The raindrop sketch stared back at Kevin from his notebook.
He traced it again with the pencil, darker this time. The eyes inside felt too real, too present—like Amari was still watching, waiting.
Waiting for what?
His phone buzzed. A message from an unknown number:
"You shouldn't have gone into B-01."
No name. No reply option.
He looked up. The sky was overcast again with a heavy gray pressing down on this school. Hordes of pupils were busy chatting at the end of the day somewhere down below as the locker doors slammed shut.
But Kevin stayed on the rooftop. He needed to think.
**FLASHBACK — A Year Ago**
Amari's fingers danced across the piano keys in the practice room. She played like the notes were memories—each one tied to a breath, a blink, a beat of her heart.
Kevin watched her, mesmerized.
"You ever feel like music remembers us?" she asked suddenly, not looking up.
"What do you mean?"
She smiled. "I think when we leave… parts of us stay behind. Echoes."
**PRESENT — Evening, Kevin's Room**
He played the cassette again. Nothing new. Just static after the last word.
But something about that static...
He ripped the audio file into his laptop, loaded a spectrogram.
The wave patterns jittered, then flattened—then a burst of shapes at the very end.
Not noise.
Code.
Kevin isolated the signal. A faint QR pattern emerged in the visual data—embedded in the static like a ghost in the machine.
He scanned it with his phone.
**DOWNLOAD INITIATED: Virtuoso_OS/ResonanceMap.key**
A 3MB file. Encrypted. No way to open it.
But it had a label:
"Property of: Dr. S. Harrow"
Kevin's pulse spiked.
Dr. Harrow was head of Virtuoso 29.
---
**Later — Music Room 3B**
Kevin met Ren after practice.
"I want your help" he whispered.
Ren raised a brow. "This about Amari?"
Kevin nodded. "She left something behind. I think they were experimenting on her. I found one of their labs."
Ren didn't laugh. He didn't scoff.
He just said, "I figured."
Kevin stared. "What?"
Ren looked down at the keyboard. Played a soft chord. D minor.
"She told me once—before she vanished—that music wasn't just sound. It was structure. Like scaffolding for memory. I didn't understand what she meant. Maybe now I do."
Kevin opened his laptop, showed Ren the file.
"You're good with encryption. Can you crack it?"
Ren hesitated, then nodded. "Give me a few days."
---
Elsewhere — Observation Room
Behind one-way glass, two figures watched security footage: Kevin entering B-01.
FIGURE 1:
"He's triggering the old pathways. Harrow won't like that."
FIGURE 2:
"Let him. If he gets to Phase Three, we might finally get a stable resonance."
Pause.
FIGURE 1:
"And if he doesn't?"
FIGURE 2:
"Then we bury him. Like the others."
---
....Night — Kevin's Dream....
He stood in the recital hall. Alone.
Rain poured through cracks in the ceiling, soaking the keys of the piano.
Amari was there. Drenched, pale, flickering like an old video.
AMARI:
"They're not just mapping music. They're mapping us."
Kevin reached out.
Her hand passed through his.
---
..The Next Morning — Locker Hallway..
Kim cornered him.
"You've been weird since Monday. Don't lie. I know that face."
Kevin sighed. "I can't explain."
"Try me."
He hesitated. Then told her about the tape. The lab. The message. Not everything—but enough.
To his surprise, Kim didn't laugh. She looked scared.
"You think Amari's alive?"
"I don't know. But she left something behind."
Kim looked down. "Then whatever this is… I'm in."
Kevin blinked. "Seriously?"
She nodded. "You're not the only one she trusted."
---
....END OF CHAPTER 5....