2026-09-26 23:56:27
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Chapter 8: Cost Of A Trade
Ethan stayed and let the voices keep talking.“Three days if we're lucky.” The older man said it again. “We could have been there by now if we had taken the northern crossing.”“Even if we take the northern crossing there's still the cost.” The quiet man said.The strangers stopped speaking long enough that Ethan understood, without being told, that whatever cost meant, it wasn't something they said out loud easily.“There has to be another way through,” the woman said. “I mean Yusuf's cousin got through, right? No issues.”“We don't know that. We only know he got through. But he definitely had to pay, unless he found another way we don't know about,” the older man said. Ethan was still listening when something behind his eyes flickered.[Passive Skill Detected: Situational Awareness][Copying In Progress…][Copy Successful][Situational Awareness Successfully Unlocked And Available In Home Screen]He didn't understand what that meant until he felt it. His mind started to clear. Deta
Chapter 7: Survival First, Then Revenge
The figure could have been a man or a woman. Ethan couldn't tell from the silhouette. Then it took a step out of the shadow, and Ethan saw the shredded hoodie. The ghoul that had taken Priya. Had it come back for him? He wasn't under any streetlight, but he hid behind a dumpster anyway. It took a few more steps. It wasn't looking at him. Ethan followed its line of sight and it led to the dead ghoul. The one he had killed. It stopped in front of the dead ghoul and crouched. It knelt there with an almost human stillness, head bowed low over the corpse. The quiet was worse than any sound. Ethan's forearm kept burning, low and insistent, and he understood without being told that whatever this was, his body had recognized it before his eyes had. It reached out and closed a hand around the dead ghoul's wrist. Turned the arm this way, then that. Then it lifted its head and turned toward where Ethan was hiding. Like it had known exactly where to look before it bothered looking. The world sto
Chapter 6: Copy System Activated
Ethan lay face-up under a starless sky, the streetlight above him flickering, then holding steady. His mind was foggy. He couldn't move his body. It felt like he had been in a worse fight than he remembered. Then recent events came flooding in. The attack and Priya taken. He didn't know if she was still alive. She was probably dead. The ghoul might have taken her to their territory. There was no coming back alive from that. He also knew he wouldn't make it. He closed his eyes. He wondered what it felt like to be dead. Some said it was eternal darkness. He wondered if it was like the darkness behind his eyelids. He hoped so because it would be easier to transcend from one darkness to the other.The darkness was interrupted by ethereal blue letters rearranging themselves into words. He thought it looked beautiful. Then he remembered. He had seen something like it before, earlier that evening. It had said something about meeting a condition. Activating a copy system. Wait, a copy system?
Chapter 5: Last Straw
He heard the room before he saw it, glasses clinking, a ripple of laughter, somebody's voice pitched too loud for the size of the space. He had gone home early because he wasn't feeling well only to realise that he had left his house key at his desk. The plan had been to get his key and go. The plan died the moment he pushed through the double doors. The entire staff was packed into the lobby, drinks in hand, a projector throwing case photos onto the far wall. He recognized every image. A timeline he had assembled himself, one late night at a time. Paper nobody had asked to see until it was too late to ignore.The director of Child Welfare Services stood in front of the mic with a plaque in her hands. “What you're looking at,” she said, gesturing at the screen, “is eleven children who are safe tonight from a ring of abusive homes because somebody in this department refused to accept a coincidence at face value. That person is--”The director turned and faced the crowd. Ethan's chest t
Chapter 4: Turning Point
They sat until the light through the broken door began casting long shadows across the floor. Long enough that Ethan's legs went numb and he didn't notice until he tried to stand. The sound didn't come again. Ethan told himself that meant something good. He didn't believe it, but he told himself anyway.“We can't stay here,” he said. He looked around at what the group had left behind. A single bottle of water, a half-empty pack of something with the label long gone. It wasn't much. But it was enough to keep his hands busy while his head worked out what came next. He shoved it all into the pack and didn't let himself think about how light it felt slung over one shoulder. For the survival of two people, it wasn't enough.Ethan found the bandages Caroline had left in the first aid kit. He also found painkillers wrapped in a strip of cloth. They were the only two things left in the box. He crouched in front of Priya, who looked at her splinted leg like it belonged to someone else, and hel
Chapter 3: Hard Decision
The voices above him went quiet. Ethan watched Nomy come down the stairs toward him, slower than usual, like she needed the extra steps to decide what to say.“Well?” Ethan closed the notebook.“We talked about the door. About who would keep watch tonight. Leon assigned three people. You're not among them.” She sat close, but something in her wasn't close at all. “We talked about moving. It isn't safe here anymore. Leon will make an announcement tomorrow.” She paused. “It's been a long day. I'm going to bed. Are you coming?”He let her pull him up to the sleeping quarters. He didn't ask what situation needed to be decided by four people instead of twelve, because some tired part of him understood that if she wanted him to know more, she would have told him more.Hours into the night after Ethan laid down on the mattress shared with Nomy, he woke up for the first time to find Nomy turned onto her side facing away from him instead of toward him. A few inches of space nobody else would h
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