Chapter Twenty-Sx: The Heir Awakens

The whisper didn't come from the speakers. It sounded directly behind my ears and it sounded so scary.

“Welcome home, Princess.”

Before I could react, white light swallowed everything again.

The server room disappeared.

When my vision cleared, I was no longer standing in Level Four.

I was standing inside a massive hall illuminated by hundreds of candles. Towering stained-glass windows stretched toward an impossibly high ceiling. Crimson banners hung from silver pillars, each of them bearing the same intricate seal that had haunted my nightmares for years.

“Where am I”? I questioned myself. I stood up from the ground. “Hello!!! Anyone here”. Yes I was scared to even speak a word but I had to.

No one answered.

Instead, a heavy, solid door crashed directly at me, knocking the wind out of my lungs as I opened my eyes wide.

Suddenly a man stepped inside the hall. It was his face… MY DAD.

“Vienne! Come in here my princess”.

A little girl stood several feet away. She couldn’t have been older than six. She wore a cream-colored dress stained with ash, her dark hair tied back with a silver ribbon. But it wasn’t her appearance that made my blood freeze.

It was also her face. She had my face. Like Exactly my face.

The little girl smiled sadly while waking sluggishly. “I don’t want to stay with Aunt Marissa daddy.”

“But why princess”.

“I don’t like her for a bit. Her face looks so scary”… before she could finish her sentence.

A woman laughter caught the air. “Vienne baby! Trust me your Aunt isn’t scary as yiu think, she actually loves you”.

I went closer to them but it seems they couldn’t even see me. It was like I was watching a movie… (A Scratch of my Memory).

Above us, two bullets smashed into the holographic glass close to little me and my parents. Glass rained down on our backs like a frozen waterfall.

She took a step closer to her mom. “Omg Honey we have to leave here now!”

“What about her?” My dad asked.

“She would have to come with us since she didn’t want Marissa”. She said with Panic in her tone.

My mom took me up and we all ran out of the building. I followed them to know what happened next but just as I got outside, I couldn’t find them again. I looked around and still couldn’t find them.

“Where must they have gone” I said to myself.

Suddenly, the white light flashed again dripping back at level four. And the voice repeated again.

“THAT WAS JUST A SCRATCH OF YOUR MEMORY VIENNE”. I turned around to see who said that and I didn’t find anyone except Silas standing behind me with panic in his eyes.

“What nonsense” I brushed out angrily. I sincerely wanted to know everything once and for all.

I was about to stand up from the floor when Silas roared. “Stay down!" He didn't look at me. He scrambled to his feet to meet me where I sat.

How shameless of Victor. He saw the state I was and still wanted to kill me. O dont think there is anyone as heartless as Victor and Marissa and sincerely I wondered what my dad took from him that made him this wicked.

"You move against her again, Victor, and I will paint this entire server room with your brains!" Silas yelled, his voice echoing over the screaming alarms. He pointed his gun towards victor, his stature towering and terrifying in the flashing red light.

"She’s a liability, Silas!" Marissa screamed back, her perfect composure completely shattered as she took cover behind Julian. "She remembers the crash! If she opens that archive, the entire corporate alliance falls apart! Everything we built for nineteen years will burn!"

"Let it burn! I don’t care whatever you have built Marissa! I choked out, pushing myself up onto my elbows, my knees scraping against the glass shards. I wiped a mixture of sweat and ash from my forehead, my eyes locked onto my aunt.

"You murdered my mother and father! You stood there and watched them burn!"

“We did what was necessary, Victor said coldly. “Your parents were willing to destroy everything. And your dad took what was meant for me”.

Exc… I wasn’t even able to finish my line.

"So you took her identity, you trapped her Godmother, and you turned her into a pawn," Lena finally muttered. She slowly looked at Marissa, then at Victor, a dark, dangerous realization settling behind her eyes. "You told me her parents died of debt. You lied to me, too."

Marissa hissed. “Hey! Shut up all this are none of your business.”

“You don’t have the right to shut her up” I defended. You wicked murderer.

