The city's pulse throbbed beneath my feet — a restless beast of light and shadow. Neon signs flickered erratically, casting sickly colors on cracked sidewalks where secrets festered. Somewhere far off, a siren wailed, blending with the endless hum of engines and whispered threats.
I didn't belong here. Not anymore.
The card in my pocket burned like a curse and a key all at once. It opened doors, yes — but those doors led straight into the belly of the monster that made me. And I was done dancing on their strings.
Tonight was different.
No more ghosts. No more shadows.
Tonight, I would become the reckoning.
I pulled my jacket tighter, the cool night air stinging exposed skin. Each breath tasted like iron and promise.
The streets weren't safe. They never had been. But I was no longer afraid.
I moved through the alleys like a phantom, senses heightened, every sound a signal, every step a calculated risk. My past clung to me — the screams in that sterile basement, the man with the lab coat, the cold commands drilling into my bones.
But I wasn't just the echo of those memories anymore.
I was the answer.
I stopped beneath a flickering streetlamp, letting the light wash over me, exposing the scars no one could see. The faces of the men I was meant to kill flashed behind my eyes — not as faceless targets, but as echoes of the pain they caused. Each one a story. Each one a wound.
My hand brushed the edge of the stolen card.
They think they built me broken.
But I was more.
I was precise.
I was a storm.
From the darkness, a figure emerged — Remi.
His eyes searched mine, steady and unyielding.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
I nodded.
This wasn't just revenge. It was liberation.
Together, we stepped toward the building — the heart of the machine that forged me.
The gates loomed, cold steel promising violence.
But tonight, they would meet a new kind of fear.
Because I wasn't running anymore.
I was coming for the reckoning.