LOGINShare
108: Threads of the Past
Last Updated:
2025-04-14 08:00:38
Related chapters
Broken Vows, New Promises 109: Cracks in the Reflection
Damien's POVThe world outside the safe house was quiet, unnaturally so. The wind rustled dry leaves along the courtyard, but inside, silence reigned like a heavy fog. I stood by the large window, watching the horizon shift in colors as dusk fell, my thoughts tangled in a chaos I couldn't quite escape.The child—Subject Echo, they had called him—was resting in one of the spare rooms, monitored by three of our best medics and two guards. But it was his eyes that haunted me. Not because they were different, but because they were exactly the same as mine. The first time he looked at me and whispered, "Father?" something in me fractured.He wasn’t just a clone. He wasn’t just another experiment.He was a child who saw me as something more than a genetic match. He saw me as someone who should have protected him.Aurora came to stand beside me, her presence soft but grounding. She didn't speak at first. She rarely did when she knew my mind was spiraling. Instead, she slipped her hand into m
Last Updated : 2025-04-14Broken Vows, New Promises 110: Embers of Truth
Damien's POVThe laboratory lights flickered overhead, casting long shadows across the scarred concrete floor. The aftermath of our escape from Monroe's last facility was still fresh in my body—aching ribs, a split lip, a bullet graze along my shoulder. But none of that compared to the weight pressing on my chest.The boy. The clone. His eyes had been mine. His voice a fractured echo of my childhood.I sat at the edge of the conference table, staring at the flash drive we had retrieved from Monroe's vault. It pulsed faintly with a blue LED, as if it too was alive. Inside this drive were secrets that might explain the inexplicable. Or destroy us.Aurora entered quietly, her presence grounding. Her sweater sleeves were tugged down over her hands, and her hair was pulled back, still damp from the shower. Her eyes softened the moment she saw me."Is it time?" she asked.I nodded. "Yes. We need answers."She joined me at the table, slipping her fingers into mine, and I inserted the drive i
Last Updated : 2025-04-14Broken Vows, New Promises 111 : Through the Smoke
The underground corridor was damp, the walls echoing with the faint hum of electricity and something else—something alive. Damien led the team through the dimly lit passageway, his flashlight cutting a narrow path through the darkness. Each footstep was measured. Every breath was held too long.Behind him, Aurora kept pace, her hand brushing the back of his coat, a silent tether grounding him. Neither had spoken since Monroe’s last message played on the decrypted drive—a message that revealed more than just facts. It revealed a history neither of them were ready to accept. A history that tied Monroe not only to Damien’s past but to Eve’s betrayal.“It’s down here,” Julian whispered, pointing toward a metal door at the end of the hallway. “The lab where they kept the early prototypes.”Damien’s jaw tightened. “Let’s finish this.”He pressed his palm to the control panel beside the door. It buzzed. Denied.Aurora stepped beside him, producing the encrypted tablet they’d recovered two mi
Last Updated : 2025-04-15Broken Vows, New Promises 112 : Threads of Fire
Dawn arrived on the heels of nightmares. Damien stood alone on the rooftop of the safehouse, the sky above painted in hues of lavender and crimson. Smoke still lingered on his clothes from the underground lab, and his mind—still thick with memories and the ghost of Eli’s small, trusting voice—refused to settle.Aurora found him there, her silhouette framed in the soft glow of morning. She didn’t speak immediately. She stood beside him, their shoulders nearly touching. Together they watched the horizon, waiting for courage to catch up with conviction."I used to think dawn meant a new beginning," Damien said quietly. "Now it just reminds me of everything we have to survive."Aurora glanced at him, eyes soft. "New beginnings aren’t always gentle. Some are born in fire."His lips curled slightly at the edge. "You’re the only reason I can still feel anything."She reached for his hand and took it without hesitation. "You feel because you're still human. No matter what Monroe did. You’re s
Last Updated : 2025-04-15Broken Vows, New Promises 113: Unraveling Threads
The soft murmur of rain against the windows filled the room, a rhythmic lull that did little to ease the storm brewing within. Aurora stood by the glass, her fingers tracing the faint condensation on the pane. The dim light of the early morning cast long shadows across the room, and despite the softness of the moment, a sense of foreboding lingered in the air. The storm outside mirrored the one inside her heart—a quiet tempest, powerful in its restraint.Damien stood just a few feet away, his gaze fixed on something unseen, his expression distant. The weight of what they had discovered weighed heavily on him, as it did on her. But it wasn’t just the revelation of the clones, or Monroe’s twisted experiments. It was the fear—the uncertainty of what this meant for them. For their future. How much had Damien been changed by everything he had learned? And how much of that change had already begun to stretch its dark tendrils into their relationship?She knew he was struggling. His silence
