2025-11-28 03:17:36Uche didn’t expect the blindfold to come off so suddenly.
One moment, he was being dragged through a corridor—arms twisted behind him, boots hitting his shins—then a bright white light hit his eyes like a slap. He blinked hard.
A metal chair.
A table with chains.One camera blinking red.Cold room. No windows. No clock.Interrogation.
Across the table sat a man in a grey tactical vest, his face unreadable, fingers drumming the metal like a countdown.
“Uche Obi,” the man said. “Age eighteen. Freshman. Room 49.”
He tilted his head like he was examining an animal.
“You survived longer than expected.”
Uche swallowed. “Where am I?”
“Somewhere beneath campus.”
The man leaned forward.
“Tell me what you’ve figured out so far.”
Uche kept quiet.
He didn’t know if speaking would save him or kill him.
He only knew one thing: they wanted information, and anything he said could put him deeper into their game.The man sighed, annoyed.
“You think staying quiet helps you? You think silence equals strength?”
He stood and walked behind Uche. “Room 49 wasn’t meant for someone like you. You were supposed to break within seventy-two hours. But you adapted too quickly.”His hand fell on Uche’s shoulder, heavy and cold.
“Tell me… when did you first realize the room was watching you?”
Uche stiffened.
So it was true.
The cameras.
The vents.The strange coldness.The diary warnings.All of it.
The man moved back to his seat. “Start talking.”
Uche inhaled sharply, calculating. If he lied—they’d know. If he confessed—they’d use it against him.
So he picked the safest middle ground.
“The first night,” he said.
The man smirked like he’d confirmed a theory. “Good. Continue.”
Uche forced himself to stay calm. “Someone knocked from inside the wardrobe. Then the lights blinked. I checked everywhere. That’s when I realized it wasn’t normal.”
“Correct.” The man crossed his arms. “That wasn’t a ghost. That was us.”
Uche’s jaw tightened. “Why?”
“You’re being tested.”
“For what?”
The man smiled faintly. “To see if you can survive pressure. Fear. Paranoia. Hallucination.”
Then he leaned in. “And to see if you can follow instructions without knowing who’s giving them.”Uche’s stomach sank.
His entire life on campus had been a setup.
Every whisper.
Every stare.Every strange event.The man continued, “We’ve tested students for twenty years. Ninety-eight candidates. Do you want to know how many survived?”
Uche knew the answer wasn’t going to comfort him.
The man lifted one finger.
“One. Only one.”
Uche’s heartbeat stumbled.
“And now,” the man said, “we have two.”
Uche’s voice cracked. “Who is the other?”
The lights flickered. A door behind the man slid open with a heavy metallic groan.
Footsteps.
Slow. Familiar.
A figure stepped into the room.
Seyi.
Alive. Standing. Wearing the same tactical vest.
Uche froze.
His roommate.
His friend.His only ally.“Surprised?” Seyi asked, his voice calm, steady.
Uche could barely breathe. “You—You’re part of them?”
Seyi took a seat opposite him. “No. Not part of them. Above them.”
He nodded at the man in the grey vest, who immediately stepped aside like a subordinate.
Uche stared.
“So you were planted,” he whispered.
“Yes.”
“To watch me? Judge me?”
“To protect you. At first.”
Then Seyi added, “But later, to test you.”Uche fought back the boiling anger. “Why? Why me? I didn’t ask for this!”
Seyi shook his head. “It’s never about asking, Uche. It’s about blood.”
Uche felt something shift in the air.
Blood.
That word again.That same mysterious thing his mother refused to talk about.“What do you know about my family?” Uche demanded.
Seyi exchanged a look with the officer.
Then he dropped the bomb.
“Your father was the original architect of The Program.”
Uche’s world tilted—no, shattered.
“What?” he whispered, voice hollow.
Seyi folded his arms. “Everything you’re facing… he faced it first. Except he wasn’t a subject. He was a creator.”
The officer added, “Your father ran the psychological division. His results were unmatched. Brutal. Brilliant. Necessary.”
Uche shook his head. “My father left when I was ten.”
