"Ashes of Crestfall: The Rise of Aaron San Agustin"

 The metal door clicked shut behind him.

Aaron San Agustin stepped into his apartment with a heaviness in his limbs and a mind spinning with disjointed thoughts. The cold evening air clung to his jacket as he kicked off his shoes, his breath shallow, heart still rattling from the events of the past twenty-four hours. Released on bail but with no answers, no clear accusations—only suspicion. And now, silence.

His eyes swept the room—and froze.

The place was wrecked.

Books lay face-down, pages bent and torn across the floor. Folders had been upturned and scattered. His backpack had been emptied, contents dumped carelessly. The air was thick with the sharp smell of dust and something metallic—like static before a storm.

Aaron stepped in slowly, his feet crunching over shattered plastic. His chair was tipped over, and his computer—still on—cast a dim blue light across the cluttered room. Lines of code crawled across the screen, forming complex geometric patterns. It looked like a language, but not one he knew.

He whispered to himself, a tremor in his voice.

"What is going on...?"

Then he saw it.

A black USB stick jutted from the side of the desktop tower, labeled in white marker: ECHO.

He hesitated, eyes narrowing. A cold pulse moved down his spine. With shaking fingers, he unplugged it and moved to his laptop, brushing crumbs and stray receipts from the desk before inserting the drive. The screen flickered.

A folder appeared.

Inside—more of the strange code. This time, it shifted, reshaped itself into lines and nodes. A red path began to trace across a satellite image. Aaron leaned in.

It was a map. Of Velmont City. The red line moved from the convenience store where he worked… to his apartment… and then back again. A loop. A cycle.

His breath hitched.

Then—a knock at the door.

Aaron nearly jumped out of his skin. He slammed the laptop shut, heart thudding in his chest. He approached the door cautiously, then peeked through the peephole.

It was Lucas.

Aaron opened the door with a sigh of relief. Lucas stood there in his hoodie, eyebrows furrowed, a concerned look painted across his face.

"Hey, man," Lucas said in a whisper. "Are you okay? I heard about the store…"

Aaron nodded and stepped aside, motioning him in.

"Thanks for coming. I… I honestly don't know what's happening."

They moved to the couch, avoiding the papers scattered across the floor. Lucas looked around, taking in the chaotic scene with wide eyes.

"This place looks like someone tore it apart."

Aaron pulled the USB drive from the laptop and handed it to him.

"I found this in my desktop when I got home. It's full of code—some kind of patterns. And it… it showed me a map."

Lucas turned the USB stick over in his hands, studying the label.

"ECHO," he read aloud. "Weird name. It looks like something related to the hack."

Aaron sat forward, elbows on his knees, fingers running through his messy hair.

"I think you're right. But why would someone do this to me? And… why can't I remember anything?"

Lucas fell silent for a moment. His eyes flicked to the closed laptop, then back to Aaron.

"Maybe we should talk to someone who knows more about this stuff. A programmer. Or a data guy."

Aaron didn't answer right away. He stared at the walls, the broken rhythm of his life suddenly stripped bare. He couldn't tell if he was losing control—or being pulled into someone else's game.

The next day, the corporate office felt like a different planet.

 The convenience store's clutter and blinking lights were replaced by chrome, glass, and the sterile hum of centralized air conditioning. Sleek doors whispered open at the wave of a badge. Monitors glowed behind frosted glass. Everyone moved quickly. Efficiently. Uninterested in small talk.

Aaron sat alone in a conference room. His reflection looked back at him from the polished surface of the table—exhausted, pale, eyes sunken from lack of sleep. On the other side of the glass, a pair of HR representatives stood, flanked by a quiet security officer.

The HR woman cleared her throat.

"Mr. San Agustin," she began, her voice formal, rehearsed. "Due to the breach in our system and the misuse of administrative credentials logged under your account, the company has no choice but to terminate your employment—effective immediately."

Aaron's throat dried up.

"I didn't do it," he said. "You have to believe me."

Her gaze didn't waver.

"We understand this is upsetting. But our security protocols are strict. The evidence suggests clear unauthorized access, and—"

"I don't even have admin access," Aaron interrupted. "I didn't even know what I was looking at until last night. This—this has to be a mistake."

The woman gave a curt, practiced smile.

"The decision is final."

She slid his employee badge across the table. The plastic scraped against the wood. Aaron stared at it, a tiny rectangle that represented months of work—late nights, double shifts, all washed away in one cold meeting.

The security officer stepped forward.

"I'll escort you out, sir."

Aaron stood up, jaw clenched, hands in fists. But he said nothing. Not here. Not yet.

As he walked down the pristine hallway, badge still warm from his hand left behind, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the one-way glass again.

He didn't recognize himself.

But the red line on that digital map still burned in his mind—an echo he couldn't shake.

Something had started. And he was no longer just surviving it.

He was in the middle of it.

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