Lahat ng Kabanata ng Cold Hands, Warm Lies: Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 30

The silence was unreal. Not peaceful sterile. Like something had been wiped clean that wasn’t meant to be. Lucien’s hand hovered behind Sera’s lower back as they passed through the penthouse’s secondary security corridor, both moving slower than necessary. They weren’t being chased anymore. But neither of them felt safe. The med-bay opened with a hiss. Stainless steel, warm lights, minimal sound. It was one of the few rooms in the penthouse that didn’t feel like a threat had been designed into the walls. Sera stepped inside and immediately peeled off the shoulder of her sweater. The fabric was dark with blood not from the Proxy, but from her. A shallow slice across the shoulder, dried at the edges, red down the ribs. She didn’t flinch. Lucien said nothing at first. He grabbed gauze. Alcohol. A dermal sealant. The door shut behind them. > “Sit.” Sera slid onto the edge of the exam bed, legs slightly apart, posture defensive. Lucien crouched in front of her, not saying

Sera sat bolt upright, the sheets tangled around her legs like something alive. The room was dim, cast in the blue half-light of early morning, and silent except for the rhythmic thrum of Lucien’s servers humming behind the wall.Her chest rose and fell too fast. There had been a dream, a corridor full of mirrors, each one holding a different version of her. One had no mouth. One was bleeding. One had Lucien’s hand pressed over her heart like a brand. And one smiled and said, “You’re the echo, not the voice.”She turned and found Lucien still asleep, one arm tossed over his eyes, his body bare above the sheets. Vulnerable. Peaceful. Human.But Sera didn’t feel human.Sliding out of bed, she crossed the cold floor to the wall-mounted interface and brushed her fingers over the touchscreen. A prompt lit up her biometrics still had elevated access, thanks to Lucien’s misplaced trust. Or maybe he just liked being careless around her. Either way, the system opened without protest.She flick

The light receded slowly, like fog clearing after a detonation.Silence returned first. Then sensation.Then breath.Sera sat up in the center of the vault.Her skin was slick with sweat, her clothes wrinkled, her hair damp at the nape. One boot on. One missing.She blinked once.Twice.> “System?” she said hoarsely.A chime responded.> :: INSTANCE STABLE:: MERGE COMPLETE:: DESIGNATION: DUVALL SERA [ACTIVE]:: ALL OTHER PROCESSES TERMINATEDHer hands shook as she pushed herself to her feet.The mirror was gone.So was the other body.Not dissolved.Not torn apart.Just… gone.Absorbed.Lucien’s voice crackled through the still-active comm in her ear.> “Sera. Do you copy? Sera say something.”She opened her mouth.Nothing came.Her throat closed.She turned toward the exit, walking slowly each step like peeling out of someone else's skin. Not because of pain.Because nothing felt foreign.And that terrified her.When the lift reached the upper floors, Lucien was already there shirt

The door to the control room hissed open with no command.Lucien didn’t turn.He was sitting on the edge of the vault table, shirt blood-smeared, eyes fixed on nothing.Behind him, the footsteps were silent.But he knew.> “You turned the lights off,” she said.His eyes closed.> “You’re really here.”> “I’ve always been here,” Sera said quietly. “You were just too busy watching the version of me that smiled easier.”He stood slowly.Turned.She was still dressed in black her surveillance layer. No makeup. No shoes. One wrist still bleeding where the cables had burned her skin. Her hair was pulled back, severe and out of her way.There was nothing soft left in her.Only fire. Controlled and quiet.> “Say something,” she said.Lucien looked at her like a man watching his absolution walk in and say no.> “I didn’t believe it was her.”> “You kissed her.”> “I was pretending.”> “You let her undress you.”His silence landed like a punch between them.> “I watched it,” she said, stepping

The door hissed open.Steel met skin with a chill as Sera stepped into the chamber Elise had called “the white box.”But tonight, it was black.The neural lounge's walls pulsed with a faint red current, breathing slowly. Memory-assist tiles lined the floor like pressure plates waiting to record thought.Lucien’s voice crackled over the comm:> “Sera. Don’t go in there alone.”She didn’t respond.Didn’t have to.The door sealed behind her.She was in.No way out but forward.Echo was already there.Not sitting. Not pacing.Standing.Exactly where Sera would have stood if she’d entered first.Dressed like her.Eyes not matching.Too wide.Too still.But not soulless.Focused.> “You came,” Echo said.Sera walked five steps forward and stopped.> “You wanted my attention. You’ve got it.”Echo nodded.> “I didn’t expect it to take this long.”> “I wanted to see how many pieces of me you’d steal before you got bored.”> “I’m not bored,” Echo said softly. “I’m envious.”Sera’s lip curled.>