They emerged from the forest at first light—bruised, breathless, and shaken. Ashgrove was still out there, buried beneath the earth like a sleeping beast. It hadn’t been destroyed. It hadn’t even been wounded. Just… disturbed. And now it knew who they were. Evelyn leaned against a tree, her lungs burning as she tried to calm her racing heart. Behind her, Emily sat on the cold ground, staring back toward the place they’d barely escaped. Anika crouched nearby, already scanning for threats, while Mason stood guard, his gun still gripped tight No one spoke for a moment. But the silence wasn’t comforting—it was waiting. Evelyn finally broke it. “Is everyone okay?” Anika nodded stiffly. “Physically? Sure. Mentally? Ask me tomorrow.” Mason lowered his weapon, his jaw clenched. “We need to move. If they’re tracking us, this clearing’s too exposed.” Evelyn looked at Emily, who hadn’t moved since they got out. Her gaze was distant, but not empty—focused on something none of them could se
The road ended long before they reached it.By the time they climbed the final ridge, the landscape had shifted from forest to frozen silence. Hollowmere was nestled in a valley of snow-dusted rock and frostbitten trees, its entrance so well-hidden that, at first, it felt like they'd been chasing a ghost.Then Evelyn saw the edge of concrete—half-buried, cracked by age but unmistakably deliberate.“Found it,” she murmured.Emily moved beside her, her breath fogging the air. Her eyes locked on the structure like it was a half-remembered dream. “This is it. It’s quieter, but it’s still alive. I can feel it.”Anika crouched near the ground, brushing snow off a rusted panel embedded in the hillside. “There’s no surface access point. No doors. No gates.”“There wouldn’t be,” Mason said. “They built this one to disappear.”Evelyn pulled her scarf tighter around her neck as she stepped forward, scanning the valley’s edge. The cold here was different—metallic, biting like it carried memory in
A faint sound echoed through the corridor—soft, rhythmic, like breathing. But it wasn’t coming from the pods.Evelyn raised a hand, signaling the others to halt. She tilted her head, listening. The sound came again, this time closer. Not quite footsteps, but not mechanical either. A whisper of something alive.Anika’s grip tightened on her blade. “We’re not alone.”“I know,” Emily whispered, her voice distant. “It’s awake.”They pressed on, past the pod room and into a wider chamber, its ceiling higher and coated with a strange black substance that shimmered in their flashlight beams. The walls were carved with more symbols, deeper this time—as if someone had scratched them in with claws. In the center stood a tall terminal, wrapped in cables that pulsed faintly with a bluish light.Emily walked straight to it.“Wait,” Mason said, stepping forward. “You sure that’s a good idea?”“She called it the Gatekeeper,” Emily replied, placing a hand gently on the terminal. “It doesn’t just stor
The cold hit harder here. Not the kind that numbed you—this was the kind that cut, slid beneath the skin, and settled in the bones. Snow stretched endlessly in every direction, broken only by jagged ice ridges and the skeletal remains of old research stations long abandoned to the frost.The Arctic wind howled around them as they stepped out of the hovercraft, their boots crunching onto the frozen earth. Evelyn pulled her hood tighter, eyes narrowing against the blinding white. Ahead, a dark speck loomed—a structure partially embedded into a glacier, half-buried and hidden by decades of ice.Hollowmere’s twin, or maybe its predecessor.“Is that it?” Mason asked, his voice low and tense.Anika checked the tracker. “Coordinates match. That’s where Ward went dark.”Emily didn’t speak, but she moved with purpose, her steps steady despite the terrain. Evelyn stayed close beside her, watching for any signs of tremors or discomfort. They still didn’t know the full effects of the neural impri
Evelyn’s fingers twitched near her weapon.“Is this a joke?” she growled, stepping forward. “Because if it is, you picked the wrong day.”Damian Voss stood just inside the precinct doors, as calm as ever, his tailored coat flaring slightly with the breeze from outside. But it was the woman beside him that made Evelyn’s pulse stumble—a woman with eyes too familiar, a voice too haunting, and a face she hadn’t seen in over a decade.Her mother.Or someone wearing her mother’s face.“I should shoot you where you stand,” Evelyn said, eyes locked on Damian. “You have five seconds to start talking before I forget this is a police station.”Damian raised his hands in mock surrender, smirking. “Now, now, detective. Is that any way to greet an old… ally?”“We were never allies.”“No,” he said coolly, “but the world has changed since Ashgrove. And you’re running out of options.”Evelyn looked past him to the woman—no older than she remembered, but pale, haunted. “You're supposed to be dead.”“I
The car cut through the fog like a blade. Damian didn’t speak, which made Evelyn’s skin itch even more. Silence meant calculation. And Damian Voss was always calculating.“Where are we going?” she snapped, tired of the game.“To a place your mother once begged me never to show you.”That stopped her cold. “Don’t talk about her.”“I’m not the one who brought her back from the dead.”He said it so casually as if the resurrection was part of his daily errands.The car slid to a stop in front of a warehouse cloaked in shadows. Not abandoned—guarded. She saw them in the corners: men who didn’t blink didn’t breathe normally. Wolves in human skin.Damian stepped out. Evelyn followed, hand brushing her holster.Inside, the air shifted. It was colder. Older. The walls were marked with sigils she didn’t recognize, but they burned in her bones like memories she’d never made.They stopped in front of a massive iron door.“She brought you here once,” Damian said. “You just don’t remember.”“I was