Last Updated : 2025-04-15Broken Vows, New Promises 114: A Thin Line
The quiet hum of the city beyond the windows was a constant reminder of how much had changed. Once, the world outside had seemed like a distant, almost irrelevant force to Damien. His focus had been on survival, on the mission—whatever that had meant at any given moment. But now, the hum of normal life felt like a harsh contrast to the chaos still simmering in the corners of his life.Damien stood by the window in the quiet of the early morning, his fingers lightly tracing the cool glass. His mind was far from the world outside. No, his thoughts were consumed with the girl he loved, the twisted legacy of Monroe, and the road that still stretched ahead.Aurora slept in the other room, the soft rise and fall of her chest a reminder that, for the first time in a long while, there was something worth fighting for. His gaze flickered over the city below, but he could barely make out the distant streets. The world beyond felt blurry, like everything was veiled in a haze. Maybe it was just h
Last Updated : 2025-04-15Broken Vows, New Promises 115: Into the Heart of the Storm
The sound of the helicopter blades sliced through the heavy silence that had settled over them. The cold mountain air rushed in through the cracked windows as Damien stared out at the darkening sky. His thoughts were a jumble, every instinct screaming that something was off. There was too much at stake now—too much to lose.Aurora sat beside him, her body tense, eyes scanning the rapidly approaching mountainside below. She hadn’t spoken much since they left the apartment, and Damien could feel the weight of her silence pressing on him. It wasn’t the quiet of contemplation. It was the silence of someone holding something back. He could see it in the set of her jaw, the way her fingers gripped the seat.For a moment, the only sound in the helicopter was the hum of the engine, and then Julian’s voice broke the stillness. “We’re fifteen minutes out. Keep your eyes peeled. This place is off the grid—completely untraceable unless you have the right tools.”Damien nodded, his eyes never leav
Last Updated : 2025-04-15Broken Vows, New Promises 116: The Echoes We Carry
The room fell into a deafening silence as the flickering screen bathed Damien’s face in a sickly green glow. The image of his mother—Eve—stared back at him from the monitor, her features carefully reconstructed from footage and records. It wasn’t a live feed. It wasn’t really her. But the expression, the voice—it struck him with the force of a bullet.Aurora took a step closer, her hand brushing against Damien’s arm. He flinched at the contact, his eyes locked on the screen. She didn’t pull away.“Damien…” she said softly, uncertain if she should say more.But the screen spoke again, overriding her. “You’ve become everything I feared you would. Everything Monroe promised yo
Last Updated : 2025-04-16
Latest chapter
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 149 : Ashes of the Failsafe
Silence pressed against their ears as they approached the lowest chamber. The air was heavier here—thick with ozone and dread, as if the facility itself exhaled the weight of its own malice. Damien’s flashlight beam danced across the walls, revealing veins of circuitry pulsing beneath steel plates. Each step echoed like a verdict.Aurora’s grip on her rifle tightened. “This corridor leads straight to the core. Seraph must be close.”Asher flanked Damien’s other side, unblinking in the dim light. Though forged in Monroe’s broken crucible, the boy’s courage was pure—a reminder that hope could grow from ashes.Null’s voice crackled in their earpieces. “I’m seeing systems coming back online. Ten minutes before full lockdown. We need to move.”Elias checked his watch. “Understood.”They rounded the final corner and stopped.A vaulted chamber yawned before them. In its center, illuminated by a ring of harsh white light, stood Seraph. Taller than a child but smaller than an adult, she was fr
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 148 : The Sleeper Below
The silence grew heavier the deeper they went.Null’s map guided them through a maze of subterranean halls—some cold and sterile, others torn by time and disuse. The smooth hum of generators still echoed in places, interspersed by flickering emergency lights that bathed the world in sickly red pulses.Damien led the way with Aurora and Asher close at his heels. The boy in the containment pod had given them everything—coordinates, access routes, and warnings. Seraph wasn’t like Daemon or Omega.He was worse.“Bio-signature locked,” Null murmured, eyes on the scanner as they reached another sealed door. “There’s something down there. No readable vitals, but movement… constant. Pacing, almost.”“He’s waiting,” Aurora said.Asher’s small voice cut in, soft but certain. “He doesn’t think. He reacts. He was made to become… everything they wanted me to be.”Damien knelt beside him. “You don’t have to face this.”Asher looked up. “I do. If we don’t stop him, he’ll come for us. For others.”Au
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 147 : Into the Heart
