— March 13, 2116, 15:33:10—

  There was only light.

  It was blinding, but soothing. A feeling of unexplained comfort. An unexplained comfort that settled deep into a self she was just beginning to rediscover.

  ‘How did I get here?’ The question formed, not as a thought, but as a ripple in the placid ocean of her awareness.

  ‘How long has it been?’ The concepts of arrival and duration were meaningless here, words without substance in a place where time had ceased to be a river and had become an endless, still sea.

  Then, a figure began to materialize through the brilliance, coalescing from the very fabric of the light. It took on a shape so intimately known it was instinctual. It was herself.

  Somehow, she watched her own eyes open. They were not vacant, but filled with a universe of experience–a depth of knowing that felt ancient. They locked onto her consciousness.

  A sudden surge of memories flooded into her, feeling like they were her own. They were Real. Genuine. Lived. But they were new. They poured into the empty spaces of her being, filling them, claiming them. And now, they were hers.

  From the edges of this perfect stillness, distant sounds began to intrude. They began as muffled vibrations, incomprehensible. They grew louder, resolving themselves into a frantic cadence. A voice, raw with panic. A name—her name.

  She felt a falling sensation. The speed was increasing. Faster each moment. Closing in. The light receding–pulled away from her like a tide going out for a final time. The static of the universe rushed in to fill the void.

  With a violent jolt, she was back.

  Judith woke up on the floor of the laboratory with a sudden, painful influx of air into her lungs. She was breathing heavily, her body a foreign vessel she was just learning to operate again. Eyes rapidly blinking, she took in the change. The colors had been restored, the sounds normalized. It felt like an instant that she was away—and yet also like an incalculable amount of time.

  The first image that came into focus was him. He was screaming her name. She commanded her lips to respond, the simple act feeling like herculean effort.

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  And then they finally obeyed.

  “Neil!”

  –<<<>>>--

  He was kneeling beside her, his world a narrowed tunnel of horror, when her body arched. A huge, shuddering gasp of air tore into her lungs, the first violent sign of life. It was a miracle. It was an impossibility. It was everything.

  And in that instant, every thought, every protocol, every terrifying paradox evaporated. There was only her. His Judith, brought back to the realm of the living.

  A raw, primal instinct he didn't know was within him took over and he moved. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her up from the cold floor, crushing her against his chest. He buried his face in her hair, breathing her in, a desperate act of confirmation. She was real. Warmth was returning to her body. She was alive. He wasn't thinking, he wasn't leading, he was just a man holding on, losing himself completely in the profound, selfish relief of not having lost her.

  It had been agony just before. Minutes had gone by with nothing. No breathing. No pulse. Just blank open eyes staring at nothing. The moments seemed like eternity. Each passing second a new terror. And then this. New hope rushed over him like a dream.

  It was only then, as he held her, that the other reality reasserted itself. He felt her slight frame, her rapid heartbeat against his. And through the red haze of his joy, his eyes, open now, fell upon the other figure on the floor. The still one. The one who looked exactly like the woman in his arms.

  The relief curdled into ice. He froze, his arms still locked around her, the embrace transforming from a desperate salvation into a horrifying betrayal. There was one he held tightly. And another abandoned on the cold floor mere feet away. The knowledge settled in his gut like a lead weight, and he knew, with absolute certainty, that he had just made the first of many terrible mistakes.

  Silas and Maxine had the dead woman’s chest exposed, a defibrillator useless by their sides. The electric shocks had not brought her back. Silas pumped. Maxine counted.

  Medical first responders crashed through the door to the lab. Neil was frozen, watching helplessly as he remained on the floor, still clutching tightly onto the woman who came back.

  “She’s gone.” He heard Judith’s thin, weak voice confirm what he already knew.

  He relaxed his grip so he could see her. To make sure he wasn’t imagining it. As he pulled back from her, he could feel her weak limp body as it struggled to find enough strength to sit up on its own. He cradled her head, protecting her from a fall.

  “I thought I’d lost you, too.” The words ripped out of Neil’s raw throat.

  “Neil…” Her voice was a faint whisper as her eyelids relaxed and closed.

  He leaned in closer to hear her through the chaos in the background. The world washed away. Maxine’s sobbing. Unfamiliar voices declaring a time of death. A request made for a cadaver pouch. His mind filtered all of it out to hear the one thing that mattered.

  “...Hold me.”