CHAPTER 36

The hum of the elevator had faded.

Now, there was only silence.

Fiona gripped the ladder, her fingers aching from the descent, but she barely noticed. Her focus was on the blood smeared along the metal rungs, the sticky warmth seeping into her gloves.

Someone had come down here before them.

And they hadn’t left.

Marcus climbed below her, his breathing steady but tight with tension. Above, Darwin and Thalassa moved cautiously, scanning for any sign of movement.

The lower they went, the heavier the air became. The warehouse above had been cold, but this was different. The temperature wasn’t just lower—it felt wrong. Stale. Heavy. Like the air itself had been waiting for them.

By the time they reached the bottom, the ground was slick with moisture. The ladder ended in a long corridor, its walls lined with cold, metallic panels. Overhead, weak fluorescent lights flickered, buzzing softly.

Fiona exhaled, stepping onto the floor. It wasn’t abandoned.

This wasn’t some forgotten basement.

It was a facility.

Darwin’s voice was low. “Bella didn’t just run here.”

Thalassa nodded. “She led us.”

But why?

Fiona’s fingers twitched on her weapon as they moved forward, every step echoing against the walls. A slow, rhythmic beep sounded in the distance. Faint but steady.

A heartbeat monitor.

The corridor stretched in both directions, but one path stood out—at the very end, beyond shattered glass panels and overturned chairs, a room glowed with the dim, eerie light of a monitor.

And inside…

Fiona’s breath caught.

Bella.

Strapped to a chair. Motionless.

Her wrists were bound to the armrests, her head slumped forward, dark hair covering her face. The beeping of the monitor continued, pulsing steadily in the background.

Thalassa whispered, “Is she dead?”

Marcus moved to the control panel beside the observation window. “This room was locked. Someone put her here.”

Fiona stared at the scene in front of her, every instinct screaming that something wasn’t right. Bella had led them here. She had taunted them, manipulated them—so why was she sitting there like a prisoner?

A sharp crackle filled the room as the overhead speakers came to life.

“Welcome, Fiona.”

The voice wasn’t Bella’s.

It was male. Cold. Detached.

Amused.

Fiona froze. Her pulse pounded in her ears as the lights flickered again, casting long, twisting shadows against the walls.

Darwin turned, raising his weapon. “Who the hell is that?”

The voice chuckled softly. “I was starting to wonder if you’d ever make it this far.”

A sharp metallic click echoed through the corridor.

Fiona turned toward the sound just in time to see one of the steel doors unlatch and swing open.

Then another.

And another.

The entire hallway was unlocking itself.

One door at a time.

Thalassa lifted her gun. “Yeah. That’s not good.”

Marcus yanked at the panel beside Bella’s room, his fingers flying over the screen. “The system is overriding itself. We’re locked in.”

Fiona’s mind raced. Trapped.

She turned back to the observation window, staring at Bella’s motionless form.

The voice returned, smooth and patient.

“Did you think you were hunting Bella?”

A cold dread coiled in Fiona’s stomach.

The pieces were shifting—everything they thought they knew, rearranging itself into something worse.

Marcus cursed under his breath. “This whole thing was a setup.”

Darwin’s grip on his gun tightened. “Yeah, but set up by who?”

The lights flickered again.

And then, for a fraction of a second—too fast to be sure—Fiona saw something move behind the glass in Bella’s chamber.

A shadow.

A shape.

Not Bella.

Something else.

The voice on the speaker sighed dramatically. “You were always so predictable, Fiona.”

Another metallic hiss.

The final door at the end of the hallway slid open.

And beyond it, a deeper void. A passage leading further into the unknown.

The voice softened. “Shall we continue?”

---

The Game Unfolds

Fiona clenched her jaw, shoving down the icy fear curling inside her. This wasn’t over.

Darwin took a step closer to her, his voice low. “We can’t walk into this blind.”

Fiona exhaled, steadying herself. “We don’t have a choice.”

Marcus cursed. “I hate it when you say that.”

Thalassa smirked, loading a fresh magazine into her weapon. “You’d hate it more if we walked away.”

With that, they moved forward.

The open doorway led to another corridor—this one narrower, the walls lined with pipes that hissed with escaping steam. The air was damp, carrying the faint scent of chemicals.

Somewhere deeper inside, machinery hummed, a rhythmic pulsing beneath their feet.

Then—voices.

Low murmurs. Whispers.

Darwin held up a hand. They stopped.

Fiona strained to listen.

Not whispers.

Recordings.

Old, distorted recordings.

She moved toward the nearest speaker embedded in the wall. The words were garbled, but she could still make them out:

“…the subject is responding well… higher cognitive function than anticipated… but resistance is growing.”

A pause. Static crackling.

Then another voice, softer.

“We may need to accelerate the process.”

Fiona’s stomach twisted. What the hell was this place?

A new voice—clearer. Familiar.

Bella.

Her voice, strained but defiant.

“…you think you can control me? You think I don’t see what you’re doing?”

Fiona’s breath hitched. This wasn’t from years ago.

This was recent.

Darwin muttered, “This isn’t just some hideout. It’s a—”

Before he could finish, the hallway plunged into darkness.

Total.

Complete.

Blackness.

Then, a whisper—right behind them.

“…you should have left when you had the chance.”

Fiona whipped around, gun raised. But there was nothing. No one.

Just the cold, empty air.

The voice on the speakers chuckled softly.

“Welcome to the endgame.”

Then—

A scream echoed from the depths of the facility.

Bella’s scream.

And just like that—

Everything erupted into chaos.