2025-06-17 13:10:28Damien stared at the note in his hand, feeling like it could vanish any second.
“I’m watching too. You’re not alone. A.”
Four years ago, Ash Maddox had died right in front of him. At least, that’s what he believed. Their last mission in Moldova ended with an explosion, and when the dust settled, only Damien was still standing.
Now, she was back, or at least someone wanted him to think she was.
He burned the note in the sink, watching the flames flicker around the edges until it turned ash. Ironic, right? Then he locked down the safehouse and checked the perimeter one last time. No breaches. No bugs. Just his paranoia hanging in the air.
In the other room, Sophia stirred.
“You ever sleep?” she asked softly from the doorway.
Damien didn’t even turn around. “Not really.”
She stepped in slowly, barefoot and wrapped in a long cardigan. In the dim light, she looked smaller, but her voice was steady.
“I heard something earlier. Like a tap.”
“It was nothing.”
“Nothing?” she raised an eyebrow. “That’s the same tone you used when someone tried to kill me.”
Finally, Damien glanced at her. “You’re alive. That’s what matters.”
She crossed her arms. “And what do you do when I’m asleep? Just pace like a caged animal?”
He didn’t reply. She sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter.
“My mom used to say silence was safety,” she murmured. “That’s why she built the bookstore without Wi-Fi. No digital records. No tech inside the walls.”
Damien’s curiosity was piqued. “Your mom?”
Sophia nodded. “She was… paranoid. Always looking over her shoulder. Said we were being watched. That’s why I didn’t get a phone until I turned sixteen.”
He stepped closer. “Where is she now?”
“Died three years ago. Cancer.”
“Was that before or after you met Vale?”
“I never met Vale. Once, I sent a letter to his company with a proposal to help fund the bookstore. I never heard back until you showed up.”
Damien’s mind raced. Sophia’s mom was off-grid, antitech, and raised her daughter in a digital bubble, right when Eclipse was active.
He asked quietly, “Did your mom ever mention the word Eclipse?”
Sophia’s eyes narrowed. “No. Why?”
He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he walked over to the laptop and pulled up an encrypted folder.
“Come here.”
Sophia hesitated but then moved closer.
Damien opened a still image: surveillance footage from six years ago. A test site in Eastern Europe. Four civilians strolled through a busy street, and one was circled in red.
The caption read:
“ECLIPSE TARGET ALPHA-7”
He enlarged the frame.
The woman looked to be in her mid-thirties, with hair in a bun, green eyes, and wearing a long cardigan.
Sophia gasped. “That’s my mom.”
“I thought so.”
“But how… why…?” She gripped the back of a chair. “What is this?”
Damien clicked to the next frame. Alpha-7 flagged for termination. Civilian collateral accepted.”
Sophia’s voice cracked. “Termination?”
Damien stayed silent.
“She knew,” Sophia whispered. “She knew they were coming.”
“And kept you off the grid.”
Sophia’s hand covered her mouth. “She died thinking she’d kept me safe.”
An uncomfortable silence hung between them.
Then Damien said softly, “She bought you time. Let’s not waste it.”
By sunrise, they moved to a new safehouse.
Damien had three backup options. He chose the most isolated: an abandoned lakeside cabin he’d used back in his early mercenary days. No power, no cameras, no signalsjust wood, water, and wide open space.
Sophia didn’t complain this time.
She sat on the edge of the dock while Damien unpacked and cleared the area. Once he finished, he checked the paper dropsthree in total. Two were empty. The third had another note.
You’re asking the wrong question. It was never about her. It was always about you.
Damien’s stomach twisted.
He stepped outside. Sophia was sitting with her legs crossed, staring out at the water.
“I think it’s time you told me what Eclipse is,” she said without looking at him.
Damien took a deep breath. “It’s a ghost system. Surveillance AI. Designed to predict threats before they happen.”
“Like pre-crime?”
“Even worse. It doesn’t just analyze behavior; it rew...
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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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