Chapter Five: Burn the Silence

He couldn't breathe.

The moment the video cut off, something inside him buckled.

Not from fear.

From recognition.

The basement in the live feed wasn’t just any room it was the room.

The one from his nightmares. The one with the cold tile floor, and the smell of metal, and the screaming that had never stopped echoing in the back of his skull.

He’d drawn it a hundred times as a kid, in charcoal and pen and blood before Dorian made him burn every sketch.

He’d stood in that room as a boy and forgotten his name.

And now they were sending it back to him.

Like a trigger. A test.

A threat.

He slammed the laptop shut and turned to find Sera already pacing the living room, her arms crossed tight against her chest.

“They want you to remember,” she said. “They’re trying to speed up your recovery.”

“It’s not recovery,” he muttered. “It’s… exposure. They’re unraveling me.”

Her eyes locked on his. “Then stop them.”

He laughed, bitter and cold. “You don’t stop a machine like this, Sera. You just hope it breaks down before it breaks you.”

“You’re not a machine,” she said, stepping closer. “You’re a man. And whatever they did to you… it didn’t erase that.”

He looked at her.

Something sharp twisted in his chest.

Because he wanted to believe her.

More than anything, he wanted to believe he could be human again.

But he didn’t feel like a man.

He felt like a gun someone had left loaded in a glass case.

And now they were picking the lock.

Adrian’s control was slipping.

She could see it in every twitch of his jaw, every too-still breath. The man who walked like a god through CainTech was now cracking beneath the weight of memories someone had spent a decade trying to keep buried.

And it terrified her how much she still wanted to reach for him.

Even after what she saw.

Even after what he didn’t remember.

Because part of her the part that still heard Aaron’s laugh in the back of her mind knew the boy in the video hadn’t been a monster.

He’d been next.

Just like her.

She sat on the edge of the sofa and whispered, “Tell me everything you remember.”

He didn’t move.

She tried again. “Even if it’s broken. Even if it hurts.”

He finally looked at her and his voice was a whisper.

“There was a man in a white coat. He said my name like it was a curse. Not Adrian. The other one. Daniel.”

Her chest squeezed.

“They strapped me down,” he said. “Played sounds. Lights. Sometimes... they’d bring in someone else. Another kid. I think… I think it was your brother.”

She covered her mouth.

“We weren’t in cages,” Adrian said. “We were in conditioning units. That’s what they called them. As if stripping our memories down to bone was a kindness.”

Her voice broke. “You were just a kid.”

“And I killed him.”

She froze. “What?”

Adrian looked down. “Not with my hands. But with silence. The last time I saw him… they told me I could walk out. They said they’d let me go if I just confirmed Aaron was unstable. That he’d tried to escape. That he’d attacked a tech.”

Her blood ran cold.

“I didn’t speak. I didn’t deny it. I didn’t fight it. I just stood there. And then… they took him.”

She wanted to scream.

She wanted to grab him and shake the guilt out of his spine.

Instead, she sat there. Quiet.

And nodded.

Because the boy he was didn’t deserve blame.

And the man sitting in front of her shaking, human, vulnerable was already drowning in it.

Suddenly, the penthouse alarm blared.

Red light washed across the floor.

Adrian grabbed the remote security console from the wall and tapped into the external cams.

A single figure stood outside the entrance.

Black gloves. Black coat. Face hidden.

In his hand a phone.

Adrian’s phone buzzed.

UNKNOWN SENDER: I’m here to return your memories. Open the door.

Adrian turned to Sera.

“We’re not running anymore,” he said.

And he walked toward the door.

The moment his hand touched the door panel, the biometric scanner flickered red then green. It wasn’t supposed to. That security system had only one registered fingerprint access:

His.

The door unlocked with a hiss of pressure, and Adrian pulled it open.

The man on the other side stood still, the city rain running off the brim of his hood like oil. Gloves. Clean shoes. No identifiers.

Except for one.

He lifted his face slowly.

And Adrian felt his heart stop.

He didn’t recognize the features but he recognized the feeling.

Terror.

Like his body remembered this man even when his mind didn’t.

“I go by Callen now,” the man said. “But you used to call me Doctor C.”

Adrian didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.

Callen smiled soft, practiced, surgical. “I helped build you. Thought it was time we had a reunion.”

Sera stepped up behind Adrian. “He’s one of them.”

Callen nodded at her, polite. “Subject 005’s sister. I remember your file. You fought harder than most. They had to wipe you twice.”

Sera flinched.

Adrian’s hands clenched into fists. “Why are you here?”

Callen stepped inside. Uninvited. Unbothered.

“To finish what we started.”

She followed them into the living room, every nerve on fire.

The man Callen moved like a professor in a library. Calm. Slow. Like he belonged here.

He looked at her again. “You’ve been dreaming, haven’t you? Sounds. Voices. Fragments that feel like memories.”

She didn’t answer.

“You and Daniel were part of Phase One, before Project Phoenix went private. The goal was simple: break identity. Rebuild loyalty. Create control where nature failed.”

“You tortured children,” she spat.

“We rewrote them,” he corrected.

“And what?” Adrian said darkly. “Now you’re here to restore what you broke?”

“No,” Callen said. “I’m here because your memories are already coming back, and the moment you remember the truth, everything we buried dies with it.”

Adrian stepped forward, inches away now. “Then tell me. Now. Tell me who I really was.”

Callen tilted his head.

“You were their favorite weapon.”

FLASHBACK (TRIGGERED MEMORY – Adrian)

Hands restrained. White lights. Screaming.

A voice Callen’s saying: “You’re not Daniel. You’re not anyone. You are what we make you.”

Pain.

Fire in the bones.

And a boy. Aaron. Fighting, breaking a syringe against a wall. Screaming his name.

“Danny, don't let them take you too!”

BACK TO PRESENT

Adrian staggered.

Sera caught his arm instinctively.

Callen watched with something like fascination. “You two were meant to be wiped from the system. But your bond… it survived. Even the fire couldn’t burn it out.”

Adrian’s voice cracked. “You burned the facility?”

Callen gave a faint smile. “Ashes are cleaner than leaks.”

Suddenly

BANG.

The penthouse windows shattered inward.

Tear gas canisters rolled across the floor.

Sera screamed as Adrian grabbed her and pulled her down behind the kitchen island.

Through the smoke

Callen was gone.

And on the floor where he’d stood:

A black envelope. Sealed.

Adrian picked it up, coughing.

Inside three photographs.

1. Sera, sedated. Age 13.

2. Aaron, bleeding. Dead or close to it.

3. Adrian, smiling. Holding the syringe.

A single line beneath them:

“You were never the victim.

You were the prototype.”