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The door to the Chamber of Blades slammed shut behind Jayden, and silence wrapped around him like a steel coffin. The air was thick not just with dust, but with the weight of truths too long buried. A single red light dripped from the ceiling, casting its glow onto the center of the room where a chair waited chained down like a prisoner and above it, a blade. Ancient. Heavy. Caked with dried blood.
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Jayden walked slowly, every step a wound reopening. Each movement summoned not memories, but emotions volatile, raw, accusing.
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His lost lover.
His betrayed brother.
The people he once sent to prison with evidence he knew was flawed.
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Then came the voice inside him the part that no longer lied:
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"You're not just the player, Jayden. You built the game."
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The lights flickered. A speaker above wheezed like it was choking on a dying breath.
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“To proceed, a price must be paid. Truth demands blood. Your blood.”
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The suspended blade creaked and began to lower slowly, deliberately its metal crying out with the sound of rust grinding on rust.
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Then suddenly, a panel above creaked open.
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“Jayden, don’t!”
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It was Rhea. She had returned shaken, after discovering a video of Jayden pressing a gun to the head of a high-profile attorney. A recording that shouldn’t exist. It shattered what little trust she had left.
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She didn’t know who he was anymore.
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Jayden looked up at her. His eyes were hollowed out from too many old tears.
"Rhea… leave. This place doesn’t give redemption. Only punishment."
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The blade dropped another inch.
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A hidden panel on the wall slid open, revealing a small screen. On it, a grainy video from years ago: Jayden in a room just like this, strapped down. Screaming. But in this version, he wasn’t a prisoner.
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He had designed the room.
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"Memory Protocol 13: Sacrifice pain to unlock guilt," he read aloud.
His own voice. His own handwriting. His signature beneath it.
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The wall slid back. From inside, a gauntlet was presented old, metallic, with five sharpened needles attached. It was simple:
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Pierce five veins. Each one would unlock a memory long buried.
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Jayden sat down. His hands trembled as he reached for the device.
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Rhea was crying softly now. “You don’t have to do this!”
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Jayden smiled, but the smile was shattered glass.
"I already did. Years ago."
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The First Needle:
Valerie crying.
Begging him not to turn her name over to The Eye.
He did it anyway.
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The Second Needle:
Jayden speaking at a Silence Protocol meeting.
Pushing the idea: “Cleansing through trauma.”
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The Third Needle:
Ezra’s classified file deleted.
Jayden had hidden the truth about Ezra’s kidnapped daughter.
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The Fourth Needle:
Jayden in a surveillance room. Watching Elliot being dragged away.
He turned his back.
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The Fifth…
His hand stalled.
It wasn’t physical pain anymore.
It was soul-deep.
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“STOP!” Rhea screamed. “This isn’t who you are anymore!”
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Jayden looked at her.
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"But it’s who I was. And that version never left."
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He pushed the fifth needle in.
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The room exploded into darkness.
No lights. No sound. No past. No future.
Only memory.
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In that blackness, something inside Jayden opened not just his mind, but his core. A part of him locked behind doors for years.
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A face returned.
A memory.
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A child.
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He had killed… a child.
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Not in battle. Not in defense.
By order. From The Host.
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Jayden screamed. A scream of the condemned of a man who realized he became a murderer before he became a detective.
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Then the light snapped back on. Blinding. Merciless.
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A new video appeared.
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The Host fully visible for the first time. Wearing a battered military coat and a wooden mask with one eye scratched out.
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His voice echoed across the steel walls:
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“You’ve seen it now. And you will never unsee it.”
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The door opened. Jayden didn’t move. His body remained in the chair, his mind shattered into pieces like broken glass.
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Rhea ran to him. She held him close.
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“Jayden, you’re still here.”
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He looked at her with barely any breath left.
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“But for how long?”
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Just then, a siren screamed.
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And the voice returned:
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“Stage Two Complete. Stage Three: Divide and Bury.”
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A wall behind them split open. A new video began playing.
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It showed everyone inside the facility — Jayden, Ezra, Lena, Rhea, even Elliot — from years ago.
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Laughing. Working together.
As friends.
As allies.
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Not one of them remembered.
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🩸 To Be Continued...
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