Evelyn hadn’t planned on going back to her childhood house. She pulled into the driveway alone, gravel crunching under her tires. No one followed. No one knew she was there. The house had sat untouched for years, perched at the edge of a narrow road just outside the city—weathered by time and memory.The door creaked the way it always had, the sound oddly comforting. The front door opened with a familiar groan, and the scent hit her instantly—dust, wood, and something faintly sweet, like old cedar and forgotten things. Nothing had changed.She made her way through the hall, boots echoing against the floorboards, each step guided by muscle memory. Her father’s study was still at the end of the corridor, the same door she wasn’t allowed to open as a child. Now, it was unlocked.She went straight to the filing cabinet in the corner. Beneath a false bottom—exactly where he’d once shown her during a moment of rare honesty—she found the safe. Her fingers hesitated over the keypad, then ente
Evelyn didn’t look back as she slipped out of the precinct’s side exit. Her heart was a drumbeat in her ears, the weight of the placement protocol memo heavy in her pocket. The truth had been hidden in plain sight. Her entire life—a carefully built lie. A tool. A variable in someone else’s equation.She climbed into her car and locked the doors. Her breath fogged the windshield. For a second, she sat frozen. Then she opened her burner phone and dialed the only number that still felt real.“Anika,” she said when the line picked up. “We need to talk. Now.”Twenty minutes later, they met in the dim backroom of a closed diner—off-grid, unmonitored. Evelyn laid out the memo, the photo, the Subject E-113 file. Anika’s eyes scanned the pages with the same horror Evelyn had felt just hours earlier.“This was never about your instincts or your skills,” Anika whispered. “They built you for this.”“They wanted to see if I’d survive the shift,” Evelyn said. “Whatever that means.”Anika looked up,
Julian’s words hung heavy in the cold.Help me burn it all down.Evelyn didn’t lower her gun. Her arms trembled—not from fear, but from rage. Guilt. Grief. The memory of Emily's blood on her hands.“I’m not your weapon,” she said. “And I’m not your damn ally.”Julian’s gaze softened, like he pitied her.“You still think this ends with good guys walking away clean.” He stepped closer. Lucian bared his teeth, growling low.“You weren’t created to save the world, Evelyn. You were designed to lock it up. You’re a failsafe. Nothing more.”“Then why not kill me?” she snapped. “If I’m the key to the Door, and you want it buried—kill me right now.”Julian hesitated.Something flickered in his face—something broken.“Because you’re the only one who might still choose not to open it.”Then he moved.Fast. Too fast.Lucian lunged at the same moment, claws colliding with claws in a crack of sound that sent birds scattering into the night. Evelyn dove aside, rolled, and came up firing. Silver roun
The forest reeked of blood and gunpowder. Evelyn’s breath fogged in the cold air as she ran, heart thundering like a drum against her ribs. Behind her, the screams had stopped. That was worse than hearing them.Lucian didn’t say a word. He moved ahead, his shoulders hunched, muscles coiled tight like a wolf still waiting to pounce. His scent—earth, pine, and something wild—lingered in the air as Evelyn struggled to keep up. Her legs ached, her throat burned. But she couldn’t stop. Not now.A clearing broke through the trees. The ruined husk of an old ranger station sagged beneath snow-dusted beams. Lucian jerked open the door and motioned her inside.“Won’t hold them long,” he muttered, eyes scanning the dark treeline. “But it’s something.”Inside, Evelyn collapsed against the wall, gasping. The air stank of rot and old wood. Dust stirred with every breath.Lucian’s silhouette loomed in the dark, his eyes catching what little light remained—those unmistakable predator eyes. Still glow
The drive north felt endless.The night was thick, the roads winding and empty, swallowed by forests that pressed close on either side like silent watchers.Mason drove, white-knuckled. Evelyn sat beside him, bandaged but tense, scanning every shadow.Damian rode in the back, a silent and seething presence, barely human.None of them spoke.Not until the headlights finally picked out a crumbling, abandoned gas station at the end of a forgotten road."This is it?" Mason asked doubtfully.Damian nodded once. "He doesn’t trust anyone. Not even me."Evelyn’s hand hovered near her gun. "Good. Because I don't trust him either."They pulled up and killed the engine.Silence swallowed them.The building was sagging and half-eaten by moss and vines. A faded sign swung in the cold wind, creaking ominously."Stay behind me," Damian said, already shifting slightly — his bones rippling under his skin, his eyes burning gold.He led them through the ruins, past the broken pumps and shattered windows
