2025-06-14 23:16:55Damien decided not to show Sophia the message. Not just yet.
She was still trying to process the sniper attack, the unexpected chaos, and him. If he dropped the word "leak" now, it would send her over the edgeand he needed her to stay focused.
He paced around the apartment, hands clasped behind his back. This place was off the grid, with no Wi-Fi, thick concrete walls, and blackout shutters on every window. It was one of the few spots left where he could escape the memories of his days in uniform.
Sophia sat on the couch, hugging her knees and staring blankly at the floor.
“Is this really where you plan to keep me? A bunker in the middle of nowhere?” she finally asked.
“It’s just temporary,” he replied.
“What happens next?”
“We move again. Soon.”
“You mean I'm moving again. You're not going anywhere, are you?”
Damien shot her a glance. “My job is to keep you alive. If that means sitting in a cave for six months, then I’m not going anywhere.”
She looked at him, a mix of anger and confusion on her face. Instead of shouting, she whispered, “Who the hell are you?”
He paused. It wasn’t that he didn’t know the answer; it was just that the real one was classified, buried under layers of fake identities and erased military records.
Finally, he said, “I’m the guy who’s going to make sure you survive this.”
She scoffed. “Great. That makes me feel so much better.”
The silence stretched between them. Damien moved to the kitchen, poured himself another glass of water, and set it down near her elbow.
“No poison,” he said, trying to lighten the mood.
She didn’t laugh.
Then, his burner phone buzzed again. A second message—this one wasn’t from Vale, but from Reed, the analyst back at base ops.
“You need to see this. Call in.”
Damien stepped into a secure side room, sealed the door, and activated the encrypted signal on the laptop embedded in the wall.
Reed popped up on the screenyoung, jittery, and looking like he’d just chugged way too much coffee.
“I pulled up the sniper’s gear,” Reed launched in without a greeting. “Got it before your sweep team torched the site. The scope was Valeissue. Military-grade. Serial tag says internal stock.”
Damien clenched his jaw. “Internal?”
“Yeah. That means someone inside signed it out. This wasn’t random. Someone from Vale Industries tried to take Sophia out.”
Damien went silent.
“There’s more,” Reed continued. “Her name… It’s linked to something called Eclipse. Top-secret stuff. Buried deeper than I’ve ever seen. Redacted clearance.”
Damien frowned. “A project?”
Reed nodded. “I traced it back six years. There was a test project for Eclipse. AI surveillance. Predictive security modeling. Way beyond what’s legal. It went dark after a field test failure.”
“Failure?”
“Three civilian deaths. One survivor. Name sealed.”
Damien’s voice dropped. “Was that survivor Sophia Reed?”
“I don’t know. But someone doesn’t want her alive.”
Damien leaned back, taking deep breaths. The pieces were starting to come together it wasn’t looking good.
He ended the call.
Back in the living room, Sophia stood by the blackout-shuttered window, arms crossed, tension radiating from her.
“I want answers,” she demanded as he walked back in. “Real ones.”
“You don’t want the real ones,” Damien replied.
She turned to him, eyes blazing. “Try me.”
He looked at her, not just the confused civilian, but the woman who stood her ground while bullets shattered her store. The woman who hadn’t cried, screamed, or broken down. Not yet.
Damien made a decision.
“There’s a project,” he said slowly. “Something buried deep. It’s called Eclipse. You’re connected to it.”
Her brows knitted in confusion. “I’ve never heard of it.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s not in you.”
“What does that even mean?”
“I don’t know. But someone thinks you’re dangerous enough to put a bullet in your head. And someone inside the company that sent me… helped them.”
Sophia looked like he’d just slapped her. “You think Adrian Vale betrayed me?”
“I think this stopped being about corporate protection a long time ago.”
She stepped back, gripping the edge of the table. “I didn’t sign up for any of this.”
Damien locked eyes with her. “No one ever does.”
That night, Damien barely slept.
He sat in the dark, his mind racing...
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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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