Chapter 55 - A House Divided by Blood
Darkness began to tunnel my vision. Nicholas’s thumbs crushed my trachea, cutting off oxygen, the world turning into a kaleidoscope of pulsing red and black spots.
Above us, the klaxons of the sub-aquatic facility suddenly shifted tone. The low hum of the warning sirens turned into a high-pitched, shrieking wail.
*WARNING: HYDRAULIC PRESSURE AT CRITICAL THRESHOLD. BULKHEAD C-4 FAILURE IMMINENT. EVACUATE LOWER DECKS.*
"Nicholas, let her go!" Miriam’s voice broke its cold composure for the first time, shrill and panicked. "You foolish boy! If you damage her, the genetic baseline will destabilize!"
Nicholas didn't care. He was completely gone, lost in the madness of a creature who knows he is marked for slaughter. "Let it flood! Let the whole goddamned lake come down on us! We all die together in the dark!"
A deafening *BANG* echoed through the chamber.
Nicholas’s body jerked. A spray of hot blood hit the right side of my face.
His grip on my throat slackened. He looked down at his chest in slow, bewildered disbelief. A ragged, smoking hole was torn straight through the center of his bespoke Italian jacket, right where his heart beat.
Behind him stood Julian.
Julian had picked up the discarded SIG Sauer from the floor. He was leaning against the edge of the console, his knees trembling, holding the weapon in both hands despite his pulverized shoulder, smoke curling from the barrel.
"You talk too much, brother," Julian rasped.
Nicholas Prime opened his mouth to speak, but only a thick gush of black blood spilled past his lips. His knees buckled, and his heavy frame collapsed forward, pinning my legs beneath him as he hit the deck, dead before his eyes stopped staring at the glowing ceiling.
I shoved his corpse off me, gasping for air, choking and coughing as oxygen rushed back into my burning lungs.
"Julian..." I gasped, scrambling to my feet.
"Clara! The console!" Julian shouted, gesturing with the gun toward Miriam.
Miriam had already bypassed the manual lock. Her hand was on the plunger of the pneumatic syringe, locked into the intracranial port. The amber liquid was already draining into the line, rushing through the clear plastic tube toward the back of Sarah’s head.
*"Yes..."* Arthur’s voice thundered through the speakers, louder now, distorted by feedback. *"Yes! The pathway is clearing! I can feel the motor cortices aligning! Miriam, seal the exterior hatch! Leave the dead where they fall!"*
Inside the sphere, Sarah’s back arched violently. Her mouth stretched wide in a silent shriek of absolute agony, bubbles erupting from the edges of her breathing mask. Her small fingers dug into her own palms until blood clouded the nutrient fluid around her hands.
"Stop!" I screamed, lunging at Miriam.
I didn't use a weapon. I used the weight of my entire body, slamming into my mother with all the fury, all the betrayal, all the hatred that had built up inside me since the moment Elena Sterling cut my hair on that reception dance floor.
Miriam crashed against the auxiliary control bank, the pneumatic syringe snapping off at the valve. A fine mist of amber chemical sprayed into the air, hissing against the hot server racks.
Miriam hit the floor, but she rolled instantly with the agility of someone half her age. From the pocket of her cashmere coat, she drew a small, ceramic scalp-blade—the kind used in neurosurgery to slice dura mater without leaving metallic debris.
She lunged at my face.
The blade slashed across my left cheek, opening a searing line of fire from my cheekbone to my jawline. Blood poured down my neck, hot and thick.
"You ungrateful little bitch!" Miriam hissed, her aristocratic mask completely peeling away to reveal the feral, psychopathic monster underneath. "I gave you life! I gave you Nicholas! I positioned you to become the mother of the new world, and you throw it away for a sick sentimentality!"
She slashed at me again.
I dodged backward, feeling the cold edge of the blade part the air an inch from my throat. My foot caught on Nicholas’s outstretched leg, and I stumbled, falling onto my back.
Miriam came at me like a striking viper, mounting my chest, the ceramic blade poised above my left eye.
May you like
"If the child is the vessel," Miriam whispered, her eyes wide and venomous, "then you are merely excess biomass. Arthur only needs your bloodline's memory. He doesn't need you."
She brought the blade down with all her weight.