“You beginning to lack respect Vienne”. Marissa said.

“Respect only goes to those who deserves it and it’s isn’t you Marissa”.

“Oh no longer Aunt again right?” She nodded her head and smiled in a devilish manner.

"You protected your own skin! And made me hate my sister but that doesn’t change why I’m here anyways!” Julian barked back. In a sudden, chaotic twist, he swung his weapon around, pointing it directly at Victor's head. "Nobody touches the Archive except me. And nobody kills the key until I get what I came for."

A four-way Mexican standoff. Silas pointing at Victor. Victor pointing at Silas. Julian pointing at Victor. And Marissa standing in the middle, looking like a caged animal.

Elias really had nothing to do with this so I didn’t blame him for doing nothing.

Behind them, by the far concrete wall, Lena was fiercely dragging my weak, semi-conscious Godmother further into the shadows. Lena’s face was pale, her eyes wide with absolute terror as she watched the empire crumble in front of her, but she didn't let go of the older woman. "Vienne, we need to get out of here!" Lena shouted over the sirens, her voice cracking. "She’s burning up, she needs a doctor!"

Right at that second, a high-pitched electronic phone call through.

"Victor? Where on earth are you?"

It was Cassandra Vale. Her voice was perfectly calm, dripping with arrogance, completely unaware that Victor was currently standing in a war zone.

"The emergency board meeting at the corporate headquarters started fifteen minutes ago," Cassandra said impatiently. "Arthur and the rest of the investors are already sitting in the penthouse office waiting for you. You are supposed to be signing the official transition documents to take over the Vane hierarchy today. Why aren't you at your desk?"

Marissa let out a sharp, panicked breath.

Victor’s jaw twitched. He opened his mouth to lie, to tell her he was on his way, but Silas stepped forward.

He leaned down slightly toward Victor's mic, his voice dropping into a terrifying tone that made the hairs on my arms stand up.

"Tell Arthur and the board to stay in their seats, Cassandra," Silas spoke into the comm, his eyes never leaving Victor's face. "The Vane hierarchy isn't up for grabs. Because I am still breathing."

There was an immediate, dead silence on the other end of the line. I heard Cassandra catch her breath—a gasp of shock echoing from the corporate office miles away. She thought Silas was dead. They all did.

"Silas—?" Cassandra started.

Before she could finish the sentence, Victor slammed his hand over the device, violently cutting off the call and plunging the room back into the sound of the sirens. "Damn it!" he hissed, his sweat-slicked face turning completely pale.

The moment he shut off Cassandra's call, the shattered Archive screen behind him flashed an angry, blinding amber light. Now Julian was already boiling with anger.

CRITICAL ERROR: SYSTEM COMPROMISE DETECTED.

INITIATING THERMAL CORE VENTING PROTOCOL.

EVACUATE LEVEL FOUR IMMEDIATELY.

“Elias, what is that?!" Silas barked, his gun still locked onto Victor, but his eyes shifting to the rising smoke coming from the floor vents.

"The system is melting down!" Elias shouted back, his fingers tearing across the secondary console as sparks exploded over his hands. “it’s going to release pressurized carbon monoxide to protect the data. The gas will suffocate everything in this room in less than two minutes! We have to leave now!"

“Not without the ledger!" Julian roared, lunging toward the terminal to rip out his black drive.

⁠“Not now, you fool! Did you just hear what Elias said?!” Victor barked, his voice filled with a terrifying panic. I never knew Victor could be this scared for his life.⁠

“Lena, grab the Godmother! Move!" Silas shouted. His massive arm sweeping around my waist and lifting me clean off my feet. Through the haze, I saw Lena swinging the Godmother's frail arm over her shoulder, with Elias diving in to help support the weight.

Everyone was all fighting for their life including the demons who resembled death themselves.

Miles above us, inside the Vane Corporate Tower, Cassandra Vale was probably standing before an entire boardroom of powerful investors, still believing what she heard was an illusion. They had no idea the dead man they had betrayed was still alive. And he was coming for everyone.

One by one.⁠