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CHAPTER 56

Author: Pure Ink
last update Last Updated: 2026-01-12 21:04:37

MIA'S POV

The garden was the most beautiful thing I'd seen since dying.

After the darkness of the Whispering Void, after the horror of the ocean of faces and the Collective, stepping into this place felt like stepping into a dream. Sunlight—actual, warm sunlight filtered through trees that looked like they'd been painted by an artist who'd never seen an imperfect thing in their life. Every leaf was the exact right shade of green. Every flower petal was positioned with mathematical precision. Even the air smelled perfect—honey and lavender and something else I couldn't quite identify but made my chest ache with longing.

"Don't touch anything," Kara said immediately. Her voice was sharp, urgent. "Don't eat anything. Don't trust anything."

"It's just a garden," Brady said, but even he sounded uncertain. After everything we'd been through, nothing was ever just what it appeared to be.

"It's a trap," Kara corrected. "The most insidious trap the administrators ever created. Because it does
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  • The Art Of Dying    CHAPTER 62

    AXEL'S POVThe between-world space was exactly what it sounded like—a place that existed in the cracks of reality. A nowhere zone where the administrators' surveillance was weakest and we'd stumbled into it purely by luck, running from the enforcer drones until we'd crashed through what looked like a wall of fog and found ourselves here.It was grey like, everything was so grey. The ground, the sky, the air itself, like someone had drained all the color from existence and left behind only the ghost of a world.But it was safe, relatively. The drones couldn't follow us here because their sensors couldn't penetrate the between-space so we had time to breathe, to rest and process what had just happened.Except nobody was processing. Everyone was just... sitting and staring at nothing. The weight of Bree's confession, Mia's reaction, and the team's fracture pressing down on us like a physical thing.I looked around at what remained of our group. Walter and Willow sat together, talking in

  • The Art Of Dying    CHAPTER 61

    MIA'S POVWe couldn't stay in the ruins forever. The administrators were closing in. We could hear their enforcer drones sweeping the area, getting closer with each pass.But when Axel called everyone to gather, to prepare to move, something was different.The team was fractured.Walter stood with Willow, both of them eyeing Bree with open hostility. Erina kept glancing between me and Bree, clearly uncomfortable. Brady and Marcus looked lost, unsure whose side to take. Kara stood apart from everyone, watching with the detached interest of someone who'd seen this scenario play out before.And Bree sat alone, as far from me as possible while still technically being part of the group."We need to talk about this," Walter said. "Before we go any further.""There's nothing to talk about," Axel replied. "We move. Now. Before they find us.""There's everything to talk about." Walter pointed at Bree. "She can't come with us.""Walter—" Willow started."No. I'm right. You know I'm right." He l

  • The Art Of Dying    CHAPTER 60

    AXEL'S POVWe'd been running for another hour when Mia finally slowed down. Not because she was tired, though she was but because her power kept erupting in uncontrolled bursts.Every few minutes, reality would crack around her. Small things at first. A rock would cease to exist. A patch of ground would flicker out of existence for a second before snapping back.But it was getting worse. More frequent. More violent."Mia," I said, catching up to her. "You need to calm down.""I am calm.""Your power says otherwise."She looked down at her hands. They were glowing faintly, threads of reality visible around her fingers. "I can't control it. Every time I think about her, about what she did, it just... explodes.""Then stop thinking about her.""How?" She laughed bitterly. "How do I just stop thinking about the fact that my so-called friend is the reason I'm dead? That she's been lying to my face for weeks? That every time she saved my life, she was just trying to assuage her own guilt?"

  • The Art Of Dying    CHAPTER 59

    MIA'S POVWe'd been running for twenty minutes when Axel finally called for a stop. Not because we'd outrun the administrators, you couldn't outrun them, not really but because we were about to collapse.We found shelter in what looked like the ruins of some ancient structure. Black stone walls half-crumbled, providing just enough cover to hide us from aerial surveillance. The red sky pulsed overhead like a diseased heartbeat.Everyone dropped to the ground, gasping. Nobody spoke. We were too exhausted. Too traumatized from what we'd just survived in the Memory Thief's Garden.I sat with my back against the cold stone, trying not to think about all those deadies I'd erased. Trying not to see their faces. Trying not to wonder if they'd felt anything in that final moment."Four minutes," Walter said, checking his weapons. "That's how long we have before they find us again. Maybe less.""Then we rest for three," Axel replied. "Everyone drink. Eat if you can. We need to be ready to move."

  • The Art Of Dying    CHAPTER 58

    KARA'S POVI'd been watching them struggle for what felt like hours. Time moved differently in the Memory Thief's Garden—sometimes faster, sometimes slower, always wrong. But I'd seen enough deadies trapped in this place to know when someone was about to break.And they were all breaking.Bree had been the first to free herself. Impressive, considering she'd been reliving killing one of her own teammates. Most deadies never recovered from memories like that. But she'd faced it. Accepted it. And that acceptance had broken the garden's hold on her.Now she stood alone on the path, watching her friends suffer, powerless to help them."You need to tell them," I said, stepping out from behind a flowering tree. "They don't know how to escape."Bree spun toward me, hands raised defensively. "You. You said not to touch anything. You said...""I said the garden would tempt you. And it did. But now you're free and they're not. So you need to tell them what you learned.""How? They can't hear m

  • The Art Of Dying    CHAPTER 57

    BREE'S POVI knew better than to touch anything. Kara had warned us. The garden wanted us to interact with it, to give it an opening. But knowing something and resisting it were two different things entirely.The flower was red. Blood red. It stood out among all the perfect white and pink blooms like a wound in pristine skin. And I couldn't look away from it because red meant something to me. Red meant danger. Red meant stop. Red meant—My hand reached out before I could stop it. The moment my fingers brushed the petals, the world disappeared.I was in my ambulance. The familiar smell of disinfectant and blood hit me first. Then the sound; sirens wailing, my own ragged breathing, the screech of tires on wet pavement.I was driving. Fleeing. My hands gripped the steering wheel so tight my knuckles were white. In the rearview mirror, I could see him. Eli. His police cruiser gaining on me, lights flashing."No," I whispered. "Not this. Please, not this memory."But the garden didn't car

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