Madriod's POV

I could hear her footsteps before I saw hersoft, deliberate, echoing through the silent hallway like a countdown to doom. My heart pounded as the sound grew closer, each step tightening the knot in my chest. I told myself it wasn’t real, that my mind was playing tricks on me. But when the door creaked open and Mia stood framed in the doorway, my stomach dropped.

She looked... different. Her eyes gleamed with an unsettling intensity, like they were seeing right through me, and her smile wasn’t warm, it was twisted, predatory. The air around her felt colder, heavier.

"Mia," I said, barely recognizing my own voice. It...