LOGINThe wedding took less than ten minutes.
No flowers. No music. No family. Just a silent room in a private courthouse , two signatures , and a judge who barely looked up from the papers. Jessica stood beside Romeo, dressed in a plain beige dress borrowed from the wardrope his assistant had delivered that morning. Her hands trembled, not from nerves, but from disbelief. This was it. She was getting married- not for love, but for survival. Romeo looked as composed as ever, in a perfectly tailored black suit. He didn't smile. He didn't even glance at her. " Let's proceed, he said to the judge. Jessica swallowed hard. The judge nodded, adjusted his glasses, and began reading from a prepared script. "Do you, Romeo Blackwood, take Jessica Lane as your lawfully wedded wife, in accordance with the terms agreed upon in the private contract signed on". " Yes, Romeo interrupted flatly. The judge blinked, but didn't argue. "Miss Lane?" Jessica hesitated . Her voice caught in her throat. This isn't real. This isn't how weddings are supposed to feel. But what choice did she have? "Yes ," She whispered. The judge stamped the document. "By the power vested in me" Jessica didn't even hear the rest. Outside, the sky was grey. Wind rushed down the courthouse steps. Jessica stepped out slowly, eyes fixed on the black car waiting by the curb. The driver opened the door for her. She slid in, Romeo behind her. They didn't speak the entire ride. Her first glimpse of the penthouse took her breath away. Glass walls surrounded the living room, giving a perfect view of the skyline. Marble floors, modern furniture, and a staircase that spiraled up like it belonged in a mansion. It was beautiful, Cold, Expensive. Just like Romeo. "You'll be staying in the guest suite on the second floor", he said as he walked ahead of her, not bothering to look back. Jessica followed, clutching her small purse like it could protect her. He pushed open a door. The room was bigger than her entire apartment with a queen bed, a walk in closet, and a view of the city she used to admire from bus windows. " There are rules", Romeo said. "You're free to move around the penthouse, but don't enter my study without my permission. " My private calls are none of your business". No guest, no media contact, and no sudden changes to appearance ". Jessica frowned. "Appearance?" "You're my wife now. People will notice you. That means you need to look the part. My assistant will help". "You mean ....change how i dress"? " Among other things", he said simply. She bit her tongue . This isn't a marriage. It's a performance. Later that night, Jessica stood on the balcony, staring out at the glowing city. The cold wind brushed her face, but she barely noticed. Inside, the penthouse was quite. Too queit. Her phone buzzed. A message from her mom: "Hope everything's okay, sweetheart. I love you ". Jessica's eyes burned. I lied to her. She thinks i got a job offer. She doesn't even know i got married. She looked at the ring on her finger. It was beautiful, of course a diamond so perfect, it didn't even feel real. Like everything else in this new life. Behind her, She heard a faint voice. She turned slightly. Romeo stood in his office on the phone. The door was ajar. "The merger can't be delayed ", he said sharply. "He thinks marrying me the senator's daughter will give him an advantage. He won't see this coming". Jessica's heart dropped . So that's why I'm her. Im a chess move. She stepped back from the balcony. "Enjoy your cage, Mrs Blackwood ", She whispered to herself . And for the first time that day, she realized just how alone she truly was.The silence didn't last. It never did. By mid-morning, the city had begun to move again not smoothly, but confidently, but with the tentative urgency of something wounded that refused to lie still. Sirens wailed in distant districts. Smoke rose in thin, uncertain cloumns. People emerged from hiding places they had learned too well, blinking at the unfamiliar light of a world no longer monitored by an invisible hand.Jessica watched it all from the edge of the rooftop, arms wrapped tightly around herself.She left exposed. Not because of the height, or the open sky but because for the first time in years, there was nothing watching back.Aurora sat a few steps away, her kness drawn to her chest. The glow that one surrounded her was gone entirely now. No hum beneath her skin. No warmth radiating from her palms.Just... human. Claire knelt in front of her, checking the small cut along Aurora's temple.
The city did not erupt the way anyone had expected. There were no immediate cheers.No unified uprising.No instant collapse of the systems that had ruled for decades. Instead, there was hesitation. Across the skyline, transports hovered uncertainty, their formation lines dissolving into erratic clusters as pilots waited for commands that never came or came to many at once. Orders contradicted each other. Channels overlapped. Authority fractured in real time.For the first time, the city didn't know who to listen to.Jessica watched it all from the broken overlook, Aurora's weight heavy in her arms. Her glow had faded to a dim, trembling pulse, like the last light of a dying star refusing to go out completely. "She's burning herself out, "Claire said quietly, kneeling beside them. Her voice was steadier than her hands. "That broadcast took more than she had left".Miguel scanned the streets below, jaw tight.