“No,” Seyi said. “He disappeared. Because he realized the Program was becoming bigger and darker than what he created.”
Uche stared at the table, unable to process anything.
His father built this nightmare?
And now he was trapped inside it?Seyi continued, “You’re not here by accident. You’re here because the Program has been searching for your father’s successor for over a decade.”
Uche clenched his fists. “I’m not joining anything.”
The officer chuckled under his breath. “You think you have a choice?”
Seyi tapped the table lightly. It silenced the officer instantly.
Then he looked Uche in the eye.
“You do have a choice. But before you make it, you need to hear something.”
He leaned closer—face expressionless, tone controlled.
“Your father is alive.”
Uche’s heart jammed.
Alive?
Seyi nodded slowly. “And he’s waiting for you.”
The room felt like it was spinning.
“Where?” Uche asked, voice shaky.
Seyi stood. “Follow me.”
The officer unchained Uche’s wrists.
Two guards escorted him out of the interrogation room.
But Uche barely felt their hands. His mind was racing.
His father.
Alive.Hidden somewhere inside this twisted system.They stepped into a long underground hallway, dimly lit, stretching endlessly.
At the end was another door. Heavy. Reinforced. Guarded.
Seyi placed his hand on a fingerprint scanner.
A metallic click.
The door opened.Inside was a dark room.
A single chair.A man sitting with his back to them.Broad shoulders.
Greying hair.Quiet breathing.Seyi stepped aside. “Go in.”
Uche took one trembling step forward… then another… then another.
The man slowly turned his head.
And Uche’s heart collapsed.
It was his father.
Older.
Tired.But definitely alive.“Dad…” Uche whispered.
His father raised a hand gently.
“Uche,” he said.
“I knew they’d bring you here eventually.”Before Uche could speak, his father added:
“But whatever they told you… whatever they promised you… understand something.”
He leaned forward, voice low, sharp, full of warning.
“This Program wasn’t built to recruit you.”
“It was built to destroy you.”The lights cut out.
A siren blared.
Guards yelled outside.
Seyi rushed toward the door.
“What’s happening?” Uche shouted.
His father grabbed his wrist, grip firm.
“No time.”
His voice was shaking.“Uche… listen to me… someone inside this Program wants you dead. And they’re coming. Now.”The door slammed behind them.
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CHAPTER 11 — THE HEART OF 49
Uche stepped through the blackened doorway, and the world shifted beneath him.It wasn’t like any room he’d ever seen—or imagined. The darkness wasn’t empty. It was alive.It whispered. Hissed. Reached into him.The air was thick, tasting of iron and cold metal. His lungs burned as though he were underwater. Shadows curled and twisted around him like snakes, weaving in impossible patterns. He felt their eyes—millions of them—watching, judging, testing.And then he saw it: the core of Room 49.A massive black orb hovered at the center of the space. It pulsed rhythmically, as though it had a heartbeat. Every beat sent ripples across the void, distorting reality itself.Uche’s stomach turned. He instinctively wanted to step back, but his feet were rooted. Something deep in his mind—the same voice that had guided him before—whispered:You were born for this.His father’s voice echoed faintly in his mind."Remember, fear is your tool, not your master."He clenched his fists. His father was
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 10 — THE DIRECTORDarkness swallowed the room.Not the normal type of darkness—no.This one was alive.Uche froze. It felt like something had slipped over his eyes, his ears, his very thoughts. A cold pressure tightened around his skull, like Room 49 itself had wrapped invisible fingers around his brain.His father’s breathing beside him was ragged, shallow—he was fading.“Seyi?” Uche whispered.No answer.The lights snapped back on with a violent flicker.But the room had changed.It was no longer the small interrogation chamber.No walls. No doors. No ceiling.Just a massive empty white void stretching endlessly in every direction.And standing in the center of it—A man.Tall.Cold.Wearing a white coat that contrasted sharply with his obsidian-black gloves.His face was hidden behind a smooth metallic mask—no eyes, no mouth, no features—just a perfect silver surface reflecting Uche’s own terrified expression.The Director.Finally.Uche’s heart slammed against his ribcage.
