I didn't sleep.
Couldn't.
Not after watching Killian bruised and bloodied, whispering into a camera like it might be the last time anyone heard him speak.
Not after Marrin told me, to my face, that I'd never been alone.
That I'd been studied, logged, cataloged — like a lab rat in a cage too big to see the walls.
The pieces weren't falling into place anymore.
They were shattering.
By morning, my dorm room felt like a crime scene.
The air was too still. The lights too bright. My skin too loud for my body.
I deleted everything off my laptop.
Moved the flash drive to a locked box. Taped it under the radiator.
Then I walked straight to the one place no one would expect me to go:
Professor Halvers's office.
He opened the door like he already knew I'd show.
Said nothing.
Just stepped aside and gestured for me to sit.
I didn't.
"You told me once that you believed in truth," I said. "So now I need you to help me destroy the system that killed my sister."
Halvers studied me with those dry, surgical eyes — the ones that missed nothing.
"PRAXIS," he said flatly.
"No," I corrected. "Worse. Alecta."
He closed the door.
"Show me."
By the time I left his office, we had a plan.
We wouldn't just leak files.
We'd stage a blackout.
Take down every system that let Alecta operate through Blackmere — the surveillance, the internal grading algorithm, the scheduling software that tracked student behavior.
And once we had full access…
We'd dump everything into the hands of someone Alecta couldn't touch:
The press.
That night, I met Jules behind the campus chapel.
She was shaking again.
"Are you sure about this?" she asked. "This goes beyond PRAXIS. They'll ruin your life."
I looked her in the eyes.
"They already tried."
She nodded and handed me a new drive.
"This has the override codes for the library mainframe. It's the control center for the student data systems."
"Where'd you get it?"
Her voice was tight.
"Camille had backups. I took them before she disappeared."
I stared.
"Jules, you could be killed for this."
"So could you," she said.
And then she walked away.
The library mainframe was in the sublevel — below the archives, through two locked doors, behind a restricted-access terminal no one talked about.
I dressed in black.
Gloves. Mask. Hat pulled low.
And at exactly 2:41 a.m., I slipped inside with a student ID that hadn't been deactivated yet.
Thank you, Professor Halvers.
The mainframe hummed with quiet power.
I plugged in the override drive.
Entered the sequence Jules gave me.
Waited.
Then—
Click.
The system opened.
Rows of data unfurled.
Folders labeled "PRAXIS," "Observer Notes," "Subject Patterns," "Emotional Testing – Stage 4," and finally:
"Alecta Oversight Protocol."
I clicked it.
A window popped open.
WARNING: This file is protected under Blackmere Executive Order 32. Unauthorized access will be logged and punished.
I clicked continue.
Inside: pages and pages of documentation.
Donor lists
Experiment schedules
Patient outcomes
Deaths.
Lila's name.
Listed as: "Subject 17 – Outcome: Non-compliant. Deceased."
My hand hovered over the keyboard.
Then I selected All Files.
And hit Upload to Secure Mirror Drive.
Three minutes later, it was done.
Everything they'd ever tried to bury now lived in the cloud — mirrored, encrypted, and ready for exposure.
I didn't wait.
I walked back up the stairs, through the quiet library halls, and stepped into the night.
And that's when I saw it.
A car.
Sitting across the street. Engine running. Lights off.
Watching.
I didn't stop walking.
Didn't speed up.
I just made sure I reached the greenhouse — and texted Halvers one word:
Done.
The next morning, chaos bloomed.
Campus servers crashed.
Students couldn't log in.
Professors lost access to grading portals.
The IT department locked down the entire academic network.
And the Chronicle, Blackmere's biggest independent paper, published a feature story titled:
THE SILENT SCIENCE OF CONTROL: What Blackmere Didn't Want You to See
Front and center?
My name.
Lila's photo.
Killian's file.
Camille's original RA notes.
I sat on the front steps of the dorm as the story went live.
Jules brought me coffee.
Halvers sent one word: "Good."
But I still hadn't heard from Killian.
That night, someone left a package outside my door.
Inside?
A phone.
Old. Prepaid. Burner-style.
It rang before I could turn it over.
I answered.
His voice was raspy.
Weak.
But real.
"You really did it."
My heart stopped.
"Killian?"
He laughed — softly, painfully.
"Told you not to stop."
"Where are you?"
"I don't know. Somewhere cold. But they let me call. Just once."
"Why?"
"Because they're not going to run anymore."
My skin chilled.
"What does that mean?"
"It means they're coming."
The line went dead.
I sat there holding the phone like it might come back to life.
But it didn't.
And outside my window, a black car rolled past.
Slow.
Watching.
Again.
They weren't hiding anymore.
Because I had become the one they feared.
[Creator's Note – we're IN the endgame now 😭🔥]
Zara didn't just fight back — she burned the system to the ground.
The files are OUT. The press is on it. The servers are collapsing. And still — THEY'RE COMING.
Killian is alive (barely). Jules is ride-or-die. Halvers is officially the MVP.
And Zara? She's not running. Not hiding.
She's making them afraid.
But what happens when Alecta fights back?
Brace for Chapter 14 — because the first strike is coming. And someone's not walking away from it.
xoxo
–Smith_10