Chapter 130: A room full of twitching bodies

Isabella pushed Aubrey’s body once.

Then again, harder.

“Aubrey…?”

Her voice shook in a way she didn’t recognize. It sounded smaller than she felt. Like it didn’t belong to her.

Her eyes dropped to the gunshot wound. The blood pooling beneath Aubrey’s side spread slow, thick, too much.

Her pulse stuttered.

“Aubrey. Aubrey you can’t do this to me—!”

She grabbed her shoulders and shook her, panic taking over, fingers slipping against blood and fabric.

Nothing.

No reaction.

No breath she could see.

Tears fell freely now, hitting Aubrey’s face, mixing with the blood.

Around them, the room had started to fill.

People rushed in. The children. The elderly. The ones who had nowhere else to go.

Voices layered over each other.

Crying.

Shouting.

Someone screamed Julia’s name.

Most of them crowded around her instead, around the still body laid out too neatly for someone who had just died.

Carl and Adira were there, trying to keep people steady, trying to keep things from breaking completely.

But Isabella heard none of it clearly.

It all blurred.

All of it.

“Aubrey wake the fuck up!!!”

Her voice cracked, tore out of her chest.

“Please…”

Her strength gave out.

She collapsed forward, pressing her forehead against Aubrey’s chest, gripping her shirt like she could anchor her here.

“…I can’t lose you too,” she whispered, the words barely forming.

“You’re the only person I—…”

She stopped.

The sentence never finished.

It hung there, broken, like everything else.

Her fingers tightened.

If she held on hard enough, maybe—

A twitch.

Small.

Barely there.

But she felt it.

Isabella froze.

Her head lifted slowly, like she was afraid to move too fast and scare it away.

Her eyes locked onto Aubrey’s face.

Nothing.

Then—

“…so that’s what you’ve been thinking this entire time?”

Isabella’s breath left her in a sharp, broken sound.

Aubrey’s eyes cracked open, unfocused at first, then finding her.

Alive.

Actually alive.

Isabella laughed.

Once.

Short.

Disbelieving.

Then again, louder, almost hysterical as relief crashed into her all at once.

Before she could think, before she could stop herself, she leaned in and kissed her.

Hard.

Desperate.

Like she needed proof.

Aubrey’s eyes widened for a split second.

Then they closed.

For that one moment, nothing else existed.

Not the blood, not the bodies, not the noise,

Just that.

Then Aubrey coughed.

Violently.

The kiss broke as she turned her head, choking, her body jerking as she tried to breathe.

“Oh— shit…sorry…shit…”

Isabella pulled back fast, flustered, hands hovering like she didn’t know where to put them.

She helped Aubrey sit up, steadying her as best as she could.

Aubrey wiped blood from her mouth, blinking, dazed.

“It’s okay…”

Her eyes moved across the room, taking everything in.

Carl and Adira were alive.

The others were shaken but standing.

Then there was Julia.

She pushed herself to her feet, limping as she forced her way through the crowd.

“Aubrey—” Isabella started, but followed her anyway.

Aubrey shoved past people without hesitation until she reached the center.

She stopped.

Julia lay still.

There was no mistaking it.

Aubrey’s eyes widened as tears filled them again, but she didn’t speak. She just stared for a moment before forcing herself to look away.

There wasn’t time to break down.

Not yet.

She turned, scanning the room, looking for anything else. Blood covered the floor in patches. Shell casings were scattered everywhere. Amber clung to surfaces in thick streaks.

Then her eyes settled on a body with dirty blonde hair.

Isabella saw it too.

They exchanged a look before walking toward it together, slower this time.

Careful.

Aubrey knelt beside Lila and pressed a hand against her chest before leaning down, placing her ear over her heart.

Isabella stood behind her, holding her breath.

Waiting.

Seconds passed.

Nothing.

Aubrey stayed there a moment longer, just to be sure.

Still nothing.

She pulled back, her face unreadable.

Not relief.

Not grief.

Just empty.

She looked up at Isabella.

Isabella gave a small, tentative smile, like she thought this meant something good.

Aubrey didn’t return it.

Something about this didn’t feel finished.

Then Isabella’s expression changed, her smile vanishing instantly and replaced with something else.

Aubrey raised an eyebrow.

“…her hand’s twitching,” she said quietly.

Aubrey’s eyes snapped back down.

She looked at Lila’s face, then at her hand.

A finger moved.

Just slightly.

But it moved.

Aubrey’s breath caught as something shifted inside her.

Pain, relief, and dread all hit at once.

Without hesitation, she reached for Lila, her hands already moving as she tried to figure out how to keep her alive.

Because whatever Lila was—

Whatever she had done—

She wasn’t gone.

And that meant Aubrey wasn’t done either.

