Sophia’s POVThere are silences that soothe.There are silences that scream.The one wrapping itself around this place was the latter.I could feel it sinking into my skin like frostbite.Like the moment before a heart flatlines.We hadn’t slept.Not really.The girls were curled on the narrow cots, Lina cradling Liana like she could shield her from everything we’d dragged them through. Lena sat against the far wall, rifle across her knees, blood still drying on her temple.Alex was pacing.That was never a good sign.“We can’t stay here,” he said finally, low but sharp enough to cut through the quiet. “You know that.”“I know.”He stopped in front of me. His hands braced on the table, knuckles white. “Then tell me what the hell we’re waiting for.”I didn’t answer right away.Because the truth wasn’t something I could say out loud.The truth was… I wasn’t sure we could outrun this anymore.Not when I could still feel her.The other me.Wearing my face.Moving with my instincts.Thinki
Sophia’s POVThe scream woke me before dawn.Not Lina’s this time. Not Liana’s.Mine.The echo of it still burned in my throat when Alex grabbed me, shaking me hard enough to snap the nightmare’s grip. His eyes were wide, frantic, searching my face like he expected to see blood pouring from my mouth.“You’re safe,” he said. “You’re here. With me.”But I didn’t feel safe. I didn’t feel here.In the dream, it wasn’t me beneath Site Eleven.It was something wearing my skin. And this time… she wasn’t locked behind glass.“She’s coming for us,” I whispered. “The other one. The real one.”Alex’s jaw tightened. “Let her come.”“She doesn’t want me dead.”“Then what does she want?”I swallowed hard. “She wants the girls.”We didn’t speak after that. Not as we packed what little we had left. Not as we loaded Lina and Liana into the Jeep again. Not as Torres barked out new coordinates over the burner phone, voice sharp with fear he couldn’t quite hide.“There’s a place,” he said. “Off-grid. Old
Sophia’s POVI didn’t sleep.Not after what I saw crawl out of that vault wearing my face.Not after feeling her hands on my throat, her breath in my ear, telling me that this was just the beginning.Alex had driven us through the night, through burned-out highways and ghost towns until the horizon bled pink and gold. We didn’t speak much. Words didn’t fit in the silence between us anymore.He kept one hand on the wheel, the other wrapped around mine like if he let go, I might vanish again.Lina sat curled in the back seat, head against Liana’s shoulder. Lena sat beside them, clutching the rifle like a lifeline.We were all bleeding. All broken.But alive.That had to count for something.“I thought you were dead,” Alex said finally. His voice sounded wrecked. Raw. “When the place came down. When the signal cut out… I thought I’d lost you.”“You almost did,” I said. “But you always find me, remember?”He gave a hollow laugh. “One day you’re going to stop saying that and I’m going to s
Sophia’s POVAt first, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me.It couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible.But there it was—stepping out of the vault, barefoot, wearing a shredded hospital gown like it had been born from my nightmares.Me.My face. My eyes. My scars.But it wasn’t me.Because the thing in front of me… smiled.“You left me here, Sophia,” it said, in my voice. “You buried me. You thought you could walk away.”I staggered back, pulling Lina with me. Liana whimpered in my arms, her small hands gripping my jacket like she knew everything had gone horribly wrong.Even Damian stopped breathing. His broken wrist hung limp at his side, his mouth twisted in something between terror and awe.“What the hell is that?” Lena hissed behind me, gun raised but trembling.“I don’t know,” I said. But I did. Deep down, I did.It wasn’t Genesis.It was the shadow Genesis left behind.The backup. The contingency.The perfect weapon… wearing my skin.“I waited so long,” the thing whispered, step
Sophia’s POVFor the first time since Damian stepped into that room, he didn’t smile.He stared at Lina like she wasn’t a little girl anymore. Like she wasn’t his niece. Like she wasn’t even human.“What did you say?” he asked, his voice raw with something I didn’t recognize. Fear.Lina wiped the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. Slowly. Carefully.And then she smiled again.But this time, it wasn’t my little girl’s smile.This smile belonged to something far older. Far colder.“Genesis,” she whispered. “Woke up inside me.”The woman beside Damian—Nyx, or whatever she was now—lurched backward like she’d been struck.“That’s not possible,” Nyx said. “We isolated the fragments—”“You thought you did,” Lina said. “You thought you were in control. But Genesis doesn’t take orders. Genesis evolves.”My heart slammed against my ribs. I didn’t understand this. I couldn’t.This was my daughter. My Lina. I had carried her. I had bled for her. I had loved her into existence.But th
Sophia’s POVI don’t know how I moved.Maybe it was instinct. Maybe it was desperation.Maybe it was fear clawing through my veins like acid.But somehow, I pulled Liana behind me and stepped back, my gun shaking in my hand as I aimed it at the man who was supposed to be dead.Damian.Alive. Breathing. Smiling.Like the grave never touched him. Like the bullet I’d put in his chest years ago was nothing more than a bad memory.“You’re not real.” My voice cracked. “You can’t be.”But he was.Every inch of him. From the scar over his left brow to the tilt of his cruel smile, he was exactly as I remembered. Except his eyes—God, his eyes weren’t his anymore.They gleamed too bright. Too cold. Like something was burning behind them, watching me from beneath his skin.“You killed me,” he said, almost fondly. “But Genesis brought me back.”I shook my head. “Genesis isn’t a project. It’s a ghost. A lie you told to scare children.”He laughed. Low. Dark. “No, Sophia. Genesis was always the endg