Chapter 132: They fall twice as hard

The silence dragged on longer than it should have.

Long enough for doubt to settle into the room.

Long enough for people to start thinking.

I watched Annie carefully, not blinking, not moving. I caught it when her lip quivered for just a second before she forced her face back into place. It was small, but it was there.

That was all I needed.

A smirk pulled at my mouth.

Too late.

“…So is it true, then…?” someone asked from behind her, their voice uncertain.

“Of course not, you idiot!” Annie snapped.

She yanked up her sleeve, exposing the bite mark again like it was proof carved into her skin.

“Would someone who is not infected have this?”

“She did that herself,” I said.

The words cut through clean.

Heads turned.

Annie looked at me. The person behind her looked at me. A few others did too, their attention shifting like a tide that had finally found somewhere else to go.

I leaned forward slightly in the chair, the restraints tightening around my wrists.

“That bite is shallow,” I said. “Too shallow for someone else to have done it properly. You hesitated when you broke skin. You made sure it looked convincing from a distance, but not enough to actually do damage.”

No one spoke.

“She did it herself,” I repeated. “And if any of you actually bothered to look closely instead of worshipping her every word, you would see it.”

Annie’s jaw tightened.

I kept going.

“She takes Amber to blend in,” I said. “To relate. To make you believe she is one of you. The drug is not limited to infected use. Anyone can take it. She just uses it to keep up the act.”

A man stepped forward slightly, his eyes locked on her now.

“I would not be surprised if every time she stands in a room full of you, she is disgusted,” I added. “I know I would be.”

The man let out a quiet laugh.

It was not amused.

It was hollow.

“So…all this time,” he said slowly, “you have been lying to us? To me?”

“Jacob, no,” Annie said quickly. “Do not let him put ideas in your head.”

“These people trusted you,” he said, louder now.

His eyes glowed brighter.

“I trusted you.”

Annie shook her head, her composure slipping piece by piece.

“That is not what this is,” she said. “You do not understand what he is trying to do.”

Jacob raised his gun.

And no one stopped him.

That was the part that mattered.

No one moved to protect her. No one raised a weapon in her defense. They just watched.

Waiting.

“I remember when I first took Amber,” Jacob said, his voice shaking slightly. “I thought it fixed everything. I thought I could finally think straight again. I thought I could be normal.”

He swallowed.

“But that voice never goes away,” he continued. “The one that tells you to do things you would never have even thought about before. The one that tells you to go fuck a dead body— or…or to hurt people. To tear into them. To take whatever you want.”

The room stayed quiet.

“It doesn’t leave,” he said. “It just gets quieter.”

He took a step closer to her.

“You have never had to deal with that, have you?”

Annie opened her mouth.

“After all,” he said, cutting her off, “you aren’t even infected.”

The words landed harder coming from him.

Annie’s breathing shifted.

The tension in the room thickened.

No one spoke.

No one moved.

Before Jacob spoke again— someone else did.

“Then I guess you don’t really need that stash you’ve been hiding.”

Annie flinched.

That was the moment everything broke.

Another voice spoke up.

“Wait…stash?”

“What stash?”

“What is he talking about?”

The questions came quickly now, overlapping, building into something louder.

I watched her face as it fell apart.

Not all at once.

But enough.

That control she had over the room started slipping through her fingers.

I did not need to say anything.

I could have just sat there and let it happen.

But I was not done.

“You people are seriously idiots,” I said.

A gun snapped toward me.

I smiled anyway.

“She is controlling you,” I continued. “That stash is not for survival. It’s for control. She gives you just enough to keep you stable. Just enough to keep you useful.”

The room shifted again.

“If she gave you everything, you wouldn’t need her anymore,” I said. “You wouldn’t listen. You wouldn’t follow.”

“That is a lie!” Annie shouted.

But it did not sound strong.

It sounded desperate.

“If you think she cares about you, you are wrong,” I said. “You’re all tools to her. Nothing more. She built this entire thing on your backs.”

The voices started again.

Louder this time.

Angrier.

Some of them were not even listening anymore. I could see it in their eyes. That edge was coming back. That hunger that Amber kept buried was starting to push through.

They just needed a reason.

Any reason.

And I had given them one.

Annie looked around the room, trying to regain control, but it was already slipping too fast.

“You are all being manipulated,” she said. “He is trying to turn you against each other.”

No one answered her.

Someone laughed.

Another person stepped toward the direction of where the stash might be.