—

I watched with cold eyes as Damien loaded the pistol in front of me, the click of the magazine sliding in echoing louder than it should have. The room felt too small. Too tight. Like the walls were leaning in to watch.

He raised the gun toward my head.

His hand trembled once.

Just once.

Then he tried to steady it, jaw tightening like that would fix anything. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. I tracked it all the way down, watching it like it mattered. Watching him like he was already dead.

He saw it in my eyes.

The judgment.

The hatred.

Good.

Let him sit in it.

“So you don’t plan on torturing me? Not even a little?” I said, my voice flat as I looked past him.

Straight to Annie.

She straightened slightly, like she had to remind herself who she was in this room.

“I think you’ve suffered enough,” she said.

Her tone was controlled, but not clean. Something underneath it dragged.

“This is the only way this’ll all end.”

Was it now.

I shifted my gaze back to Damien. The gun was still aimed at my head, but it did not feel like the most dangerous thing in the room anymore.

“And what about you?”

He stiffened.

“You’re some full-fledged traitor against humanity now?” I asked. “What do you plan on doing after all this? When you finally put a bullet in my head?”

His grip tightened around the gun.

“Once you kill me, those similar interests between you and her will dissolve,” I continued. “Then what? You think they’re just going to let you walk out of here?”

Annie’s brows furrowed. She glanced at him, just for a second.

That was all I needed.

“You don’t know a single thing about why I’m doing this,” Damien said, his voice tight.

“To get back at me after all those months of ditching you and your little boy band, right?” I said.

His eyes darkened immediately.

I almost smiled.

“…wait,” I said, tilting my head slightly. “Don’t tell me I’m right. You really made innocent people die because you couldn’t let go of the fact that I outgrew you?”

His mouth opened.

Closed.

He had nothing.

“Just fucking shoot him already,” Annie snapped.

There it was.

Pressure.

Damien flinched, then forced himself to refocus. His finger settled on the trigger, but I could see it now. The hesitation. The crack.

So I leaned into it.

“You really think they’re going to let you live after this?” I said, my voice lowering. “Let me walk you through what actually happens next.”

His eyes flickered to me.

Good.

“They take you downstairs first,” I said. “You ever been down there? No, of course you haven’t. That’s where they keep the ones they don’t trust. The ones they’re not done with yet.”

His breathing changed.

“They strip you,” I continued. “Tie you up. Not clean. Not neat. They don’t care if it hurts. In fact, they prefer it if it does.”

Annie shifted slightly.

I kept going.

“Then come the ceremonies. You ever hear them talk about that? The blood rituals? The chanting? The way they carve into people like it’s some kind of celebration?”

Damien’s hand started shaking again.

“They don’t kill you quick,” I said. “That would be too kind. They take their time. Cut you open piece by piece. Keep you alive while they do it. You feel everything.”

“Adrian—” Annie started.

I ignored her.

“And the best part?” I said. “They eat you. While you’re still breathing. You get to watch it. You get to feel it. You get to hear them talk about how you taste.”

Damien’s lips parted slightly.

No sound came out.

“You’re in for a deep world of pain,” I said, staring straight at him. “And there’s no escaping it either.”

The room had gone quiet.

Even the guards were watching now.

I did not stop.

“And when it’s finally over, when you’re begging them to just end it, you won’t even get that,” I said. “Because by then, you’ll realize what you did. You’ll realize you helped them. You’ll realize you traded everything for nothing.”

His breathing turned ragged.

“You’ll die slow,” I finished. “And you’ll die with that sitting in your head. Knowing you did this. Knowing you don’t deserve anything better.”

Silence.

Heavy.

Ugly.

Annie looked at him again, and this time she did not hide it.

“Damien…” she said, quieter now.

But it was too late.

He took a step back.

The gun lowered from my head.

Then it turned.

Pointed at her.

Every guard in the room reacted instantly. Guns snapped up. Safety clicks. The low hum of tension turned into something sharp and ready.

Damien saw them.

I know he did.

The amber in their eyes. The way some of them smiled. Like they had been waiting for this. Like they were already imagining how it would end.

His breathing hitched.

His hand shook harder now.

Annie’s face hardened.

“Don’t,” she said.

He did not look at her.

For a second, I thought he might run.

Then he lifted the gun.

Not at her.

At himself.

There was a brief pause.

A single moment where everything held still.

Then he pulled the trigger.

The sound cracked through the room.

His body dropped instantly, hitting the floor like it had been cut loose.

Blood sprayed across Annie’s face.

She froze.

Her eyes went wide, the amber in them flaring as she stared down at him.

I did not look away.

I did not react.

I just watched.

And for the first time since they dragged me into that room, something inside me felt…quiet.

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