, pressing a trembling hand to her cheek. “Come on, damn it—breathe.”

A shudder rippled through Jessica’s body. A ragged inhale tore from her lungs.

Leanna exhaled, shaking so badly she nearly dropped her. She eased Jessica upright, cradling her against her shoulder. “You scared the hell out of me,” she whispered. “You hear me? You can’t keep doing this. Whatever you’re chasing—it’s killing you.”

Jessica’s eyes fluttered open, unfocused, pupils blown wide. Her lips were pale, the tremor in her fingers uncontrolled. “I heard them,” she rasped. Her voice sounded scraped raw. “Voices… the lab. They called me damaged. Said I wasn’t supposed to make it.”

Leanna tightened her grip. “You’re not there anymore. You’re with me. We need to get you out of here, now.”

Jessica tried to move, but pain lanced down her spine. She grimaced, breath coming in shallow gasps. “I can’t… not yet.”

“Jess, you just seized on a concrete floor,” Leanna snapped, fear turning sharp. “You could have cracked your skull. You’re bleeding.”

Jessica touched the back of her head; her fingers came away red. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing!” Leanna’s voice echoed off the walls. “You think I’m going to watch you die in one of their goddamn rooms just so you can prove something?”

Before Jessica could answer, her phone buzzed from the floor. Leanna grabbed it with shaking hands and hit speaker.

“Guys?” Olivia’s voice, distant but steady. “The drive worked. But the archive’s gone. Wiped clean. There’s only a cross-reference to a physical storage site.”

Leanna forced her tone level. “Where?” Leanna asked, still holding Jessica.

“Charleston. Listed under a dummy shell company. I’m sending coordinates now.”

Leanna looked down at Jessica. “We should call it a night.”

Jessica tried to push herself upright, her breath hitching with the effort. “We…” she coughed, voice breaking “...we go tonight.”

Leanna stared at her, disbelief flooding in. “You can barely stand. We’re going to a hospital, Jess. You need a scan, fluids… something.”

Jessica met her eyes, voice hoarse but steady. “You won’t find the document without me.”

Leanna’s jaw tightened, torn between fury and fear. “You’re out of your damn mind.”

“Maybe,” Jessica whispered. “But I’m the only one who knows how deep this goes.”

For a long moment neither moved. The machines around them hummed, indifferent witnesses. Leanna looked at the blood drying along Jessica’s hairline, at the tremor still in her hands, and her anger cracked into something rawer, helpless love and exhaustion.

Jessica shook her head weakly. “Every hour we wait, they move. You saw this place. It’s clean because they knew we’d come. We can’t stop.”

She exhaled, voice rough. “You scare me, Jess. Every time you go chasing ghosts, you leave me wondering which one of us is coming back.”

Jessica leaned her head against the cold metal frame of the machine, breathing hard. “I know,” she said quietly. “But if we don’t finish this, none of us come back.”

Leanna closed her eyes, swallowing her protest.

The phone buzzed again, notifying them that the coordinates were received. The tiny green light on the console blinked out.

Leanna finally stood, dragging Jessica to her feet, one arm around her shoulders. “You owe me a hospital when this is done,” she said.

Jessica tried to smile, but it came out as a wince. “Deal.”

They left the lab together, Jessica limping, blood drying in her hair, the ghosts of Langford’s machine still humming in the dark behind them