2025-06-17 13:16:11Ash stood still, the fire crackling behind them. Her gray eyes darted toward the cabin, where Sophia lay sleeping, blissfully unaware of the danger creeping closer.
Damien remained alert, his hand resting lightly on the grip of his sidearm, not because he didn’t trust Ash, but because he knew her well enough to understand that this trust didn’t matter
“You’ve been alive for four years,” he said flatly. “Why now?”
Ash’s voice was low. “Because Eclipse stopped watching me and started watching her.”
Damien tightened his jaw.
“Why does it want her?”
“Because she’s not just a variable,” Ash replied. “She’s a kill switch.”
Damien turned slowly, eyebrows raised. “Explain.”
“Back when Eclipse was still in beta, before the Moldova test, they ran a contingency protocol: organic encryption. A human being encoded with a living cipher. It’s like teaching a kid to sing a song that can blow up a bomb.”
He stared at her. “That’s science fiction.”
Ash shook her head. “Nope, it’s government fiction. Her mother volunteered for this. But the childSophia absorbed it without even trying. No implants. No files. Just exposure and pattern mapping.”
“And now Eclipse wants to delete her.”
“Or use her,” Ash said. “That’s why I’m here. If it gets what’s in her head, it becomes untraceable. Autonomous. It won’t need a handler. Or limits.”
Damien processed that in silence.
Ash looked at him, her voice softening. “I knew you’d protect her. That’s why I left the note. You were the only one I could trust.”
He didn’t say a word.
Ash stepped closer. “You look worse.”
He shot her a dry look. “You look dead.”
That earned a faint smile from her. “I was. For a while.”
Inside the cabin, Sophia couldn’t sleep. Her ears picked up snippets of their conversation outside. “Cipher.” “Exposure.” “Kill switch.” None of it made senseexcept that they were still keeping secrets from her.
She stood quietly, her bare feet on the cold wood floor, and moved to the side window.
Through the glass, she could see Damien and Ash silhouetted by the firelight. The way Ash stood near him, the tone in her voice felt like they were old friends. Or maybe more.
The tightness in Sophia’s chest surprised her. It wasn’t jealousy. It was a realization
She was the liability in this story.
Not the mission. Not the weapon. The liability.
The fire was burning low when Damien stood up.
“We can’t stay here,” he said. “Too many unknowns.”
Ash nodded. “I’ve got a fallback near Blackridge Ridge. Had to burn my other safehouse two days ago.”
“Yours or Eclipse’s?”
She smirked. “Let’s just say they weren’t thrilled to see me.”
Just as Damien opened his mouth to respond, a red light blinked on his watch.
Perimeter breach.
He drew his weapon instantly. “Inside. Now.”
Ash spun around. “Back or front?”
“Back. Secondary path.”
They moved quicklyAsh disappearing into the trees while Damien slipped through the cabin’s side door.
Inside, Sophia was already waiting, clutching a kitchen knife like an amateur. Her hands were shaking.
“Someone’s out there,” she whispered.
Damien took the knife from her gently and handed her a flashlight instead. “We’re moving.”
He led her through the rear pantry, into the crawlspace beneath the floorboards, and out into the forest. Ash met them near the ridge, rifle in hand.
“Drone,” she said. “Black model. Tri-wing. Military.”
“How long?”
“Too long.”
Damien glanced back at the cabin. They were half a mile away when the explosion hit.
The shockwave knocked them off their feet, flames climbing the trees like they were soaked in gasoline.
Sophia screamed as the blast echoed across the lake. Ash pulled her behind a log while Damien rolled into a crouch, gun drawn, scanning for heat signatures.
“Go,” he barked. “We keep moving.”
Sophia choked out, “Where?”
Ash’s voice was sharp. “Anywhere that’s not mapped.”
They ran.
An hour later, they were holed up in the ruins of an old ranger stationa collapsed roof and half-standing walls covered in moss and mold. It was cold and damp, but at least it was quiet.
Sophia sat against a beam, shaking, her eyes wide.
“That was my home,” she said quietly. “Everything I had left.”
