Chapter 66: The Inferno’s Choice

The red glow spread along the walls like veins of fire, illuminating the warehouse in a hellish light. Smoke began curling from the corners, filling the space with a heavy, acrid scent. I could hear the fire crackling, distant at first, then growing closer, almost alive in its hunger.

Elliot’s hand tightened around mine. “We don’t have much time,” he said, voice sharp. “We need to move. Now.”

I swallowed hard, trying to force my lungs to work. The flash drive burned in my hand, a symbol of every choice I’d made and every consequence I might face. I realized that this wasn’t just about survival anymore it was about control, trust, and courage.

Marcus, or the Marcus she had turned into stood rigid, mechanical, scanning the warehouse as if calculating every risk. His eyes flicked toward me once, then back to the encroaching flames, unblinking. I could see the struggle behind them, a faint glimmer of the man he had been, but she had reshaped him into something else entirely.

“Stay close,” Elliot said, moving toward the nearest exit. Liam flanked us from behind, silent, vigilant, every step deliberate. The firelight cast monstrous shadows across their faces, exaggerating their determination and fear.

I felt my chest tighten. This was insane. We were walking into a trap that had already begun consuming itself. And yet… I couldn’t back down.

She appeared again, materializing from the shadows as if the fire itself had given her shape. “Ah, the brave one,” she said softly, her voice calm, deadly. “Do you know what real choice feels like? It’s not about courage. It’s about the cost of survival.”

I tightened my grip on the flash drive, my knuckles burning. “I make my own choices,” I said firmly.

She laughed, a slow, dangerous sound that made the smoke in the room twist like it had a mind of its own. “Do you? Or do you follow the rules I’ve set, dancing on strings you don’t even see?”

I wanted to scream, to rage, to demand an end to her games, but there was no time for theatrics. The fire was spreading faster now, licking along the crates, the walls, the shadows themselves.

Elliot took my hand again, grounding me. “We go left,” he said, motioning toward a narrow passage that led deeper into the warehouse. “It’s risky, but the main exit is blocked.”

I followed without hesitation, Marcus moving ahead mechanically, Liam guarding the rear. The smoke burned our throats, stinging our eyes, making every step feel like we were trudging through liquid heat.

“Do you feel it?” she whispered, her voice echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once. “The fear. The panic. That sweet, delicious desperation? That’s the moment when real choices are made.”

I swallowed hard, forcing my body to keep moving. Every instinct screamed to turn back, to flee, to throw the flash drive away and let her win but I couldn’t. Not with so much at stake.

The narrow passage ended at a heavy steel door, locked, unyielding. Elliot pounded on it with his shoulder, but it didn’t budge. Marcus and Liam joined him, all of them straining against the weight of it.

The fire hissed behind us, the heat almost tangible, pressing against our backs like an invisible hand. I pressed the flash drive against my chest, knowing it was the only bargaining chip I had left.

“Open it,” she said suddenly, her voice soft but insistent. “Use it. Or lose everything.”

I hesitated. My fingers itched to insert the flash drive into the reader she had left on a nearby crate. I knew it would show me the secrets she wanted me to see but at what cost? Each revelation could shatter lives, including my own.

“I…” I started, but my voice faltered.

“You hesitate,” she said, almost lovingly. “That’s the human flaw. That hesitation… it’s delicious.”

I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to focus. Elliot placed a hand on my shoulder. “Whatever happens,” he said, “trust yourself. Not her. Not Marcus, not Liam, not anyone else. Only yourself.”

I nodded, swallowing the fear. My fingers brushed the flash drive’s slot. The metal was cold, indifferent, yet in my hand, it felt like a lifeline.

Suddenly, Marcus froze, his mechanical movements halting mid-step. I felt a chill run down my spine. He was staring at something behind me or at someone.

“Run!” he shouted, his voice cracking for the first time in hours.

I spun just in time to see a wall of fire erupt along the passage we had come through. The heat roared at us like a living thing, cutting off the only path back. Liam pushed me forward, and Elliot grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the steel door.

I could hear her laugh over the roar of the flames. “Choices, my dear. Every path is a choice. Every path has a price. And the fire… it never forgets.”

With a collective effort, Elliot, Liam, Marcus, and I pushed against the steel door. My hands ached, my lungs burned, and sweat dripped down my forehead, stinging my eyes.

Then, with a groan that seemed to shake the building, the door gave way, swinging open into a dimly lit corridor. The cool air hit us like a relief I didn’t know I could feel.

But there was no time to celebrate.

The corridor led deeper into the warehouse, twisting and turning like a labyrinth designed to trap us. And at the far end… I saw her again, standing with that same predatory calm, smiling as though she had orchestrated the entire inferno just to watch us struggle.

“Bravo,” she said softly. “You survived the first trial. But the next one… is where the real fire begins.”

I gritted my teeth. The flash drive still burned in my hand. I knew the next choice could determine everything. Survival. Betrayal. Loyalty. Love.

And I realized, with sudden clarity, that this fire wasn’t just physical. It was mental, emotional, psychological and if I failed, no one would survive unscathed.

She raised a hand, and the lights along the corridor flickered violently before plunging us into complete darkness.

A single voice whispered from the shadows, one I never expected to hear:

“Choose… or burn.”