**Simulation 14**
**[System Log - Entry Detected]**
*Initializing simulation. Host consciousness mapped. Trauma profile #428: "Buried Silence." Please remain still. Disorientation may occur...*
---
**It begins with dirt.**
Trey's lungs feel heavy, his mouth filled with the taste of iron and soil. He gasps, pulling himself upward, coughing out black grains. He's lying in a narrow ditch, surrounded by the remains of an old construction site. Overhead, rain taps gently against a shattered glass roof that barely clings to a rusted frame.
He stands slowly, his knees trembling. He's in the body of a young man, maybe in his twenties, wearing torn overalls stained with cement. In the distance, a construction crew works on a large monument. They're faceless in the fog—just blurry outlines moving like ghosts through the mist.
A name echoes in his head: **"Mateo."**
That's who he is this time.
---
As the rain falls harder, a faint child's scream pierces the silence. Distant. Muffled. It comes from beneath him.
Trey's heart races.
He drops to his knees and starts clawing at the mud below. His fingers dig with desperation until he uncovers a small wooden hatch—chained shut with rusted links. There's a lock, old and nearly fused shut. The scream again—louder this time. It's coming from under the hatch.
Frantic, Trey grabs a nearby metal rod and begins smashing the lock. Each hit brings a flash of a memory—not his, but Mateo's:
> *A quiet little brother, Nico. Always hiding. Always quiet.*
> *One day, he disappeared while they played hide and seek on a demolition site.*
> *Everyone thought he ran away.*
> *Mateo knew the truth. But he never told.*
The lock snaps. He opens the hatch.
Darkness. A small concrete hole, barely wide enough for a child. Inside lies a decomposed skeleton, wrapped in a decaying red hoodie. The hoodie says *"Big Bro's Shadow."* The remains are holding a torn, rotted teddy bear.
The trauma comes crashing in.
Trey stumbles back, screaming in silence. His throat is frozen. His mind is unraveling. He killed his brother. No—Mateo did. By leaving him there. By never telling anyone.
---
The fog thickens. The construction workers have stopped. They now stand still, all of them facing Trey. Slowly, they begin to move forward—tools in hand, their movements stiff, robotic, unfeeling.
Trey backs away. He runs into the unfinished monument—spiraling stairs, hollow rooms. He tries to shout, to explain, but no sound comes out. His voice is gone.
His punishment?
Silence.
The workers enter the building. He hears no footsteps, only the soft crunch of broken glass. He hides, but one of them grabs him. They don't speak. They drag him, like an offering, to the hatch again.
"No, no, please..."
His voice returns only to scream.
They shove him inside. He claws at the edges, crying, but they slam the hatch shut.
Darkness.
---
Inside the pit, he hears whispers.
**"You forgot me."**
**"You lied."**
**"You played... and then you left me there."**
Dozens of childlike voices echo around him. Worms begin to crawl over his legs, his chest. Dirt rains from the cracks above. He panics, screams, pounds on the hatch.
Nobody opens.
Then—distant laughter. A twisted, mocking echo of a child.
He suffocates slowly, gasping in shallow earth-soaked air. As he fades out, his last vision is of the red hoodie being lowered beside him. His own arms now hugging it tight.
---
**[System Log - Termination Confirmed]**
*Simulation complete. Subject deceased. Sensory disconnection initiated... Please stand by.*
**[Simulation 14: End]**
**[Neural Recovery in Progress...]**