The elevator doors closed with a reluctant groan, sealing them in.Inside the narrow shaft, the only light came from their tactical gear—soft glows against skin and metal. Aurora stood beside Damien, her hand brushing against his, an anchor in the silence. Asher stood between them, staring straight ahead, lips pressed into a thin, focused line.The descent felt longer than it should have. As if the very walls were stretching around them—preparing to swallow them whole.Then the lift jolted to a stop.A hiss of depressurization followed. The doors slid open with a groan, revealing a corridor bathed in cold white light. Clean. Too clean. The sterile scent of disinfectant and ozone clung to the air like a ghost.“This is it,” Null said quietly. “The Core Lab.”They stepped out as one.Unlike the upper floors, this level was pristine. Not abandoned. Not even neglected. Lights functioned. Doors responded to biometric scans. Cameras followed their every move, some still tracking with soft c
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 146 : Before the Storm
The sun dipped low, setting fire to the horizon in hues of crimson and ash. From the ridge above the temporary camp, Damien stood alone, watching shadows stretch over the forest like fingers reaching for something they could never quite hold.Below him, the others prepared in near silence. The kind of silence that didn’t come from fear—but from knowing. From understanding just how close they were to the end.The wind curled around him, carrying the scent of pine and steel and something colder. A storm was coming. Not of weather—but of reckoning.“You always find the highest place when you need to think.”He didn’t turn. He didn’t need to.Aurora’s voice always settled beneath his skin like a familiar hum—gentle and steady.She stepped up beside him, hands tucked into the sleeves of her jacket, her gaze following his to the horizon.“You used to be quieter,” he said. “Before all this.”“I used to have more to be afraid of,” she replied, half-smiling. “Now I just have more to lose.”He
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 145 : A Name Among the Ashes
The boy didn’t speak of the dream again.But something in him shifted after that night. His steps were a little steadier. His gaze no longer darted to the exits first. He stayed near Damien, yes, but not like a shadow clinging to light. Now, it felt like a tether, an anchor—not dependence, but choice.Damien noticed it when they trained in the clearing behind the safehouse. The boy followed directions without flinching, without looking over his shoulder every five seconds like he expected Monroe to appear from behind the trees. And when Kai handed him a blade—not sharp, just a practice knife—he held it with the curiosity of someone discovering a piece of themselves.“What do we call him?” Eli
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 144 : Echoes in the Light
The morning sunlight felt wrong.Too bright. Too open.After days in the Hollow’s synthetic twilight, Damien squinted at the skyline like it was some forgotten relic. The world outside was still broken, scarred by everything Monroe had built, but out here—beneath real sky—it felt like breathing for the first time in weeks.They moved through the forest trail in silence, Aurora walking beside Damien, the child—now clothed in a borrowed jacket and boots too large—staying close to Damien’s side like a shadow tethered to light.No name.No past.
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 143 : The First Breath
The air inside the chamber thickened as the hum of the cryopod deepened, soft lights tracing across its surface like veins awakening after a long slumber. Damien stood with his hand hovering just above the control panel, eyes locked on the boy within. A-00.The child who shouldn’t exist.The child who had been discarded—forgotten—yet had outlived the project meant to replace him.Aurora touched Damien’s arm gently. “Are you ready?”He didn’t answer right away. His gaze was still fixed on the boy’s face. So young, so still. Yet somehow, it felt like staring into a mirror that refused to reflect.
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 142 : Into the Hollow
The helicopter blades sliced through the Ural sky like a warning.Beneath them, the forest spread like a sea of frozen pine and fractured stone, untouched and unwelcoming. The coordinates Null had provided pointed to a narrow canyon—its jagged sides veined with ice and shadow—where no human path should've ever led.Damien sat beside Aurora, eyes locked on the narrowing terrain below. The cold had begun to seep in through the insulated layers, but it wasn’t the temperature that clenched his gut.It was the silence.Even at this altitude, the absence of wildlife was unnerving.As if nature itself refused to brea
Broken Vows, New Promises CHAPTER 141 : Fractures Beneath the Surface
The wind had changed by morning.Geneva’s neutral calm felt different now—like something sacred had been disturbed beneath its manicured stillness. The team gathered in the briefing room of the underground complex, still shaken from what they’d uncovered the night before: Damien’s prototype—Subject A-01-D—and the fractured remnants of Monroe’s last vault of secrets.No one spoke for a long while.Elias was the first to break the silence. “So what now? We’ve seen the start of it. That clone—your prototype—it changes everything. Doesn’t it?”Null nodded slowly, pacing. “It suggests Monroe’s e
