“Bennett?” I called, voice trembling, the words swallowed by the darkness.
The glass‑encased bed loomed ahead, the billionaire’s pale face turned toward me, eyes flickering with a strange light.
He smiled, thin and calculated. “You finally see what I’ve been protecting.”
“What are you talking about?” I demanded, clutching the blood‑stained locket I’d found earlier.
He chuckled, a low vibration that seemed to reverberate through the walls.
“Years ago, a fire consumed this house and a family. The ashes hid my experiment.”
“Experiment?” I swallowed, the dread coiling tighter.
He lifted a file, pages fluttering like wounded birds. “Consciousness transfer. I needed a host, a vessel. The fire erased the witnesses.”
“You killed them?” My throat dried.
“Those who tried to leave … they saw the walls move, heard the whispers. They vanished because I could not let the secret leak.”
He leaned forward, his fingers brushing the edge of the glass. “Your children are ill, Mara. Their blood is compatible. Their lives… will give me a new body.”
I stared at the trembling veins on my forearm, the thought of my son’s fevered breath and Lily’s giggle crushed the breath from my lungs.
“You monster,” I spat, the word breaking like glass.
His eyes hardened. “Help me, and they live. Refuse, and they die with me.”
Feigning Cooperation and the Final Twist
I swallowed, feeling the weight of his words settle like lead. “All right,” I whispered, “I’ll do what you need.”
Inside the medical wing, I slipped my hand into the pocket of my coat, feeling the smooth case of the hidden phone I’d unearthed in the tunnel.
“Take a blood sample now,” Bennett ordered, his voice echoing off the sterile tiles.
I nodded, reaching for the syringe, but in the brief pause I typed a quick message: *Police, please. I’m at the Bennett estate. Evidence attached.*
The screen flickered, the signal weak, but the words were out.
Just as I pressed send, the heavy door slammed shut, sealing me inside the glass room.
“You think you can betray me?” Bennett’s voice rose, metallic, as the lights sputtered and died.
Alarms shrieked through the corridors, a deafening roar that signaled an intruder.
Through the fog of flashing red, a figure burst into the room—Sofia, her pistol raised, eyes wild.
“Get away from him!” she shouted, but her voice cracked, her body convulsing.
She collapsed, the gun clattering to the floor, her eyes glassy, a thin smile spreading like a mask.
“You… you’re… controlled,” I whispered, horror blooming as I realized the truth.
Bennett stepped closer, his hand steady. “My experiment succeeded. The caregivers… the staff… all became extensions of my will. Their deaths were the price to perfect the transfer.”
He lifted a vial of my blood, the crimson liquid catching the dying light. “Now, my mind will live through your children.”
My breath hitched, the world narrowing to the sound of the alarm, Sofia’s lifeless form, and the cold certainty that I was the last piece in his twisted design.