Damien
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The Architect’s Echo
Sophia barged through the door, practically tripping into the light. And this wasn’t just any light—no classic golden glow, no sterile hospital white. It was a brain-melting, headache-inducing brightness, like someone had turned all her half-finished thoughts into pure shine.Took her a second to get her bearings. It turns out that it wasn’t some grand chamber, and it was not even close. A corridor, endless and weirdly alive, stretched out ahead. The walls? Flickering panels, each one pulsing with memories except not directly hers. More like, remixes. She caught herself at ten, doodling spirals on a battered school desk. Then, twenty years older, screaming at some ghost in a lab that probably never existed.And then man, the real trip possible futures. Somewhere she didn’t even make it past the first recursion. Somewhere she ditched Ash and Damien. Somewhere she wasn’t even Sophia anymore, at least not in any way she’d recognize.She barely got her voice working. “What is this place?”
when the Abyss calls your name
The abyss surged in, bringing a physical presence and a flood of ideas shadows that felt alive, whispering secrets about every failure the four friends had tried so hard to bury.Sophia knelt there, shaking, her mind under siege. The abyss kept calling her name, over and over, like a toxic love song.Sophia. You’ve always been the fragile one. You masked it with sharp words and a facade of control, but you’ve always felt empty deep down. That’s why you created recursion, right? To escape from yourself.Her shield shattered like glass.Without hesitating, Damien stepped in front of her, his blade humming with energy. But when he swung, the abyss caught it between two fingers, snapping it like chalk. The sound echoed, heavy and final.Ash erupted in flames, bursts of fire pouring from his chest, so hot they scorched the walls. For a brief moment, the abyss pulled back. But even as Ash poured everything he had into the fire, the shadow swallowed the light, leaving only drifting embers in
The Rest of Me
The chamber’s scream was deafening. Every crack in the stone widened; every seam gaped open like a mouth, spewing shadows into the air. The ground buckled and split beneath their feet.Sophia stumbled, her shield wavering as the floor broke apart. Damien caught her arm, yanking her back just as a jagged rift yawned open where she’d been standing.The abyss self hovered above the chaos, its form dissolving into threads of smoke that danced into the widening cracks overhead. Its golden eyes shone like lanterns in a storm.You thought this was me?it whispered, its voice booming from every wall, no longer confined to a single throat. This was only a fragment.Ash cursed and swung flames at the crawling shadow husks, burning through them in handfuls, but they kept coming. For every one he took down, two more emerged from the stone, shrieking with half-formed mouths. Sweat dripped down his brow, and his flames sputtered dangerously.Not sustainable, he muttered through clenched teeth. We ca
When Shadows Bite Back
The chamber felt like it was closing in, like the walls had become jaws ready to snap. Shards of black stone rose from the ground, floating like jagged wings. The abyss was alive now, restless and hungry.The abyss self wasn’t smiling anymore. His face was sharper, colder stripped of any human kindness.You think this ends with words? he said, his voice rough like steel scraping against stone. No. This ends with survival.Suddenly, the ground split between them, and fireless lightning crackled across the cracks.Lena pushed Sophia back. Ash rushed to Damien’s side. Weapons ignited steel, flame, grit but the shadow was faster.He didn’t hit with fists or blades. He attacked with memory.In an instant, Damien wasn’t in the chamber anymore. He was back in the ruins of the first recursion field, ash falling like snow, bodies scattered around. The smell of burning filled the air, and he could hear the screams. And there, right in front of him, was a younger version of himself weak, despera
Reflections That Bleed
The abyss shifted. What had felt like an endless drop suddenly solidified beneath their feet. They stood on a cracked glass floor, stretching out into nothingness, each fracture glowing softly like light veins. Above them? There was no sky, just an infinite void.On that glass plain stood their reflections. Four against four. Perfect mirrors, yet so wrong. Sophia’s reflection wore a cruel smirk. Damien looked hollow, the darkness in his eyes swallowing everything but the gold. Ash showed scars he never had. Lena reflected someone who had given up hope long ago.Sophia’s breath caught in her throat. They weren't just enemies; they were possibilitiesAsh spoke first, his voice tight. These aren’t echoes. These are… what we could’ve been.Lena snarled, her blade raised. Or what we still might become.Then, the glass beneath them pulsed like a heartbeat. Words appeared in the fractures, not written but felt deep in their bones:Only truth defines the survivor. Only choice defines the line
Into the Rift
The chamber crumbled around them, shaking with a roar and filling the air with dust. Ash grabbed Lena's arm and pulled her forward just as stones shattered at their feet. Sophia was the last to follow, her eyes glued not to the chaos behind them but to a faint shimmer of light lingering in the air where Damien had disappeared.They barreled through a collapsing archway just as the floor beneath them gave way. The moment they got through, the ruin behind them vanished not just rubble, but nothing was like a hole that devoured everything, as if it had never existed.Lena whirled around, her blade snapping into action. That’s not a normal collapse.Ash swore under his breath. You don't need to be a genius to see that.Sophia halted mid-step, her breath catching in her throat. In the void where the chamber had been, something was taking shape.A figure.But it wasn’t Damien.The outline felt all wrong taller, sharper, with movements that defied the laws of physics. The thing emerged from
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