POV: Damian Vaughn
> There was always a beginning.
Even monsters are made — not born.
---
The dream came again.
Not like a memory.
Like a warning.
Rain. A dim hallway. Red velvet curtains and her voice — soft, small, saying:
> "You promised."
Damian jolted awake.
Sweat soaked through his shirt. His room was silent — too silent. Not even the usual low hum from his AI console.
He sat up.
A soft beep blinked in the corner of his screen.
"Unauthorized access detected: Velvet Room. 03:41AM."
Sharon.
He didn't have to guess.
She had found it.
---
His phone vibrated.
> UNKNOWN:
"It's time, Subject 07. No more games. You know what to do."
He stared at the screen.
Felt the air tighten.
Then deleted the message.
---
Professor Adesina's office always smelled of eucalyptus and cold logic.
Damian waited in the shadows as she poured herself tea — unmoved, calm, as if they hadn't just broken the final seal.
"She accessed Subject Zero's file," Adesina said at last, stirring once.
"I know."
"She wasn't supposed to get that far."
"She was always going to," Damian replied. "You built her to."
Adesina looked at him, sharp.
"I didn't build her."
"No?" He tilted his head. "Then what was Bellgrave for? Education?"
A faint smile touched her lips.
"You always were the sentimental one," she murmured. "Even when we pulled you from the wreckage."
---
The memory hit him hard — not a dream this time.
A room of blinking lights.
A body too small for the pain inside it.
Voices arguing over numbers, not names.
> "He's not stable."
"He's adapting faster than the others."
"Subject Zero has already chosen him."
Damian stepped back from the memory like it burned him.
"Sharon isn't ready," he said quietly.
Adesina sipped her tea. "No. But the choice isn't hers anymore."
---
Somewhere below them, Sharon was still in the Velvet Room.
She was reading. Processing.
Piecing together a history she was never meant to survive.
The original experiment — Subject Zero — had never been a person.
It had been an idea.
A psychic seed, designed to anchor itself inside the strongest of minds.
They'd planted it in twelve children over ten years.
Some had broken.
Some had vanished.
Only one had ever pushed back.
Only one had tried to destroy the system from inside — and failed.
Her name had been erased.
Her story rewritten.
But Sharon's presence had triggered the files.
Because she had always been the last key.
---
Damian opened his private file.
One no one else had clearance to see.
FILE: BIANCA NWACHUKWU
> Original Class: Subject 00
Outcome: Terminated
Reinstated: Unknown
Emotional tether: Damian Vaughn
Status: Merged
He stared at her photo. Her eyes — warm and unreadable — stared back.
He touched the screen.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I should have saved you."
---
Back in the Velvet Room, Sharon stood perfectly still.
She had made her decision.
No more running.
No more being watched.
She turned — and for the first time, she looked directly into the hidden camera in the ceiling.
"I'm not a subject," she said aloud. "I'm not a number."
"And if you're watching this…" she added softly, "I'm coming for you."
---
TO BE CONTINUED...
Ready for Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Collapse? This one will include Zainab's secret being exposed, Nate making a difficult decision, and Sharon facing Damian in a confrontation that shifts everything.