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หน้าหลัก / Mystery/Thriller / Patient 42 / Chapter 13 – Mask Off

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Chapter 13 – Mask Off

ผู้เขียน: Elara Driscoll
last update ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2025-11-05 11:20:10
The wind howled along the mountain pass. Crimson sunset bled across the dashboard.

Jack gripped the wheel tighter, his knuckles bone-white.

He slapped the last evidence photo on the dash: a charred lab coat. A scalpel etched with V.V.

“You lied to me.”

Vesper didn’t flinch. “Be specific.”

“You whispered my *middle name* during the tornado. I never told you that.”

She smiled faintly. “No. But your personnel file did.”

His voice dropped. “So I wasn’t a coincidence. I was a selection.”

“I needed someone ethical. Predictable. Someone whose moral compass could be manipulated just enough to carry me out.”

“You studied me.”

“I *chose* you.”

Jack pulled the car off the road, tires skidding over gravel.

He threw it into park. Turned to her.

“You used everything. The storm. The hormones. My guilt.”

Vesper stared out the window. “And yet you still came back.”

“I came back because I thought you were a *victim*.”

“I was.”

He snapped. “No. You were
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  • Patient 42   Chapter 20 – Twisted Ever After

    The clinic didn’t exist on any map.A tin-roofed building buried in the cliffs of Patagonia. No address. No phone. No internet.Just two people, a generator, and a ledger filled with names the world forgot.Jack changed the bandages on a child’s scarred arm. Quiet hands. Soft voice.Vesper watched from the corner, scribbling notes—not for a study, but for memory.“Improved sleep pattern. Nightmares decreasing,” she murmured.Jack glanced up. “You keeping records again?”“I need to understand progress.”“For them? Or you?”She looked at him. “Both.”At night, they sat on the roof.Drank stale coffee. Watched the stars turn like silent questions.“Do you think we’ll ever be normal?” she asked once.Jack leaned back. “Normal’s just a consensus.”“You miss the badge?”“Sometimes. Then I remember who I became with it.”She sipped from his mug. “And without it?”“I’m still deciding.”She leaned her head on his shoulder. “I still dream abo

  • Patient 42   Chapter 19 – Burnt Bridges, New Roads

    Weeks later, the hospital smelled like sterilized remorse.Jack stood outside Lana and Kyle’s shared room, clipboard in hand. Charts didn’t lie.Cognitive damage: permanent.Speech patterns disrupted. Memory fragmented. Emotions dulled.Lana stared out the window all day. Kyle built paper cranes, one after another, never finishing them.Jack signed the guardianship papers in silence.The social worker said, “You can decline.”“I won’t.”“You didn’t cause this.”He didn’t respond.Because he had.Not directly. But with every choice, every step. Every time he let mercy outweigh judgment.When he returned home, his badge lay on the table—still, heavy, wrong.He stared at it a long time.Then slid it into an envelope and mailed it to Internal Affairs.The next day, a postcard arrived.No address. No sender. Just a photograph: Patagonia’s cliffs, jagged against the ocean.On the back, a hand-drawn sigil.A viper wrapped around a heart.

  • Patient 42   Chapter 18 – Shards of Choice

    “Stand down!” Jack roared.Red laser dots multiplied, trembling across Vesper’s chest.“I said—hold your fire!”The mercs didn’t flinch.Jack stood taller, shielding her completely. “She injected them with antidotes. She surrendered. If you shoot, you shoot *through me*.”“We have orders, sir.”“Override them.”A beat passed. Then a voice crackled in the comms.“Jack’s alive. Priority changed. Secure the hostiles—non-lethal if possible.”Jack exhaled shakily. “Thank you, Dad.”Vesper’s hand was still raised, but her body trembled.One soldier stepped forward, lowering his rifle just slightly.Then a shadow moved near the side door—too fast.Jack spun. “Wait—!”A single nervous trigger pulled.The shot cracked like judgment.But it missed her.Vesper flinched, then did something Jack didn’t expect.She ran.Straight toward Lana and Kyle’s limp forms.“No!” one of the mercs barked.Vesper dropped to her knees beside them. Pul

  • Patient 42   Chapter 17 – Guns at Dawn

    Boom.The farmhouse shook like thunder made flesh.Jack jerked awake, still bound. Lana screamed. Kyle flinched as boots pounded above.Vesper burst down the stairs, wild-eyed, hair loose, coat streaked with dirt.“They found us,” she snapped. “How?!”Jack smirked. “My father. Retired colonel. Hasn’t lost his contacts.”She cursed under her breath, rushing to the table. Grabbed the scalpel.“I need an exit plan,” she muttered. “South window, maybe—”Another explosion. Wood cracked. A voice shouted:“Dr. Vex! This is your only warning! Come out with hands visible!”Laser sights shimmered through the floorboards.Vesper’s hand trembled over Jack’s throat. “If I go out, they’ll shoot. If I stay—”“They’ll still shoot.”She turned the scalpel toward Lana.Jack barked, “Don’t touch her.”“She’s leverage.”“No,” Jack growled. “She’s already broken.”Lana whispered, “Jack, please…”Vesper hesitated.The next voice wasn’t military—it was

  • Patient 42   Chapter 16 – Devil’s Deal

    The cellar door creaked open again, slow as a heartbeat stopping.Vesper descended with surgical calm, latex gloves snapping into place.She carried a stainless steel tray.On it—scalpel, bone saw, tourniquet. A single syringe filled with clear liquid.Jack tensed. “You don’t need props for cruelty.”She set the tray beside him. “I need clarity.”Kyle whimpered. “What is that?”“A question,” she said.She pulled up a metal stool, sat directly across from Jack.“Here’s the deal,” she said. “One injection each for them. Or the saw… for you.”Jack’s voice cracked. “What?”“You kill them—clean, fast, painless—and I let you live.”“No.”“You hesitate,” she said softly. “That’s all I needed to see.”Lana’s voice trembled. “Jack, don’t listen. You’re not this person.”He shook his head. “You think I’d buy my freedom with blood?”“I think you want to,” Vesper said. “I think pain has changed your thresholds.”He stared at the syringe. “What’s i

  • Patient 42   Chapter 15 – Arrival of Ghosts

    Footsteps above.Jack lifted his head as dust sifted from the rafters. Chains clinked. A door creaked open.Two bodies were dragged down the cellar stairs—bound, gagged, and terrified.Lana. Kyle.Vesper descended last, graceful as a judge at sentencing. She dropped the gag from Lana’s mouth first.Lana gasped, hoarse. “Jack?!”“Yeah,” he muttered. “Welcome to the fallout.”Vesper cut Kyle’s gag with surgical precision. “He screamed more in the van. Got quiet when I mentioned IVs.”Kyle trembled. “You’re insane.”Vesper smiled. “A clinical term. Not inaccurate.”Jack twisted in his restraints. “This wasn’t part of your thesis.”Vesper turned to him. “On the contrary. This is the final variable—*relational betrayal under duress*.”She inserted IV lines into both of them with swift precision.Lana screamed. “What are you putting in us?!”Vesper calmly taped the tubes down. “Early prototypes. Neural fog. Cognitive dampeners. You’ll still speak… yo

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