Splinter View: Chapter 5.5 — November 21, 2025
CHAPTER 5.5 — “Flirty Check-In (Lena)”
(October 31 — 18:02 hours)
The kettle forgets to whistle until the mug is already steeping, and by then the rain has started again—flat, cold, like someone shaking gravel against the window. Perfect ambiance for calling the woman who thinks this qualifies as vacation.
I set the laptop on a stack of textbooks, check the lighting. Fairy lights: on. Hoodie: hers. I tug the hood strings once, tell myself it’s just comfortable, not sentimental, then hit connect.
Her face blooms through the pixel static—paler than the screen glow should make it, eyes sharp and tired. I grin anyway.
“Dr. Frankenstein, I presume,” I greet, lips quivering. “How’s the mad scientist retreat?”
She huffs a tiny laugh. “Not mad. Merely… methodically unsupervised.”
She tilts the camera—spectrometer guts, wires, chaos.
“Behold: photon wizardry.”
“Sexy,” I say. “Nothing gets me going like wavelength calibration curves.”
She grins. Finally.
“Say more nerdy things.”
I hook my fingers under the hem of her hoodie. Lift. Just enough.
The screen lags.
For a second, I don’t look like me.
Like something approximating me.
Mika chuffs. Sharp. Close.
“Ignore the prude,” Rae says.
I smile. “Hi, Mika.”
The dog doesn’t blink.
“Thought I saw something move behind you,” I say.
She turns the camera.
Nothing.
Just reflection.
But she doesn’t look convinced.
And neither am I.
Mika growls.
It comes through my speakers wrong.
Too deep.
Too… layered.
“Neighborhood deer,” Rae says.
She doesn’t believe it.
Neither do I.
The feed freezes.
Her smile holds too long.
Then snaps back.
“Promise.”
The word lingers.
Like it didn’t belong to the moment.
I raise my mug. “To panache.”
She almost laughs.
Almost.
The image fractures.
Audio dissolves into hiss.
“Rae?”
No answer.
Then—too fast—she’s back.
Closer.
“Everything’s fine.”
The call ends.
The screen goes black.
I stare at my reflection.
Hoodie string clenched in my fist.
“Promise you’re actually fine.”
Outside, the wind shifts.
Something metallic chimes once.
Not from the speakers.
From the room.
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