Chapter 77: A Trap of Memories
The undercity shook with distant explosions as Fred, Mira, and Reeve pushed through the labyrinth.
The boy—sedated but restless—was strapped tightly to a stretcher, wheeled along by Reeve.
Mira led the way, eyes sharp, scanning every dark corridor for movement.
Fred brought up the rear, gun drawn, every muscle coiled for a fight.
Somewhere behind them, the web was closing.
Selene's forces were waking.
Not machines.
Not soldiers.
Something worse.
The echoes of their own nightmares.
And every step closer to the surface felt like dragging the past into the light.
---
Halfway through an abandoned subway line, Fred froze.
A voice slithered through the crackling speakers overhead.
Soft.
Familiar.
Cruel.
"Frederick... you survived."
It wasn't Selene.
It was someone else.
A ghost Fred thought he had buried long ago.
Mira glanced at him sharply, but Fred didn't answer.
He didn't trust his voice.
"You were my favorite, you know," the voice continued, taunting.
"You lasted longer than the others. Stronger. Smarter. I was proud of you."
Fred's hands trembled at the memory.
Dr. Merek.
The handler.
The man who broke children like toys and laughed while doing it.
Fred felt the burn of old scars under his skin.
He pressed forward without a word, jaw clenched.
This time, Merek wouldn't be the one giving the orders.
---
They emerged into a wide station.
But something was wrong.
The walls were lined with broken mirrors.
Cracked reflections of themselves stared back from every angle.
Fred knew this place.
A training ground.
Where they tested how far a child's mind could be twisted.
Through the speakers, Merek's laughter echoed.
"Find your way out... if you can."
Without warning, the lights snapped off.
Only faint emergency strobes remained, painting the station in harsh reds and blacks.
In the distorted reflections, Fred saw things that couldn't be real—
himself, younger, bloodied, begging.
Mira, lying dead.
Reeve, turning away.
Whispers flooded the air.
You're still nothing.
You'll fail them.
You're broken.
Fred gritted his teeth.
Not real.
Not anymore.
He moved by memory, ignoring the lies, the guilt, the fear pressing against his mind.
Mira's voice cut through the noise.
"Focus on my voice, Fred!"
Fred blinked, locking onto her silhouette ahead.
He surged forward—
—and ran straight into a wall.
The mirrors weren't just illusions.
They were moving.
Shifting.
Trapping.
---
Reeve cursed as he tried to backtrack, but the path behind them was already sealed.
From the reflections, figures began to emerge.
Twisted clones.
Dressed like them.
Moving like them.
But their eyes were hollow.
Merek's final trick.
Fred didn't hesitate.
He fired into the nearest doppelgänger, watching it shatter into mist.
Mira did the same, cutting a brutal path through the illusions.
Reeve fought with savage efficiency, protecting the stretcher.
But for every one they destroyed, two more appeared.
It wasn't a fight.
It was a test.
Of endurance.
Of sanity.
Of will.
Fred's vision blurred with exhaustion and blood.
But he pressed on.
Because he knew—
this wasn't just Merek's last cruelty.
It was Selene's message.
If you want to reach me, you'll have to drown in yourself first.
---
Finally, Mira spotted it—a flaw in the labyrinth.
One mirror, not reflecting anything.
A black void.
Without hesitation, she hurled a flash grenade through it.
BOOM!
The false wall crumbled.
Real light flooded in from a stairwell beyond.
Freedom.
Fred and Reeve didn't wait.
They pushed through, dragging the boy, racing against the collapsing nightmare.
Behind them, the station caved in, burying Merek's voice in rubble and ash.
As they emerged into a higher tunnel, gasping, Fred looked back once.
Not in fear.
But in promise.
He would come back.
He would burn every last shadow they had left.
One by one.
---