Chapter 80: Not dead yet

The room pulsed softly— white light humming overhead, too clean, too quiet.

Lila never lifted her head when Vivian entered.

Her body already knew.

Chains rattled violently as Lila thrashed against them, wrists raw, ankles trembling. Her chest heaved in shallow, panicked bursts as she fought for air that never seemed to reach her lungs.

The high was fading now—ecstasy burning out of her bloodstream—leaving paranoia to bloom in its place, sharp and clawing and alive.

To Vivian, it was all just noise.

Unnecessary movement.

Inefficient panic.

It made her smile.

She stopped a few steps away, heels clicking once against the floor before she stilled.

“You know,” Vivian said lightly, almost conversational, “I was a little frightened when you pulled that stunt back at the compound.”

Lila’s chains shrieked as she lurched forward, muscles straining past reason.

Vivian tilted her head, watching with detached fascination.

“Threatening to kill the person you love just to get close to him?” she continued. “That’s… pretty smart.”

Silence.

“And pretty in character for a freak like you.”

Something broke.

A guttural scream tore out of Lila’s throat—feral, unfiltered—as she surged violently against the restraints, teeth bared, eyes wild with murder. For a split second, it looked like she might actually tear free.

Vivian stumbled back instinctively, nearly losing her footing.

Fear flickered across her face.

Real fear.

Behind the glass, Hailey didn’t move.

She watched the outburst with cold, unblinking eyes.

Vivian steadied herself, heart pounding harder than she liked. She swallowed, then forced a smile back onto her face.

“Holy shit…” she muttered under her breath.

“You are,” she said slowly, carefully now, “just about the scariest piece of work I’ve ever seen, aren’t you?”

Lila kept screaming—spitting words, sounds, rage—until the strength bled out of her limbs.

The screams fractured.

Collapsed into sobs.

Her body sagged against the chains, shoulders shaking violently as tears streamed down her face.

“Monsters,” she choked out. “You’re all monsters… I’ll kill you—I’ll kill every one of you if you hurt him—”

Vivian’s smile vanished.

“What did you just call me?”

Her voice dropped to something cold.

Lila looked up.

“I’m not the monster here,” Vivian said. “You are.”

Lila’s eyes widened, breath hitching.

Vivian stepped closer— but not too close. Not again.

“But…you’re the special kind.”

“A parasite,” Vivian continued calmly. “A leech. You drain. You consume. You wrap yourself around someone until they forget where they end and you begin.”

She gestured lazily.

“But unfortunately for you? Your host is outgrowing you.”

Lila froze.

Vivian leaned in just enough for the words to sink deep.

“We’re restructuring your boyfriend’s mind,” she said. “Piece by piece. With the neural lattice in place, he’s going to see things clearly for the first time.”

A pause.

“He’s going to realize he doesn’t need you.”

Lila’s fingers curled slowly into fists.

“And when that happens,” Vivian added softly, “he’s going to abandon you.”

The words landed like a gunshot.

Hailey watched Lila’s face fracture— shock splintering into despair, despair into something sharp and dangerous.

Then—

Lila smiled.

It was small at first. She was trembling, her face wet with tears.

“That’s not true,” she whispered shakily.

Her smile widened, manic, etched with desperation.

“Adrian loves me,” she said, her voice rising. “He loves me. He would never do that. He’d never abandon me—”

Her voice snapped into a scream.

“HE SAID HE WOULDN’T! THAT’S WHAT HE SAID!”

Silence swallowed the room.

Vivian stared at her.

Then she frowned.

“Unfortunately,” she said flatly, “the lattice leaves no room for silly concepts like love. Or empathy.”

She straightened.

“The Adrian you knew?” Vivian finished. “He’s going to be gone very soon.”

The light hummed.

The chains creaked softly as Lila trembled—smiling through tears, eyes burning with something far worse than fear.

Just then—

Shouts bloomed from somewhere outside the room.

Close enough.

Distant voices collided with one another, sharp and frantic, bleeding through the concrete walls like cracks spreading through glass. A harsh red glow spilled across the room as alarms detonated into life—rotating lights washing everything in violent pulses.

Vivian paused mid-step.

Her head tilted slightly upward, irritation flickering across her face as the sirens wailed louder.

“…You have got to be kidding me.”

The door slammed open.

A man stumbled in, breathless, panic written all over him.

“What the fuck could possibly be going on now?” Vivian snapped, spinning toward him.

