Page 48 of Echoes From the Void

“In English!” I yell back, dragging Finn around a corner I know too well. Five years of failed escape attempts taught me every turn of this maze.

“Everything’s shutting down in a very specific order,” Dorian translates, frost trailing behind him. “Almost like?—”

“—it’s herding us,” Finn finishes, his light pulsing with growing dread that mirrors my own.

Red emergency lights strobe across Leo’s face as he vaults over a descending barrier. “Anyone else feel like a rat in a maze?” His attempt at humor falls flat as we all realize that’s exactly what this place was designed for—testing subjects, measuring responses, documenting failures.

“Less talking, more running,” Matteo growls, bringing up our rear guard. The shadows around him writhe with barely contained violence. Through our bond, I feel his growing rage—at this place, at what was done to me here, at every person who looked the other way.

We burst through double doors into what used to be where Valerie took us when we got too weak. My steps falter as memories assault me—needles in my arms, light being forcedinto my veins, Valerie’s voice taking notes on my screams. It’s the same room where he helped me escape.

The only one to help me live. The doctor that saved my life and died for it. Bile creeps up my throat as I struggle to forget him and everything that happened from the first moment he whispered for me to live.

Screens flicker to life on every wall, each showing the same loading screen: PROJECT GEMINI REACTIVATION SEQUENCE INITIATED.

“Oh, that’s not ominous at all,” I mutter as the doors seal behind us. The same doors that used to lock me in for procedures.

“Dorian?” Bishop’s already at the main terminal, Guardian magic crackling around his hands.

“Working on it.” Frost spreads across the controls as Dorian attempts to halt the sequence. “But this isn’t just old data. The system’s running new protocols. Recently installed ones.”

Finn’s light pulses in response to my shadows, our twin bond carrying shared understanding. “She knew we’d come.”

“Course she did.” I start pacing, an old habit from days spent trapped in rooms like this. Finn mirrors me automatically, our powers reaching for each other like they always do under stress. “She’s probably got cameras on us right now, laughing her ass off?—”

“Frankie.” Leo’s voice carries an unusual edge that makes me stop cold. He’s staring at one of the screens. “I don’t think she’s laughing.”

The screen shows security footage from three days ago. Valerie staggers into view, and for a moment I don’t recognize her. The perfectly put-together woman who tormented my childhood is gone. Blood stains her pristine lab coat. Dark veins spider across her face like corrupt shadows trying to escape.

“The experiment,” she gasps to the camera, desperation replacing her usual controlled demeanor. “It’s working too well. The essence... it’s spreading faster than... Project Gemini must... the twins are the only... if anyone finds this...”

She collapses. The footage loops, showing her fall again and again.

“Well,” Dorian says into the silence, his academic tone brittle. “That’s concerning.”

Matteo moves closer to me, radiating protective fury. “Define essence.” But I can tell from his tone that he already knows.

“Better question,” Bishop interrupts, pointing to another screen. His Guardian marks pulse with recognition. “Define that.”

The video feed shows another containment chamber, deeper in the facility. One I remember. One I was threatened with whenever I misbehaved.

“The bad place,” Valerie used to call it. “Where difficult girls went to be corrected.” Inside, something dark writhes against reinforced glass. As we watch, spider-web cracks spread from points of impact.

A mechanical voice I remember too well fills the room: “Containment failure imminent. Project Gemini failsafe protocols activated.”

“Frankie?” Leo’s hand finds mine, warm against my cold skin. “Remember how you said this place couldn’t get creepier?”

“Yeah,” I say, watching the cracks spread. Remembering other children who disappeared into that chamber. “I take it back.”

The thing in the containment chamber pulses like a heart made of shadows—if hearts were the size of cars and had too many chambers. If hearts screamed in voices that used to be human.

“That’s not normal shadow essence,” Finn says, pressing closer to my side. Through our twin bond, I feel his horror matching mine. “It’s... wrong. Like what they tried to put in me, but...”

“Corrupted,” Bishop confirms from the terminal, his voice tight. “These readings are off the charts. Dorian?”

“Fascinating.” Dorian’s eyes gleam with academic interest while frost spreads beneath his hands. But I catch how his temporal energy reaches for our bonds, seeking connection. “It’s like someone tried to distill pure shadow energy but lost control of the refinement process. The molecular structure is?—”

“Nerd later,” Leo interrupts, shadows gathering around his usually sunny presence. “Survive now.”

---