Chapter 58: The Monster in the Mirror

 

"Hungry..." the old creature hissed. He moved with unnatural speed. One second he was by the tank, the next he was on top of Louis.

"Merde!" Louis shouted, firing his Glock.Bang! Bang! The bullets hit the creature’s chest, but he didn't even flinch. The wounds closed up in seconds, knitting together with a sickening squelch. The creature backhanded Louis. The Frenchman flew across the room and smashed into a metal cabinet, crumpling to the floor.

"Louis!" Harper screamed.

The creature turned his glowing eyes to Harper. "Key..." he growled, seeing the rolling pin in her hand. "Give... Key..."

"Sebastian!" Harper scrambled back toward the main console.

Sebastian didn't run. He couldn't. He stood his ground, leaning on his cane, leveling his gun. "Hey!" he shouted to distract the monster. "Look at me!"

The creature stopped. He tilted his head, studying Sebastian’s face. "Arthur?" the creature whimpered. "Why... why did you leave me in the dark?"

"I'm not Arthur," Sebastian said, his voice steady but his heart pounding. "Arthur is dead."

"Liar!" The creature roared. He lunged at Sebastian.

Sebastian fired three shots. Head. Chest. Knee. The creature stumbled but didn't stop. He grabbed Sebastian by the throat and lifted him off the ground as if he weighed nothing. Sebastian’s cane clattered to the floor. He clawed at the creature’s hand, his legs dangling uselessly.

"Harper!" Sebastian choked out. "The... computer!"

---

[The Gemini File]

Harper didn't freeze. She ran to the massive mainframe computer in the center of the room. There was a circular port on the console. She jammed the Rolling Pin into it.

Whirrrrr. The ancient machine roared to life. Lights flickered on.[ ACCESS GRANTED. WELCOME, DR. ROUSSEAU. ]

"Stop him!" Harper typed frantically. "System override! Security protocol!" But the automated defenses were offline.

She saw a file flashing red on the screen: [ PROJECT GEMINI ] She clicked it. A video log opened. Dated 1993.

On the screen, a younger Arthur Sterling was holding two babies. Identical twin boys."Subject A and Subject B," Arthur’s voice narrated coldly."Subject A (Sebastian) will remain in the control environment. Normal upbringing.""Subject B (Julian) will be moved to the Helios facility for genetic enhancement. We will see which strain survives."

Harper gasped, covering her mouth. Sebastian wasn't an only child. He had a twin brother. And his father had used one son as the heir... and the other as a lab rat.

She looked at the monster strangling Sebastian. The monster had the same jawline. The same brow. If you stripped away the scars and the madness... he looked exactly like Sebastian.

"Stop!" Harper screamed, her voice echoing through the lab. "Don't kill him! He is your brother!"

---

[The Recognition]

The creature froze. His grip on Sebastian’s throat loosened slightly. "B-brother?"

"Look at him!" Harper pointed at the screen, where the video of the twin babies was playing. "Look at the screen, Julian!"

The creature turned. He saw the video. He saw Arthur holding the two babies. He looked at Sebastian’s face—turning purple from lack of oxygen. Then he looked at his own reflection in the shattered glass tank.

"Sebastian..." the creature whispered. The name sounded foreign, like a forgotten language. "The... Lucky One."

He dropped Sebastian. Sebastian fell to the floor, gasping for air, clutching his throat. He looked up at the monster. He had heard Harper. He saw the video. Terror and grief washed over him.

"You..." Sebastian coughed. "You are my..."

"I am the mistake," the creature (Julian) stepped back, covering his face. "Father said... I was the future. But I am just... hungry."

He looked at his hands. They were clawed, mutated. "He locked me here. For thirty years. He fed me... scraps." "Then I got hungry. I broke the glass." He pointed to the skeleton on the floor. "I ate him."

Sebastian felt sick. His father didn't die of a heart attack. His father was eaten by the son he tortured.

"Julian," Sebastian whispered, reaching out a hand. "I didn't know. I swear to God, I didn't know you existed."

Julian looked at Sebastian’s hand. For a second, the madness in his eyes faded. He looked like a scared, lost child. He reached out to touch Sebastian.

CLICK. The sound of a safety being disengaged.

"Step away from the monster, Sebastian."

They all turned. Standing at the airlock door was Victoria Vance. Behind her were ten heavily armed mercenaries. And beside her... was Dr. Ryan (Sebastian's doctor).

"Ryan?" Sebastian stared at him in betrayal.

"Sorry, boss," Ryan shrugged, holding a syringe gun. "The Syndicate pays better. And they promised me a Nobel Prize for analyzing him." He pointed at Julian.

Victoria smiled, stepping into the lab in her pristine white coat. "Bravo, Harper. You found the Key. You saved us so much digging."

She looked at Julian with greedy, cold eyes. "Hello, Subject 001. Daddy is gone. But don't worry." "Mommy is here to take care of you now."

(End of Chapter 58)