He swallowed hard, afraid of her reaction.

“—Uh—one of your captives is… making a break for it.”

Vivian stared at him.

Flat. Unimpressed.

“…Seriously?” she said slowly. “That’s what you people are making a big deal out of?”

She waved a dismissive hand.

“Fix the problem.”

The man didn’t move.

Didn’t leave.

He shifted on his feet, hands trembling.

“Ma’am—there’s more. We’ve got movement. Multiple signatures. Fast. They’re headed straight for this building.”

Vivian’s irritation sharpened.

“Who?” she asked.

The man hesitated.

“…Likely some of Adrian’s people.”

The room changed.

Vivian froze.

For half a second, the alarms seemed to dull—like the world itself had taken a cautious breath.

Across the room, Lila lifted her head.

And for the first time—

She laughed.

It wasn’t wide. Or loud.

It was genuine, though broken.

Vivian noticed.

Her eyes flicked to Lila once—just once—catching that expression before snapping back to the man.

“Tell the scientists to speed up the procedures with Adrian. I want that lattice in his brain in the next hour.” Vivian said coldly.

The man blinked.

“—What, ma’am?”

Vivian’s gaze sharpened into something dangerous.

“Are you deaf?”

“T— they wouldn’t listen to me. Those procedures take at least twenty-four hours to really—”

He didn’t finish.

Vivian shoved him aside with sudden force, sending him crashing into the far wall. He hit hard, collapsing in a heap as the alarms continued to scream.

Her eyes glinted red beneath the lights.

“I have to do everything around here, don’t I?” she muttered.

Then she turned on her heel and stormed out, slamming through the doorway with purpose.

Hailey was already moving, falling into step beside her without a word.

Vivian didn’t slow.

“You,” she said sharply. “Watch her. Closely.”

She glanced back once—toward Lila, still smiling through the chains.

“Do not let anything happen while I’m gone.”

Hailey nodded slowly.

Her expression was cold.

Controlled.

But the blood on her nose never came.

Vivian studied her for a beat longer than necessary.

Then she turned away—and disappeared down the corridor, swallowed by red light and sirens.

Behind her, Lila’s smile lingered.

Waiting.

It felt like a permanent brain freeze.

Not sharp—worse. Dull. Endless. Like my skull had been packed with ice and left to rot there. Whatever they injected into me did its job well enough: my body was numb, distant, obedient. But the discomfort never left. It just sat beneath everything, humming quietly, reminding me I was still here.

Still trapped.

Smooth jazz played through the headphones—something soft, almost polite. Saxophone drifting lazily, drums brushing instead of striking. It didn’t belong here. That made it worse.

When my eyes finally opened, the world slid back into focus in pieces.

Lights first. It was too bright for comfort. Too white.

Then shapes.

No one bothered to tell me that one of my corneas had veins spiderwebbing through it in a faint, unnatural blue.

No one reacted. No gasps. No alarms. Just another line on a chart, I guess.

Vivian was screaming.

I couldn’t hear her—music drowned everything—but I didn’t need sound to understand the scene. Her mouth was twisted, words sharp and fast, hands flying as she shoved equipment off tables. Metal clattered. A tray hit the floor.

She pointed toward the door.

Hard.

Something was happening outside.

I could feel it—not physically, but in the air. The room was wrong. Tight. Charged. The doctors noticed it too. Their faces had gone pale, eyes darting, hands shaking as they exchanged frantic glances.

Fear.

Real fear.

Vivian said something final—short, vicious—then stormed out.

A few of the doctors followed.

Not all of them.

Some stayed behind.

Others reached for rifles.

That part almost made me laugh.

My gaze drifted left. Slow. Heavy. Like my eyes were dragging through syrup.

A doctor stood there, hands trembling as he shut down one of the machines hooked into me. The soft whir died. A line on a monitor flatlined— not me, just whatever they’d been pumping into my head.

He looked at me.

Really looked.

For half a second, I thought he might say something.

He didn’t.

He just turned and hurried out of the room.

The door slid shut behind him.

Alone again.

The jazz kept playing.

Despite the mouth guard—despite the straps, the wires, the ache blooming behind my eyes—I smiled.

Just a little.

Because whatever was happening out there?

They hadn’t planned for it.

And for the first time since they’d strapped me down, one thought cut clean through the numbness:

They were in deep shit, weren’t they?

Oh, yeah. I just knew they were.

And I was still very much awake.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep