The women's circle tightened, their grotesque silhouettes flickering in the dying light. Their bare feet made no sound on the forest floor, but their laughter carved scars into the air. One woman raised her hand lazily, as if casually swatting a fly. "Guess we'll kill you both."
Another tilted her head, her voice silky with cruelty. "Maybe this time, we burn them."
Lina stood. Calm. Unflinching. Wiping the corner of her bloodstained mouth with the back of her hand, she said, "There's no need."
A woman laughed. "Not scared, princess?"
Annelise rose beside her, limbs shaking but eyes wide and alert. Lina extended a hand. Annelise took it. The warmth was a shock....real, grounding.
"Not really," Lina replied, her voice emotionless, almost hollow. "Why should I be?"
A bark echoed. Then another. Four dogs, low and wide, prowled in from the trees, teeth bared, eyes burning like coals.
"Oh, I can't wait to hear you scream," one woman hissed.
Lina and Annelise backed slowly, step by step toward the cliff's edge. Gravel crumbled beneath their feet.
"Now," Lina whispered. "I want to say... ....fuck you."
The women charged.
Lina grabbed Annelise's wrist. Together, they leapt.
Matteo's Room :-
Elaine blinked. Her eyes fluttered open to sunlight and the warmth of fabric pressing against her skin. She gasped. A hard arm wrapped around her waist.
Her face flamed.
She tried to move but stumbled. She glanced down.....Matteo, bare-chested, lay asleep, breath shallow, his skin damp from the feverish night.
Her eyes widened in horror. Her student.
But then it returned in fragments: the fever, the water bowl, the wet towel..... Matteo holding her trembling hands.
He stirred.
"You're awake," he mumbled groggily.
"You.....why are we.....this is so improper.....I—"
"You were freezing to death," he snapped. "Should I have let you die out of formality?"
Elaine's cheeks burned, but she looked away. "Still.....…"
Matteo rubbed his eyes. "She ruined my life. Now I'm nursing her like a boyfriend. What irony."
Elaine said nothing, but her shoulders sank.
Facility – Simulation Chamber
The chamber was still, quiet as death.
Wires retracted from Lina's temples. Electrodes peeled from her arms and thighs. A soft click sounded as the headgear lifted, and the belt restraints undid with a hiss.
Her eyes opened.
White.
Everywhere. The walls, the ceiling, the floor....the air smelled sterile, fake.
She tried to move. Couldn't. Her limbs trembled.
"Back in the land of the living."
The voice was low. Cold.
Ladina stood beside her, dressed in sterile white, a scowl painted across her porcelain face.
"Clever bitch," Ladina muttered.
Lina's eyes rolled toward her, slow and empty.
Ladina clicked her tongue. "You shouldn't be awake yet. That simulation should've fried your spirit for another twelve hours. But here you are."
Lina didn't respond.
Ladina leaned closer. "So what broke it? The cliff? The kiss? Or that fake blood fantasy of yours?"
Lina didn't blink.
"You figured it out, didn't you?" Ladina hissed. "You think you're free now?"
She slammed her hand on the bedside rail. "I built that world. Every single rule. Every whisper in your mind. And you still..... corrupted it."
Lina finally spoke. Her voice was dry. "You didn't build a world. You built a mirror. All I did was stop looking at it."
Ladina's hand curled into a fist. "You ungrateful little..."
She paused.
The monitors were still flickering. One heartbeat. Rapid.
The other beds.....Annelise, Seraina, and Noemie.....still unconscious, drifting inside their own nightmare.
"You broke the system, but not the game."
Ladina moved to a screen, tapping furiously.
"Don't think this is over. You'll go back in. And next time...next time I'll make sure you will see hell."
Lina's eyes didn't flinch.
"I'll carve your sanity out inch by inch," Ladina whispered, almost to herself now. "You'll beg for simulation. You'll scream for it."
Lina gave the faintest smile.
"You're angry," she whispered.
Ladina froze.
"Yes. Good." Lina closed her eyes again. "That means I won."