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The cameras were silent, but it felt as if the entire world was holding its breath. Darkness cloaked the newly uncovered chamber, and on one wall, scrawled in fresh blood, were just four chilling words:
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"The price is memory."
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Jayden stepped in cautiously. The floor was strangely soft like it had been woven from human skin. Each step he took felt heavier, like some invisible force was trying to drag him backward… back into the shadows of memories he had spent years burying.
Rhea followed closely, while Ezra scanned the room, searching for signs of an internal communication grid within the security cameras.
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Suddenly, the rear door slammed shut with a thunderous bang. A blinding spotlight snapped on from above illuminating a man standing against the far wall.
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He was old. His face worn, hollowed by time. But his eyes… they burned like emergency flares, fierce and unblinking.
He didn’t speak. Instead, he held a torn notebook in one hand, and on the first page scrawled in blood was a name.
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Jayden.
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Jayden froze. “Who the hell are you?”
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The old man smiled faintly. “You know me. You just chose to forget.”
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Ezra leaned in, whispering to Jayden, “He might be one of the architects… or someone from your past. We need to be careful.”
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Then without warning, a trap door in the ceiling opened and three bodies fell.
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Two hit the ground hard. One was already dead before impact. Another was barely breathing, intestines exposed from a cruel slash to the abdomen.
But the third… the third one stirred, whispering something in Latin through blood-stained lips.
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"Et memini… et sum noxa."
"I remember… and I am guilty."
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The walls came alive, bleeding new words:
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"Reveal the truth. Or relive the pain."
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Jayden stood paralyzed.
To his left, a wall began projecting images fragments of his past. He saw himself with the woman he once loved… arguing on a rainy night. A moment later, a flash of gunfire. A scream. Blood.
But in the corner of the footage, obscured in shadow there was a third figure. Unmoving. Watching.
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The face was blurred, unrecognizable… but somehow, hauntingly familiar.
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“That night…” Jayden whispered, his voice trembling. “It wasn’t just the two of us. Someone else was there. Someone was pulling the strings.”
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Then came the voice low, calm, and utterly terrifying.
The Host.
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“Congratulations, detective. You’ve opened the first door. But answers always demand sacrifice… Are you ready to lose something else?”
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Darkness consumed the room.
The lights cut out. Total black.
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But just before the darkness swallowed them whole, Ezra caught a glimpse one panel in the wall had opened.
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Inside was a person.
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Bound. Gagged. Weeping tears of blood.
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Their eyes locked with Jayden’s…
His knees buckled
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.
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“That’s… that’s my brother.”
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🌑 To Be Continued...
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