جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 50

The four names remained on the screen.EVELYN.ALEXANDER.AFTERLIGHT.ADRIAN.Evelyn stared at them.Her hand tightened around Alexander’s.Neither of them spoke.The system waited.A soft pulse moved through the laboratory.Once.Twice.Three times.Then the names began to flicker.Evelyn.Alexander.Afterlight.Adrian.Again.And again.Faster each time.“What is it doing?” Evelyn whispered.Alexander looked at the screen.“Choosing.”“Choosing what?”“A body.”Her stomach tightened.The system had already told them.Project Echo had awakened.It needed a body.But none of them understood what that meant.Would it possess one of them?Would it replace them?Would it consume one consciousness and use the body as its own?Evelyn looked toward Alexander.“We have to stop it.”“I know.”“How?”“I don’t know.”She almost laughed.“You’re saying that a lot today.”Alexander looked at her.“I’ve never been trapped inside a machine designed to become God before.”Despite everything, Evelyn

The door beneath Evelyn’s childhood home should not have opened.Yet it had.Slowly.Silently.As if it had been waiting for her hand for years.Evelyn stood frozen before it, unable to breathe.The metal surface was old, scratched and darkened by time, but beneath the dust she could still see the symbol engraved into it.A black circle.Three white lines.The same symbol that had appeared on the screens in the Kane mansion.The same symbol connected to Project Echo.The same symbol that had haunted her memories since she began remembering the years that had been stolen from her.Her mother’s voice had come through the door.Evelyn.Then another voice had spoken.A man.A voice she had never heard before.A voice that somehow felt familiar.My daughter.Evelyn’s fingers tightened around the small metal device in her hand.Behind her, Alexander took one step forward.“Evelyn.”She did not answer.Her eyes remained fixed on the doorway.The silver-haired man stood on the other side.He

“Hello, Bridge.”The voice came from Alexander’s mouth.But it was not Alexander.Evelyn knew that immediately.She had heard Alexander angry.She had heard him cold.She had heard him broken.She had heard him whisper her name in the dark as though saying it was the only thing keeping him alive.This was none of those things.This voice was empty.Ancient.Too calm.Too certain.Evelyn stared at him.Alexander’s black eyes were fixed on hers.His face was still his.His body was still his.But something else was looking through him.Something that had no right to be there.“No,” Evelyn whispered.The creature wearing Alexander’s voice smiled.“You recognize me.”“I don’t.”“You do.”It tilted his head.“You have been hearing me since you were seven.”Evelyn’s blood ran cold.The voice beneath the house.The whispers.The dreams.The nightmares.The voice that had called her name from inside mirrors.The voice that had told her she was different.She had always thought it was the Echo

The wall exploded.Evelyn barely had time to react.Alexander pulled her backward just as a wave of silver light tore through the underground chamber. Dust and fragments of concrete flew across the room. The lights above them burst one after another, plunging the laboratory into darkness.Someone screamed.Adrian.Afterlight.Lucian.Evelyn could not tell.She hit the floor hard.Alexander landed beside her.For several seconds, there was nothing but ringing in her ears.Then she heard breathing.Heavy.Uneven.Close.“Evelyn.”She opened her eyes.Alexander was above her.His face was inches from hers.His eyes were silver.Not black.Not his normal eyes.Silver.But this time, something about them felt different.There was pain in them.Fear.And recognition.“Alexander?”He blinked.The silver disappeared.His eyes returned to normal.“Are you hurt?”Evelyn stared at him.“You’re back.”“For now.”She immediately wrapped her arms around him.He held her tightly.For several seconds

The door opened completely.For a moment, nobody moved.Nobody breathed.Nobody dared to make a sound.The darkness beyond the doorway was not empty.It was alive.Blackness rolled across the floor like smoke, spilling into the laboratory in slow waves. The lights above them flickered violently, one after another, until only a few remained.Then came the sound.A heartbeat.Deep.Slow.Not human.Thump.Thump.Thump.Evelyn stood frozen beside Alexander.Her eyes remained fixed on Lucas.The boy was smiling.Not the innocent smile he had worn when he first appeared.Not the confused smile of a child who had spent too long trapped between worlds.This smile was different.Older.Colder.As if something had finally remembered who it was.Alexander’s fingers tightened around Evelyn’s.“Evelyn.”She looked at him.His face had gone pale.“What?” she whispered.“Don’t look at the doorway.”Her eyes narrowed.“Why?”“Because I think it wants you to.”Behind them, Lucian stepped backward.Fo