The quiet before the storm wasn't peace. It was the breath held tight in the throat of a dying world.
I moved through the shadows like a whisper, every step measured, every sound sharpened to a razor's edge.
The building we were about to storm was no longer just concrete and steel. It was a tomb — for the past, for lies, and maybe for what was left of me.
Inside, silence reigned. Too perfect, too fragile.
I felt it in my bones: the calm before everything shattered.
Remi's hand brushed my arm, steadying me. No words were needed.
We had one chance.
One shot to tear the walls down and set fire to the secrets buried beneath.
I tightened my grip on the card — my key, my curse.
The door unlocked with a soft beep. The sterile smell hit me — disinfectant mixed with decay. It was the scent of forgotten sins.
We slipped inside, ghosts in a place that never wanted us to exist.
The corridors stretched endlessly, cold and unwelcoming.
Every shadow seemed to watch, every whisper echoed memories I'd rather forget.
Then came the alarms.
Red lights flooded the halls, drowning out silence with their shrill cries.
No turning back now.
We ran.
Past locked doors and security cameras.
Past the places where I was built and broken.
The archive was just ahead — the heart of the machine.
I saw the rows of filing cabinets, the rows of screens playing silent screams on loop.
I grabbed the nearest drawer, yanking it open.
Files spilled out — names, numbers, dates — lives reduced to data.
One file caught my eye — marked with my initials.
I tore it open.
Inside were the blueprints of me. Plans for a weapon designed to kill without remorse.
Plans I would rewrite tonight.
Footsteps thundered behind us.
Remi shouted, "This way!"
We dove into a narrow stairwell, the alarm echoing like a countdown.
At the bottom, a door led outside.
Freedom was one step away.
But I hesitated.
Looking back at the place that made me, I felt a surge — not of hate, but of power.
I was no longer their creation.
I was my own person.
And I was coming back for every lie they told.
With a final glance, I stepped into the night.
The reckoning was just beginning.