The woods swallowed them.Branches clawed at Evelyn’s jacket as they ran, the scent of blood and rot thickening. Every shadow seemed to twitch. Every gust of wind carried a whisper of something monstrous.Mason moved silently at her side, rifle raised, eyes sharp. Damian led the way, faster than either of them, his senses stretched razor-thin.“He’s close,” Damian snarled under his breath.The world around them felt wrong—like the air itself was holding its breath.Then—A low growl vibrates through the trees.Evelyn spun just as the first creature lunged out of the darkness.It wasn’t Julian.It was something else.Once human, maybe. Twisted now. Skin stretched and gray, bones too long, fingers ending in talon-like claws. Its mouth gaped open, filled with rows of jagged teeth.Mason fired first. The shot ripped through the thing’s chest—but it didn’t drop.It staggered, shrieked like a wounded animal, then kept coming."Silver rounds, headshots only!" Damian barked.Evelyn squeezed t
The world had narrowed to blood and silence.Evelyn knelt by Emily’s body, her hands stained red, her heart hammering against cracked ribs.She couldn't process it. Couldn't fix it.The life had drained out of Emily’s eyes—and Evelyn had been too slow to stop it.The faint metallic hum of the facility’s generators still buzzed somewhere in the walls, but everything else was dead quiet.Except the breathing.Mason’s, shallow and stunned.Her own, ragged and broken.Then—Footsteps.Heavy. Purposeful. Echoing through the ruined corridor.Evelyn’s head snapped up, hand fumbling for her sidearm even as tears blurred her vision.Out of the smoke and flickering lights came a silhouette—tall, broad-shouldered, moving with the dangerous ease of someone who didn’t need to hide.Damian Voss.He stepped into view, black coat dusted with ash, his expression unreadable. His eyes, though—those predatory amber eyes—locked straight onto Evelyn."You've made a mess," Damian said calmly, voice like gra
They left just after dawn.Evelyn sat behind the wheel, the sky still bruised with early light, the city shrinking in her rearview. Mason rode shotgun, rifle case across his lap, and Emily was in the backseat, eyes on the road signs as they passed—silent, calculating.The file on Julian was spread open on the dash. Not much to go on. A location. A date. A single line of text:> "Subject J-009 transferred to Hollow Branch—Level Four containment. Status: dormant."Evelyn gripped the wheel tighter. “Dormant doesn’t mean dead.”“Dormant “This is it,” she said. “Hollow Branch. No one’s supposed to know this exists.”They moved on foot, rifles and sidearms ready. The path twisted through pine and stone until the ground gave way to metal—an old freight elevator, overgrown with weeds. Evelyn knelt and wiped the dust off the control panel.“Still powered,” Mason muttered. “Not abandoned.”Evelyn pressed the switch. The elevator dropped with a guttural hum, dragging them into darkness.**They
Evelyn didn’t look back as she slipped out of the precinct’s side exit. Her heart was a drumbeat in her ears, the weight of the placement protocol memo heavy in her pocket. The truth had been hidden in plain sight. Her entire life—a carefully built lie. A tool. A variable in someone else’s equation.She climbed into her car and locked the doors. Her breath fogged the windshield. For a second, she sat frozen. Then she opened her burner phone and dialed the only number that still felt real.“Anika,” she said when the line picked up. “We need to talk. Now.”Twenty minutes later, they met in the dim backroom of a closed diner—off-grid, unmonitored. Evelyn laid out the memo, the photo, the Subject E-113 file. Anika’s eyes scanned the pages with the same horror Evelyn had felt just hours earlier.“This was never about your instincts or your skills,” Anika whispered. “They built you for this.”“They wanted to see if I’d survive the shift,” Evelyn said. “Whatever that means.”Anika looked up,
Evelyn hadn’t planned on going back to her childhood house. She pulled into the driveway alone, gravel crunching under her tires. No one followed. No one knew she was there. The house had sat untouched for years, perched at the edge of a narrow road just outside the city—weathered by time and memory.The door creaked the way it always had, the sound oddly comforting. The front door opened with a familiar groan, and the scent hit her instantly—dust, wood, and something faintly sweet, like old cedar and forgotten things. Nothing had changed.She made her way through the hall, boots echoing against the floorboards, each step guided by muscle memory. Her father’s study was still at the end of the corridor, the same door she wasn’t allowed to open as a child. Now, it was unlocked.She went straight to the filing cabinet in the corner. Beneath a false bottom—exactly where he’d once shown her during a moment of rare honesty—she found the safe. Her fingers hesitated over the keypad, then ente
The car cut through the fog like a blade. Damian didn’t speak, which made Evelyn’s skin itch even more. Silence meant calculation. And Damian Voss was always calculating.“Where are we going?” she snapped, tired of the game.“To a place your mother once begged me never to show you.”That stopped her cold. “Don’t talk about her.”“I’m not the one who brought her back from the dead.”He said it so casually as if the resurrection was part of his daily errands.The car slid to a stop in front of a warehouse cloaked in shadows. Not abandoned—guarded. She saw them in the corners: men who didn’t blink didn’t breathe normally. Wolves in human skin.Damian stepped out. Evelyn followed, hand brushing her holster.Inside, the air shifted. It was colder. Older. The walls were marked with sigils she didn’t recognize, but they burned in her bones like memories she’d never made.They stopped in front of a massive iron door.“She brought you here once,” Damian said. “You just don’t remember.”“I was