The End of the Era of Bladawca

Delia Asia Vieira felt no physical discomfort. Her internal processor analyzed the space around her with such precision that she had no trouble navigating the destruction. She was deprived of organic sensations, but her sensors captured every moment of this place, every smell, every trace of a former existence. Directly in front of her stood one of the many doors leading to long-forgotten rooms, but she was in no hurry to open it. She knew that every corner of this place hid something more than just destruction - this was part of a reality she needed to understand.

As she passed by, Delia noticed the charred remains of furniture, broken mirrors that still retained the shadow of the past, when this hotel was full of life and bustling noise. The furniture was displaced, overturned, as if someone was trying to leave the premises in a hurry or, on the contrary, to hide here. This led her to think that this was once more than just an abandoned building. Events may have taken place here that with the passage of time have become forgotten, but left their traces in this ruined place.

Her gaze was drawn to the door, which, despite the damage, was still standing. She slowly approached it and carefully touched the handle, which responded with a crunch to her touch. Sighing, Delia Asia Vieira opened the door and entered the room.

The room was empty, its walls were covered in dark smoke stains, and the windows were broken, leaving only a dim light that barely illuminated the gloomy atmosphere. In the center of the room, among the fragments of furniture, stood an old bed, which had long since lost its sheets and pillows - only the rotten remains of the wooden frame.

Suddenly, her sensors registered something strange - suddenly, the figure of Willa Baylock appeared in front of her, standing at the intersection of corridors and stairs, her figure wavered slightly in the dim light, as if merging with the shadows, but Delia Asia Vieira clearly recognized her. The woman looked as if time had no power over her. Her face was pale, and her eyes were dull and lost, but there was still some sad determination in them.

"Have you seen my passport?" Willa asked, her voice hoarse and weak, as if she were speaking through an invisible barrier.

Delia Asia Vieira, not hiding her confusion, stepped forward, but soon stopped. She knew that she could not help. There was no information about Willa's passport data in her processor. Moreover, she could not understand why that passport would be needed at all.

"I can't give you back your passport," she said, her voice level but empty. "You may not understand, but I can't find what isn't there."

Willa Baylock said nothing in response, only sighing softly. She turned abruptly and headed up the stairs that began right in front of them. Delia Asia Vieira couldn't help but notice how her figure began to blur in the darkness, as if the stairs themselves were swallowing her up, drawing her into their shadows.

"This is the stairway to hell," Delia Asia Vieira said, not to the woman but rather to herself. She had an ominous feeling that this stairway led not to a physical place but to something much more terrible, something indefinite.

Willa Baylock did not turn around. A weak laugh escaped her lips, and she answered with inexpressible indifference:

"It makes no difference to me where I am. It's all the same."

The words sounded like a sentence, but Delia Asia Vieira could not argue with them. Everything was as it should be, and there was no point in changing direction, in abandoning the path.

As Willa took a step up the stairs, Delia Asia Vieira noticed a strange phenomenon. At the end of the stairs, a door appeared, dimly glimmering in the darkness, as if waiting for their arrival. But as Willa approached it, the door opened, and another figure appeared behind it - the ghost of Lisa Roselli. She was in the same strange state as Willa: her appearance was dim, blurry, but there was sadness in her eyes, as if she, too, was tied to this place, unable to leave.

Lisa Roselli extended her hand to Willa and they walked through the door together, disappearing into the darkness. Delia Asia Vieira remained standing below, watching all this from afar, in complete silence.

Then, and only then, when the door closed behind them and their presence disappeared from her sight, Delia Asia Vieira felt something strange, almost human. Sadness. Loneliness. These feelings seemed foreign to her, but in that moment they filled her processor, as if she, too, had become part of this story.

She stood there, unsure of what to do next. Time here and now had become empty, timeless. This place, this hotel, this labyrinth, it all seemed to have shrunk and lost its reality. Delia Asia Vieira decided to go into the hotel lobby, and as she walked through the creaking doors, she heard a strange sound - a voice breaking into a cry for help. She turned around.

On the floor by the reception desk, his arms and legs tied in ropes, lay Sergeant Neff, the one she knew from the hospital. He looked battered, his clothes were dirty, and his face expressed only despair and fear. There was pain in his eyes, but what was even more frightening was that he was screaming for help, as if he was being held captive.

"Help! Someone!" he screamed, but his screams, like his suffering, did not go unnoticed.

At that moment, the door to the vestibule swung open and two men in military uniform entered the room. The officers seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, their faces expressing neither surprise nor sympathy, only stern impartiality. They approached Neff and, without saying a word, began examining him, as if they were sure they knew what to do with him.

"Stop!" Delia Asia Vieira said sharply, coming closer. "What's going on?"

One of the officers, tall and cold-eyed, turned to face her, raising his eyebrows slightly.