Chapter 45: New One

Chapter 45: Chapter 45: New One

Thursday morning arrived quietly, the Association had backed off, his new contract gave him full autonomy over the rehabilitation program, Seraphina was still under his care, and nobody was going to touch either of his patients without going through him first.

Only one thing was still bothering him. Liora.

He stopped by the Association’s storage department on his way to Acheron, and after a few minutes of paperwork plus a fairly pointed reminder that the console was, in fact, his own property, the confiscated system was handed back over, still wrapped in an evidence seal. He peeled it off and checked it over.

"Still works." He tucked it into his bag, and halfway to the elevator an idea crossed his mind that made him stop dead.

He smiled. "Why not."

---

Acheron Deep was as cold and unwelcoming as ever. Felix cleared the checkpoints and reached Liora’s cell, and the moment the guard opened the door and she spotted him, her shoulders dropped their usual tension.

He noticed and said nothing, stepping in with something wrapped in plain paper under his arm.

Her eyes went straight to it, then to him, then back to the package.

"Good morning, Liora."

Her lips moved. "Good morning." Quiet, barely audible but a real response all the same.

He came further into the cell. "I heard they confiscated the console I gave you."

Her expression darkened instantly, fingers tightening in the blanket. She remembered that day clearly enough: guards walking in without warning, telling her the device was being taken, and her handing it over with no choice in the matter at all.

It hadn’t been about the console only, it had become, in a short amount of time, something she genuinely needed, the first thing in years that could make the hours pass without the darkness catching up to her.

And after they took it, the cell had felt emptier than it had before she’d ever had it.

Felix watched her face, then glanced at the package with a faint smirk. "That’s why I brought you a new one. Loaded up all the same games that were on the old one."

Her eyes widened slightly. For a moment she just looked at him, not sure what to say, while he set the package down beside her bed.

"There you go."

She looked at it, then at him, then back at it and didn’t move. He noticed the hesitation and didn’t push, just pulled a chair over, sat, and opened a book instead.

She kept staring at the package. A minute passed. She reached toward it, stopped, pulled her hand back.

He kept reading. A few more minutes went by before she finally spoke.

"Fe... Felix."

He didn’t look up right away. She glanced at him, fingers curling nervously in the blanket, and tried again, a little louder this time.

"Felix."

He turned a page, then finally lifted his eyes. "Yes?"

She pointed hesitantly at the package. "The..." She stopped.

He waited.

"The..."

"The console?"

A nod.

"What about it?"

"Can you bring the old one?" Her voice dropped even quieter on the last part.

He blinked. "Why? This one’s new. Isn’t new better than old?"

The look she gave him made him feel like he’d just asked the single dumbest question of his life.

"My... my progress."

"Oh." It clicked. "Your saved progress."

She nodded, shy about it.

He grinned. "So you actually played."

Her whole face went red, and she looked away fast.

"You played a lot, didn’t you?"

Silence. Her ears turned faintly pink.

He laughed. "I’m kidding. Just open it."

She looked at him, then at the package, and when he nodded toward it again, finally picked it up, peeling the paper back slowly and the moment it fell away, her eyes lit up completely.

Her console. The exact one, the one she’d spent countless hours on.

He’d gotten it back.

She hit the power button, and the screen came alive. She scrolled through the menus and stopped: every game, every save file, every hour of progress, all still there, untouched.

"It’s all here." Real excitement in her voice for the first time. She looked up at him. "Thank you, Felix."

And she smiled: small, uncertain, but completely genuine.

"You’re welcome," he said, smiling back, and she seemed to realize a beat too late what she’d just done, the smile dropping fast as she ducked her head, embarrassed.

He pretended not to notice, opening his book back up, and after a few seconds she turned back to the console and started playing, fully absorbed within minutes.

He glanced over the top of his book now and then.

---

Hours passed with barely a word between them: he read, she played, and the silence stopped feeling like something either of them needed to fill. Eventually he closed his book.

"I should get going."

She didn’t answer, still deep in the game. He stood and crossed to the door, hand on the handle, and just as he was about to leave—

"Bye, Felix."

He stopped. She was still staring at the screen, fingers still moving over the controls, not even looking his way.

A small smile crossed his face. "Bye, Liora."

The door closed behind him, and the cell went quiet. Her fingers stopped moving. She stared at the paused game for a few seconds, then looked slowly toward the closed door, her expression softening.

"...Thank you," she said again, to nobody, and turned back to the console.

Then kept playing.