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 9 — THE DIRECTOR’S GAMEUche ran through the campus streets under the cloak of darkness, lungs burning, heart hammering like it wanted to escape his chest. The night air was thick with smoke from the burning maintenance shaft behind him. Sirens still wailed somewhere below ground. The Director’s forces were organized, precise, and deadly—they didn’t chase blindly. They hunted.He didn’t look back. Every instinct screamed to keep moving. His father had pushed him toward the west exit, but that was no longer safe. The facility was crawling with Execution Units, and Room 49 itself seemed to pulse through his veins, whispering, judging, taunting.Seyi had vanished somewhere along the tunnels, leaving a faint trail only Uche could follow, guided by instinct, fear, and the flickering light of distant exit signs.Then the whisper came—not from the walls, not from the shadows, but inside his mind:“Stop running, Uche Obi. You cannot outrun me.”It wasn’t Seyi. It wasn’t his father. It
CHAPTER 8 – THE ESCAPE THEY DIDN’T PLAN FOR
The siren screamed through the underground facility—shrill, urgent, violent.Red lights flashed like blood splashes against the walls.Footsteps thundered.Orders barked through radios.Uche didn’t move. He couldn’t. His father’s warning froze him.Someone inside wants you dead.Seyi slammed the reinforced door shut and locked it, face tense for the first time since Uche met him.“Shit,” Seyi muttered. “They weren’t supposed to move this early.”Uche’s father stood up slowly, as if his bones hurt. But his eyes—sharp, intense—were fully alive.“We have five minutes,” he said.“Five minutes for what?” Uche whispered.“To get you out.”A pounding hit the door—violent, metallic, the sound of boots and weapons.“Open this door now!”Uche turned to Seyi. “I thought you were in charge. Why are they coming for us?”Seyi didn’t answer immediately. He pulled a pistol from his vest and chambered a round.“I’m in charge of candidates,” he said. “Not the Execution Unit.”“The what?” Uche’s stomach
CHAPTER 7 – THE INTERROGATION ROOM
Uche didn’t expect the blindfold to come off so suddenly.One moment, he was being dragged through a corridor—arms twisted behind him, boots hitting his shins—then a bright white light hit his eyes like a slap. He blinked hard.A metal chair.A table with chains.One camera blinking red.Cold room. No windows. No clock.Interrogation.Across the table sat a man in a grey tactical vest, his face unreadable, fingers drumming the metal like a countdown.“Uche Obi,” the man said. “Age eighteen. Freshman. Room 49.”He tilted his head like he was examining an animal.“You survived longer than expected.”Uche swallowed. “Where am I?”“Somewhere beneath campus.”The man leaned forward.“Tell me what you’ve figured out so far.”Uche kept quiet.He didn’t know if speaking would save him or kill him.He only knew one thing: they wanted information, and anything he said could put him deeper into their game.The man sighed, annoyed.“You think staying quiet helps you? You think silence equals stre
CHAPTER 6 — THE FIRST COMMAND
Uche knew from the moment the sun went down that something was wrong.The air in Room 49 usually felt cold.Tonight, it felt charged—like electricity humming under the walls.Seyi felt it too.He kept checking the corners of the room, looking at the ceiling, glancing at the wardrobe like he expected it to burst open.“This is the Instruction Test,” Seyi said quietly.“It always feels like this.”Uche’s chest was tight. “What… exactly happens?”Seyi didn’t look at him.“The room gives a command. You follow… or you don’t.”“And if I don’t?”“You fail.”“And if I follow?”“You pass.”“But what does ‘fail’ mean, Seyi?!” Uche snapped.Seyi looked at him with eyes that had seen too much.“You don’t want to find out.”Uche swallowed hard.2:00 a.m.The air grew heavier.The taps in the walls stopped completely—like the thing inside was holding its breath.Seyi sat cross-legged, staring at the wardrobe.“Whatever happens,” he whispered, “don’t scream.”Uche froze. “Why?”“Because screaming me
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