That was it.

The shift was complete.

Then everything snapped.

A gun went off.

I did not even see who fired first.

The sound ripped through the room, followed by shouting, then more gunfire. People started moving all at once, pushing, grabbing, turning on each other like something had finally broken loose.

My chair tipped over as someone slammed into me.

I hit the ground hard, the impact knocking the air out of my lungs.

Pain shot through my shoulder as I rolled onto my side, trying to get my bearings while chaos exploded around me.

Gunshots cracked. Bodies collided. Someone screamed.

I twisted my wrists, pulling against the restraints, feeling the plastic bite into my skin as I tried to force it loose.

A body hit the ground next to me.

Another stumbled over me, nearly stepping on my arm.

I kept pulling.

Kept twisting.

The noise was deafening now.

And somewhere in all of it—

I laughed under my breath.

Because her empire was not falling apart slowly.

It was tearing itself to pieces.

And I was right in the middle of it.

—

Lila’s eyes snapped open, her pupils blowing wide as a flash of amber surged through her irises and disappeared just as quickly.

She jerked forward, coughing hard as she spat out the cotton Isabella had been pressing near her mouth. It hit the floor, soaked through with the thick amber substance.

For a second, no one moved.

Aubrey froze where she was. Isabella’s hand hovered in the air, still half-extended. Carl and Adira both turned at the same time, their attention pulled away from the wounded they had been trying to stabilize.

Nothing else had worked.

Not the CPR. Not the pressure on the wound. Not the frantic attempts to stop the bleeding.

But Amber had.

Lila dragged the back of her arm across her mouth, wiping at her tongue like she could still taste it. Her breathing came fast, sharp, uneven.

Then her eyes widened.

She scrambled to her feet.

There was no hesitation in the movement. No visible pain. No stiffness from the injury that had nearly killed her minutes ago. She moved like her body had already decided it did not matter.

Her head snapped from one side of the room to the other.

“Adrian???” she called out.

Her voice cracked.

Everyone in the room went still.

“Adrian!” she shouted again, louder this time, her panic breaking through clean.

Aubrey shifted slightly, one hand still pressed tight against her side. Blood had soaked through the fabric, but she barely seemed to notice anymore.

“He’s not here,” Aubrey said.

Lila turned to her immediately.

“Where is he?” she demanded. “Did those freaks take him?”

Aubrey closed her eyes.

Her grip on her side tightened as her face tensed.

For a moment, she said nothing.

That silence said enough.

Lila’s expression changed.

Not slowly.

Not subtly.

It dropped into something harder.

“…and you people are still on your asses…?” she muttered harshly.

Her voice was low, sharp, cutting through the room.

Isabella straightened slightly, her jaw tightening.

“Hey,” she said, her tone defensive, “for the record, we spent the past hour trying to bring you back.”

Lila did not look at her.

“She did the most to keep you breathing,” Isabella added, nodding toward Aubrey.

There was a brief pause.

“Had it not been for her, I would have left you there,” Isabella finished.

That got Lila’s attention.

She looked at Aubrey.

Her gaze was flat. Empty. Assessing.

There was no gratitude in it.

No acknowledgment.

Just a moment of silence.

Then she turned away.

She moved quickly, grabbing a bag from the floor, unzipping it halfway before stuffing supplies into it without checking what they were. A Glock followed, then whatever medical items she could reach.

She did not hesitate.

She did not ask.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Aubrey said, her voice sharper now. “Put those down.”

Lila ignored her.

“We need that for the others,” Aubrey added.

Still nothing.

Lila slung the bag over her shoulder, checking the weight once before adjusting it.

Her movements were focused.

Deliberate.

Like everything else in the room had already stopped mattering.

Her eyes darkened slightly as she stared toward the exit.

Adrian.

Out there.

Alone.

The thought settled in her chest and twisted.

Images came fast and unwanted. Him tied down. Him bleeding. Him surrounded by people who would not hesitate to tear him apart piece by piece.

Her jaw tightened.

Her fists clenched at her sides.

It did not matter that her body was not fully healed. It did not matter that she had just been dragged back from the edge of death.

None of it mattered.

“I’m going to get him,” she said.

Her voice was steady now.

Certain.

She did not wait for a response.

She stepped forward and pushed past them, heading straight for the exit without looking back.

Behind her, the room stayed quiet.

Because everyone there understood one thing.

Nothing they said was going to stop her.

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