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 18 — THE BOY WHO WALKED OUT
The ground didn’t stop shaking when they reached the tunnel.It got worse.Concrete split open behind them, the Origin Wing folding in on itself like a dying animal. Fire alarms wailed. Emergency lights popped one by one, plunging long stretches of the passage into darkness.Uche half-carried, half-dragged his father forward. Obiora was conscious now, barely, his weight heavy but real.Alive.That single fact anchored Uche.“Keep moving,” Uche said, voice steady even as his chest burned. “We’re almost out.”Obiora coughed, a weak sound. “You… you’re inside it now.”Uche didn’t deny it.“I know.”The hum followed them—low, constant, like a distant engine. The fear-feedback systems were collapsing, but fear itself wasn’t gone. It bled through the tunnels, thick and metallic, soaked into the walls.Uche felt it all.Every panicked technician.Every soldier realizing the guns weren’t enough.Every system screaming because its center no longer obeyed commands.He wasn’t controlling people.
CHAPTER 17 – THE DAY FEAR TURNED
The alarms didn’t just scream.They howled—a raw, metallic shriek that clawed through the underground facility, rattling glass, steel, and bone. Red lights spun violently, casting the halls in pulsing blood-colored flashes.Uche stood still in the center of it all.Calm.Terrifyingly calm.The mark on his wrist burned, spreading heat through his veins, syncing with the pounding hum beneath the floor. He felt the facility the way one feels their own heartbeat—every corridor, every door, every moving body.Fear wasn’t flooding him.It was feeding him.“LOCK DOWN THE ORIGIN WING.”The Director’s voice echoed through the speakers, sharp now. Controlled—but strained.Steel shutters slammed down across corridors. Armed units poured in from every access point, boots pounding in perfect rhythm.Uche turned slowly, eyes glowing faint gold.“Too late,” he whispered.1. THE FIRST STRIKEThe first Purge unit rounded the corner—six men, rifles raised, visors glowing.“TARGET ACQUIRED!”They opened
CHAPTER 16 – THE TRUTH THEY BURIED
The light burned.Not just his eyes—his mind.Uche stumbled forward as the white glare swallowed him whole, stripping away sound, gravity, even time. His thoughts fractured, memories slipping through his fingers like sand.Then—Silence.Absolute.Heavy.Oppressive.His feet touched solid ground.Uche blinked hard, vision slowly returning.He stood inside a glass chamber.Walls, floor, ceiling—transparent, spotless, cold. Beyond the glass stretched a massive underground facility, far larger than anything he had seen before. Rows of observation decks circled the chamber like a coliseum. Screens flickered to life one by one.Every screen showed him.Heart rate.Neural activity.Adrenal spikes.Fear response metrics.He staggered back.“No… no no no…”This wasn’t ancient.This wasn’t supernatural.This was designed.A voice echoed calmly through hidden speakers.“Welcome to the Origin Wing.”Uche’s blood ran cold.That voice.Older now. Colder. Controlled.“The Director,” Uche whispered
CHAPTER 15 – THE FALL AND THE FACE
Uche expected the fall to kill him.The wind roared past his ears as he plummeted downward, darkness spinning around him in a dizzying spiral. His arms flailed, reaching for anything—air, light, a ledge—nothing existed. Just the void.He screamed until his throat burned.Then—FWOOOM!He hit something soft.Not ground.Not water.Something… alive.He bounced slightly, tumbling onto a cold surface, gasping. His hands gripped the floor, feeling the strange texture beneath his palms—smooth, rubbery, pulsing faintly.Like skin.He jolted upright.He wasn’t in the chamber anymore.He was inside a long, dimly lit corridor—narrow walls arching overhead like the ribs of a giant creature. Blue veins glowed faintly inside the walls, pulsing in rhythm… like a heartbeat.An entire underground hallway made of a living organism.His stomach churned.The air smelled metallic, sharp enough to sting his nostrils. The floor beneath him vibrated softly with each pulse of the glowing veins.He forced him
CHAPTER 14 – THE WHISPERING STAIRS
The darkness swallowed Uche instantly.No lights.No walls.No sound except the faint echo of his own footsteps spiraling downward.The staircase felt endless.Cold, damp air wrapped around him like a second skin, making every breath heavy. The deeper he went, the more he felt the pressure—like an invisible hand was slowly tightening around his lungs. There was no turning back; the floor above had already sealed shut, cutting him off completely.Step.Step.Step.His footsteps sounded wrong—too loud, then too soft, as if the space around him kept changing size with every turn of the spiral.Then it began.The whispers.Faint at first.So faint he wasn’t even sure they were real.“Uche…”He stopped.The voice drifted from somewhere behind him.Or ahead?Or inside his skull?He listened.Silence.He kept moving.Then—“Uche… turn back.”He froze again. This time the voice was clearer, too clear.A voice he recognized.His father’s.His throat tightened painfully. “Dad?”A whisper moved
CHAPTER 13 – THE ROOM THAT BREATHES
Uche woke up gasping.Not because of a dream… but because Room 49 was breathing.The walls rose and fell like lungs expanding, slow and heavy, releasing a deep, vibrating hum that crawled across the floor and into his skin. For a moment he sat frozen, his chest tight, unable to tell if he was awake or trapped in another layer of the Room’s illusions.Then he felt it—a cold draft brushing his ankles.He looked down.The floor tiles had shifted halfway open on their own.A thin line of pale blue light spilled out from the cracks, pulsing like a heartbeat.No.Not a heartbeat.A signal.Uche swallowed hard, shoving off the bed. “Not now… not today…” he whispered, but Room 49 didn’t care. It never cared.The Program wanted him downstairs again.He crouched slowly and pressed a palm against one of the tiles.It was warm.Alive.As if something beneath the floor was waiting.Suddenly—BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!Three violent knocks slammed into his door, loud enough to rattle the frame. Uche jumped
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