LOGINThe ship docked in Switzerland under the cover of a stormy night, the Swiss Alps looming like silent sentinels against the black sky. Snow fell in thick, heavy flakes, blanketing the world in white and muffling every sound. Cedric stood on the deck with Lily beside him, her small hand gripping his tightly, the dog pressed against her leg. Gianni was a few steps behind, his presence a solid wall of protection in the freezing wind. Marcus led them down the gangway, his face unreadable, the wind whipping at his coat. The air smelled of pine, ice, and diesel from the ship’s engines. It felt wrong, too clean, too quiet, for what they were about to face.The vault was hidden beneath a luxury ski resort, accessible only by a hidden elevator behind a fake wall in the basement of the main lodge. Marcus had the access codes, his father had given them to him years ago, a final inheritance of secrets and power. The descent took ten minutes, the elevator humming softly as it dropped deeper and dee
“Wait.”Cedric’s voice was raw, barely more than a rasp, but it cut through the sterile hum of the laboratory like a blade. The guards holding him paused, their grips tightening on his arms. Marcus turned slowly, eyebrows raised in mild surprise, the white doctor’s coat making him look like a parody of a healer.“You’ll cooperate?” Marcus asked, his tone clinical, almost curious.Cedric nodded, his throat tight, eyes locked on Lily behind the glass window. She was crying silently, small fists pressed against the barrier, her ancient eyes wide with terror. “Fully. No resistance. Just leave her alone.”Marcus considered this for a long moment, his gaze shifting between Cedric and Lily. Then he nodded once. “Acceptable.”The guards released Cedric. He didn’t fight as they led him to the metal table in the center of the room. The surface was cold against his back as they strapped him down, thick leather restraints across his chest, arms, and legs, biting into his skin. Needles were insert
Cedric was dragged down a narrow corridor deep in the bowels of the ship, his arms twisted painfully behind his back by two silent guards. The metal floors vibrated faintly with the hum of the engines, and the air grew colder and sterner the deeper they went. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, casting harsh white light on the sterile gray walls. He was thrown into the ship’s laboratory, a pristine white room filled with machines he didn’t recognize, humming scanners, IV drips, monitors displaying pulsing waveforms, and a large metal chair in the center that looked more like a torture device than medical equipment. The smell of antiseptic was overwhelming, sharp and clinical, mixing with the faint metallic tang of fear that clung to every surface.Marcus waited in the middle of the room, wearing a white doctor’s coat that looked disturbingly professional on him. His face was calm, almost clinical, as if this was just another procedure. The man who had once been Cedric’s obsession, his
The water was dark, cold, and disorienting, a black void that swallowed sound and light and hope. Cedric kicked desperately toward what he prayed was the shore, Lily’s small hand clutched tightly in his, her grip the only thing anchoring him to reality. The saltwater burned his eyes and stung the cuts on his skin, but he kept moving, lungs screaming for air, legs heavy with exhaustion and fear. Gianni was close behind, his strong strokes cutting through the current, pushing them forward when the waves tried to pull them back under. The dog paddled ahead, a dark shape in the murk, its instincts driving it toward land even as the cold numbed its limbs.They broke the surface gasping, the night air hitting their wet faces like a slap. The rocky beach was jagged and unforgiving, stones cutting into their hands and knees as they crawled out of the water. Cedric collapsed for a moment, coughing up seawater, his chest heaving. Lily lay beside him, shivering violently, her small body curled i
The fog had come in thick off the water, the kind that didn't just obscure things but seemed to absorb them, buildings, lights, sound, all of it swallowed into grey until the world shrank down to whatever was directly in front of you.Cedric walked the pier alone.He'd been here before in dreams. Not the good kind, the kind where you're running but the ground keeps shifting, where the thing behind you never quite arrives but never stops coming either. He'd woken from those dreams more times than he could count, heart going, sheets damp, staring at a ceiling in whatever room he'd been sleeping in that month. He'd never thought he'd actually come back.The old planks creaked under his boots, each step announcing itself in the fog. The smell was exactly as he'd kept it in memory, salt and rotting wood and diesel from boats somewhere out in the harbour, invisible but present, like everything here. Moonlight made it through in a thin, washed-out way that lit nothing so much as suggested th
The prison where Linda had died was cooperative, too cooperative. The warden met them at the gate with a forced smile and a stack of paperwork, his hands trembling slightly as he handed over the files. Records showed she had been cremated within twenty-four hours of her death, no autopsy performed, no investigation opened. “Standard procedure for natural causes,” the warden had said, avoiding their eyes. Cedric had stared at the documents until the words blurred, his hands clenched so tightly the paper crumpled.Anna used her contacts in the underground network of survivors to get the medical records. They arrived via encrypted email the next day, a thick PDF filled with clinical jargon and cold numbers. The cause of death listed: “complications from advanced cancer.” But a nurse, anonymous, scared, reaching out through a burner phone, contacted Cedric two days later.“Your mother didn’t have cancer,” the woman whispered, her voice trembling over the line. “She was healthy when she ar







