LOGINNatashaThe moment that howl echoed through the room, every part of me went cold because the sound did not feel like something I was simply hearing, it felt like something alive moving through the air and pressing down on all of us, and the way Alan’s body reacted to it terrified me more than anything that had happened before, because the second the sound reached him he went completely still, not with relief and not with calm, but with the kind of stillness that comes when something inside a person is listening to a call stronger than anything else around them.I stared at him, barely breathing, because the pain that had been twisting his body moments before was suddenly replaced by something far more frightening, a strange unnatural calm that settled over him while his entire body remained tense as though every muscle was waiting for a command.The locked door at the far end of the room creaked open inch by inch, the heavy metal moving slowly enough to make the dread build with every
NatashaAlan’s scream tore through the room with such force that for one frozen second I could not even breathe, because nothing in all the fear building inside me had prepared me for the sight of his body arching violently against the cold metal floor while something beneath the skin of his chest pressed outward in a shape that should never have existed, and the sound of his pain drowned out every flashing alarm and every shrill warning tone until the only thing left in my mind was the horrifying image of him breaking apart in front of me.“Alan!” I dropped to my knees beside him so fast the impact sent pain shooting through my legs, but I barely felt it because all of my attention was on him, on the way his entire body shook uncontrollably while one trembling hand clutched at the center of his chest as though he could somehow hold whatever was inside him in place.His breathing came in rough, uneven gasps, every inhale sounding more desperate than the last, and beneath the thin fabr
AlanI stared at Matt, waiting for him to laugh, to tell me that this was another scare tactic, another twisted manipulation designed to force me into trusting the people who had already stolen everything from me, but he did not laugh, and the silence that followed my question was worse than any answer because it confirmed that what I had said was close enough to the truth to frighten even him, and that realization hollowed something out inside me so fast that for a second I could not feel my hands.My chest tightened beneath my palm, not with pain but with pressure, a strange living pressure that pulsed from somewhere under my ribs, and the sensation was so unnatural that my stomach turned because it did not feel like an illness or an injury, it felt deliberate, rhythmic, aware, and the thought that something inside me could be moving with its own purpose made panic surge so hard through my body that I stumbled backward.“No,” I said, but the word came out weak and unsteady, because
NatashaHe looked at me and said that there was another heartbeat inside him, the entire room seemed to stop around us in a way that felt heavier than silence, because even with the alarms still flashing red across the walls and the sharp warning tones still pulsing from the device in Matt’s hand, all of that noise faded beneath the weight of those words, and the expression on Alan’s face told me with terrifying certainty that he was not confused, not imagining it, not struggling to interpret some strange sensation caused by the prototype, but hearing something real inside his own body that should not have existed, and the horror that rose in me was so immediate that for one disorienting second I could not breathe.Alan stood frozen where he was, one hand gripping the edge of the metal table beside him so tightly that his knuckles had turned pale, while his other hand hovered uncertainly over his chest as though he could somehow reach inside himself and confirm what he was hearing, an
AlanThe moment Natasha said they had found me, something inside me dropped so hard that it felt like the floor had vanished beneath me, because even though I still did not fully understand what I had become or why people were hunting me, the look on her face told me more than words ever could, and the fear in her eyes was not the kind that came from uncertainty, it was the kind that came from knowing exactly what was coming and understanding how little time was left before everything spiraled out of control.The alarms kept screaming through the room in violent bursts, each pulse of sound tearing through my thoughts and making it harder to breathe, while the red lights flashing across the walls painted everything in sharp fragments of shadow and color, and for one disorienting second all I could do was stare at the half-open door, because my mind was still trapped between the memories forcing their way back into my head and the reality unfolding in front of me too fast for me to catc
NatashaThe instant I saw the look on Alan’s face change, I knew that whatever fragile barrier had been keeping the truth buried inside him was beginning to crack, because there was something in the way his eyes lost focus, in the way his body went rigid like he was bracing against something only he could see, that told me a memory was forcing its way back to the surface, and the fear that rose inside me was immediate and sharp because I had always known this moment might come, but knowing it was possible had not prepared me for what it would feel like to stand there and watch it happen.I took a step toward him before I even thought about it, driven by instinct more than reason, because every part of me wanted to stop whatever was happening before it went any further, before the pieces came back too quickly and too violently for either of us to control.“Alan…”But before I could get any closer, he stepped back from me with such sudden force that it was as if the space between us had
NatashaWhatever had happened leading to this very moment, I knew that Alan would never let it go. If Matt was behind this, he would die by Alan’s hands and he wouldn’t care if he was his Nephew or not. For several hours, the gun battle raged on and with each minute that passed, I was getting more
NatashaThe moment the door closed behind Alan, the silence he left behind felt louder than anything else in the room, pressing in on me in a way that made it hard to sit still, let alone think clearly, and even though I tried to convince myself that everything was fine, that he knew what he was do
NatashaI didn’t think I had any tears left in me, but somehow, they kept coming.Even as Alan held me close, his arms wrapped tightly around me like he was afraid I would disappear, I couldn’t stop shaking. My body felt weak, like everything that had happened had drained the life out of me.“I’m so
AlanThe moment Natasha closed the door behind her, the smile that had been on my face slowly faded. I leaned back in my chair, staring at the door for a long moment. Something about that whole conversation didn’t sit right with me. Natasha wasn’t a good liar. She tried, yes, but there was always s