The sirens didn't stop. They followed them across the ridge, through the shattered outskirts of the city, their walls echoing off broken towers and hollow streets like accusations that refused to fade.Aurora slowed first.The glow beneath her skin once blazing, undeniable had dimmed to a faint, irregular pulse. Every few steps she staggered, breath shallow, fingers tightening around Jessica's hand as if letting go might make her dissapear entirely. Jessica felt it. The cost."You don't have to keep walking", she whispered. "We can rest".Aurora shook her head. "If i stop now... i might not start again".That was enough. They kept moving. Behind them, smoke curled into the morning sky from where Sector Twelve had collapsed into its own buried secrets. The ground still trembled occasionally, like the earth itself was remembering what had been done to it. Romeo limped a few p
They ran until the ground stopped shaking. The corridor twisted downward in long, uneven spirals, emergency lights flickering overhead like dying stars. By the time they reached the far end, the roar of collapsing steel had pulled into distant thunder angry, but fading. Then it stopped. Silence fell like a held breath. Jessica stumbled first, her legs finally giving out. She collapsed against the cold wall, dragging Aurora down with her. Miguel dropped beside them moments later, pulling Romeo down carefully, his back sliding against the metal until he hit the floor. No one spoke. They just breathed. Hard. Ragged. Alive. Claire stood a few steps away, hands braced on her knees, eyes fixed on the dark tunnel behind them as if expecting the ruins to chase them. When nothing happened, when the silence remained intact, she slowly sank to the floor. "It'
The Director pressed his thumb down.The device in his hand pulse once low, resonant like a heartbeat echoing through the vault.Immediately, alarms screamed to life.Red lights flooded the chamber as the pods along the walls hissed, their seals unlocking in staggered succession. Glass panels slide aside with mechanical precision, releasing clouds of cold vapor that curled along the floor like something alive.Jessica's breath caught. "Aurora...:"I know", Aurora said softly. The first figure stepped out of a pod.Then another. And another. They moved stiffly, as if the concept of motion itself was unfamiliar. Their eyes glowed faintly some blue, some amber, some an unsettling white. Each one bore fragments of humanity stitched together with something else: reinforced spines, synthetic veins, markings etched beneath translucent skin.Claire backed away slowly. "They're like her"."N
The descent was not a fall it was a controlled surrender. The emergency lift screamed as it dropped through the collapsing shaft, cables snapping above them like gunfire. Dust and debris rained down in choking waves, sparks flashing like dying stars in the dark.Jessica braced herself over Romeo, one arm around his shoulders, the other gripping the rail with white-knuckled desperation. Miguel stood planted beside her, jaw clenched, blood streaking his temple as he fought the violent sway of the lift. Claire crouched low, fingers pressed to the metal floor, whispering something under her breath prayer or memory, no and could tell.Aurora stood upright. Unmoving. Unafraid.Her faint glow pulsed softly, illuminating the cracked walls as the the lift plunged deeper beneath Sector Twelve beneath everything they thought they knew. ThenImpact. The lift slammed into the bottom platform with a thunderous c
The forest exploded. Branches snapped, shadows surged between the trees, and a low ripple of voices spread through the undergrowth like wolves closing in on prey. Jessica's breath hitched. Romeo's hand tightened around her wrist.Aurora didn't flinch. She si
The dawn came pale and cold a thin wash of gold brushing over the ruins of the camp. The fires from the night before were dying out, leaving behind only smoke and silence. Jessica packed lightly. Just a single bag, her weapons, and the drive Romeo had given her. She didn't tell any
Jessica moved through the forest with a speed that didn't seem human. Her eyes were hard, her heart thundering with purpose. Every step brought her closer to the truth she had buried closer to the one who had taken everything from her. The early morning mist clung to the trees, whispering secrets
Morning came too fast.Jessica barely slept if she slept at all. Every time she closed her eyes, all she saw was a pair of small hands slipping out of hers... Aurora's hands... fading into smoke, into darkness, into years she could never reclaim. The world outside was quiet, to







