2025-07-24 20:09:16
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Chapter Forty
The third day broke under a sky bruised with gray.Bobby’s legs ached from the climb, his throat dry, but he didn’t complain. Darius moved slower than ever, grimacing with every step, but never stopping. The coordinates led them farther from the city’s crumbling edges and deeper into places where even time seemed reluctant to touch.The valley was wild, choked with thickets and stone. Few traces of roads remained—just cracked asphalt swallowed by roots. The world here felt like it had been abandoned centuries ago.And at the center of it all, hidden beneath the jagged cliffs, was their destination.The coordinates matched perfectly.A bunker.Half-buried, half-collapsed, its steel doors rusted and torn. Moss crept along its edges like nature was trying to erase it.Bobby stared, heart thudding. “This is it.”Darius’s eyes narrowed. “Looks like hell chewed it up and spat it out.”They approached cautiously. Bobby’s shoes crunched over gravel, every sound magnified in the still air.The
Chapter Thirty-nine
Bobby didn’t keep it from him this time.He couldn’t.The secret burned too hot, too heavy, gnawing at his ribs like fire. By dawn, when the pale light crept into the broken windows of the maintenance building, Bobby finally forced himself to speak.“I need to tell you something,” he said.Darius had just finished bandaging his side again, the rough strip of cloth spotted with old blood. He looked up, weary but sharp. “What is it?”Bobby’s throat felt dry. He pulled the folded scrap of paper from his pocket—the one with the coordinates scrawled in shaky ink—and set it down on the dusty floor between them.“He sent this.”Darius stared at it. His jaw tightened. He didn’t ask who. He already knew.“Coordinates,” Darius muttered, reaching out with trembling fingers. He unfolded the paper, scanned the numbers, and let out a long, tired breath. “Figures.”Bobby braced himself. “I want to go.”Darius’s head snapped up. “Absolutely not.”---Silence stretched. Dust hung in the air, caught in
Chapter Thirty-eight
Bobby stared at the glowing words on his phone.The offer still stands.His hands shook. His throat felt tight. The screen dimmed after a few seconds, but the words still burned in his mind, etched into him like scars.He wanted to smash the phone. Throw it against the wall until it shattered into a thousand useless pieces.But even then—he knew.It wouldn’t matter.Future Bob would just find another way to speak.He always did.---Darius stirred beside him in the tunnel, coughing hard. His breath rattled as he shifted against the wall. “Still awake?” he rasped.Bobby shoved the phone into his pocket. “Yeah. Can’t sleep.”“Neither can I.” Darius adjusted painfully, hand pressed to his ribs. He tried to hide the wince, but Bobby noticed. He always noticed now.Guilt gnawed at him. He could still hear Future Bob’s voice like a whisper in the dark. Kill him. Cut the weight. Take control.Bobby squeezed his fists so tight his nails bit his palms.No.He wouldn’t do it.He wouldn’t.---M
Chapter Thirty-seven
Bobby barely slept after the vision.Every time he closed his eyes, the shards of light returned—flickering like broken mirrors in the dark, replaying those awful images of himself standing over cities in ruin, his golden-eyed reflection staring back.When dawn crept into the tunnels, thin and gray, he was still awake.And something pulsed in his skull.A low thrum.Not a headache. Not exactly.It was a rhythm, steady and insistent, like a heartbeat that wasn’t his own.He pressed his palms to his temples, breathing hard. But the rhythm only grew louder, until it filled his mind completely.And then he saw it.The ChronoCore.---It wasn’t like seeing with his eyes. It was deeper—etched inside his skull.A massive sphere of glass and metal, suspended in a void without walls. Its surface rippled with light and code, streams of glowing numbers that twisted like rivers. Symbols flickered across it—alien, unreadable, but somehow familiar.At its center, he glimpsed something darker. A sha
Chapter Thirty-six
Bobby hadn’t meant to say it aloud.But the words tumbled out anyway.“He wants me to kill you.”The silence in the tunnel shattered like glass.Darius froze where he sat, the dim glow of the cracked lantern carving shadows across his bruised face. For a moment, he didn’t move, didn’t even breathe.Then his eyes narrowed. “What?”Bobby swallowed hard, fists tightening around his knees. “Future Bob. He sent me a message last night. He said you’d betray me—that I should kill you before it happens.”Darius’s expression didn’t change. He just leaned back against the wall, exhaling slow, eyes searching Bobby’s face as if to measure the truth.Finally, he gave a humorless laugh. “So he knows about the deal.”Bobby flinched. “The deal… yeah.”“Of course he knows.” Darius’s gaze flickered toward the darkness beyond the platform. “Every word we say feels like it’s under his thumb.”“But that’s the thing,” Bobby cut in quickly. His throat burned, but the words pushed themselves out. “I didn’t a
Chapter Thirty-five
The phone screen glowed faint blue in the dark tunnel.Bobby’s pulse thundered in his ears as he forced himself to read the message again, making sure the words didn’t change, didn’t rearrange themselves into something less monstrous.“Kill Darius Cross.”The rest of the text followed like a blade twisting in his chest.“He will betray you. He already has. Don’t wait for it to happen. Do it first.”Bobby’s throat closed. His mouth went dry.It was one thing to hear Darius say the word deal, one thing to hear him tell the Echo Loopers he would end Bobby if the time came. But this…This was different.Future Bob wasn’t warning. He wasn’t predicting. He was ordering.---Bobby’s fingers hovered over the keypad. His chest heaved.No. Not him. Not Darius.He shut the phone off, tossed it down on his sleeping mat, and pressed his palms against his temples until his head hurt.Across the platform, Darius stirred in his sleep, coughing weakly. The man’s bandages were stained red, his breath s
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