The silence after that voice was deafening.
Luca's phone lay on the bedspread, its screen dark, as if it had never existed.
And yet the words still hung in the air, clinging to the walls, to their thoughts, to their skin.
The child is national property. Hand her over, and you will be spared.
Adrian stared at the phone as if he could strangle that voice through it. Suddenly, he snatched it up and hurled it against the wall. The crack of shattering glass sounded like a scream.
"Adrian!" Clara grabbed his arm. "Stop!"
He was breathing in short, uneven bursts, his jaw tight, eyes burning with fury.
"They think we belong to them, Clara. Us. Our daughter."
Clara looked at him, anger simmering inside her too, but under control.
"That's exactly what they want. For you to lose it. For us to turn on each other."
Luca ran a hand through his hair, still pale.
"That voice… it wasn't random. It knew things, details it shouldn't have known."
Elias rose from the floor, his gaze sharp and calm.
"No. That wasn't a man," he said quietly. "It's a unit. A system. Inside the government, but beyond it. They call it The Network."
Adrian fixed his eyes on him. "You mentioned it before. What is it really?"
Elias drew a long breath, as if ready to break a vow of silence.
"It's a parallel structure, created to study and control minds like yours. Then it became self-aware. Facilities like the Sanctuary were only nodes of it. They observe, they test… and when something goes beyond their control, they erase it."
Clara looked down at Aurora, sleeping diagonally across the bed.
"Can they track us?"
"Not like a GPS," Elias said. "But every time a psychic surge happens, they feel it, like a flare in the dark. And after what you did at the Sanctuary, the whole country lit up."
Luca swore under his breath. "So they'll find us."
"Not immediately," Elias replied. "But soon. Aurora isn't just an anomaly to them. She's the key. And if they can't have her… they'll destroy her."
Aurora stirred in her sleep. She turned over, then sat bolt upright, gasping.
"Mama…"
Clara rushed to her side. "I'm here, sweetheart."
"I can hear them," Aurora whispered. "They're hiding… but The Network is searching for them. The children. The ones who were with me in the Sanctuary. They're scared."
Elias stiffened. "You can sense them from here?"
Aurora nodded. "Yes… but it's faint. Like… like someone's making noise inside my head, trying to drown them out."
Clara pulled her into her arms, stroking her hair.
"It's okay. We'll find them, I promise."
Elias met Adrian's gaze. "If The Network is hunting them, it means those kids are linked to something bigger. Probably Origin."
Adrian frowned. "That name again, what is it exactly?"
"The core," Elias said. "The heart of The Network. The first lab, the beginning of everything. And if they're hiding it, that's where they'll take anyone who threatens their system."
"Then we have to leave," Clara said. "Now."
Adrian nodded. "This place isn't safe anymore."
Luca stood. "There's a service door at the back. It opens onto a side alley near an abandoned train station. We can disappear there."
Elias paused by the door, listening.
"No footsteps outside. Not yet. But we shouldn't wait."
Clara scooped Aurora into her arms. "Hold on tight, love."
Aurora smiled faintly. "I'm not scared. Not if you're with me."
The hotel corridor was silent. Neon lights flickered overhead; the carpet swallowed their footsteps.
They moved in single file, Elias first, Adrian behind Clara and the child, Luca closing the line.
The gray service door groaned open under Luca's hand. Cold dawn air rushed in, carrying the scent of wet concrete and exhaust.
The alley was deserted. Bins lined the wall; puddles reflected the faint, grayish light.
Clara glanced up. The sky was low, washed in silver. Then, suddenly, a row of streetlights went dark. One after another. First on the main road, then in the parking lot. In seconds, the entire block was swallowed by darkness.
"What the hell…" Luca whispered.
Elias raised his head, listening.
"They're shutting down the grid. No witnesses, no recordings. When they move, they move in silence."
Clara tightened her hold on Aurora.
"You mean they've found us?"
"No," Elias said. "They're circling us."
Aurora whimpered, pressing her hands to her ears.
"It hurts… inside. Like a hundred voices screaming all at once."
Clara knelt, pulling her close, pressing her forehead to the girl's.
"Breathe with me, baby. One… two…"
Adrian crouched beside them, laying his hand over both their heads.
Elias and Luca stepped closer instinctively.
And for an instant, something clicked.
No flash, no sound, just a sudden alignment.
And the alley vanished.
They stood in a white corridor. Endless.
No windows, no doors, just polished floors and sterile light that came from nowhere.
The air was thick and too clean, humming softly.
"Where are we?" Luca whispered.
"Inside a mind," Elias said. "Maybe Aurora's. Maybe all of ours. Or somewhere they overlap."
Clara turned in place, disoriented.
"It looks like… a hospital with no end."
Then, ahead of them, a door appeared on the wall, heavy metal, seamless, with a symbol carved into it: a circle split by a vertical line.
Aurora's eyes widened.
"That's it," she said softly. "That's the mark from the lab. The place they kept the children."
Elias went pale.
"I've seen it too," he murmured. "On Rinaldi's files. On the inside documents. It was always there."
He swallowed.
"It's the mark of Origin."
From beyond the door came a sound: slow, metallic, dragging.
"Someone's coming," Luca said. "Can we get out of here?"
Clara's pulse raced. She looked at Aurora.
"If I want to go back… can I?"
"Yes," the girl said. "It's your mind, Mama. You decide."
Clara closed her eyes and thought of the real world, the smell of rain, the warmth of Adrian's hands, the sound of Aurora's heartbeat.
Take us back.
The light fractured, the door faded and the corridor dissolved.
They landed back in the alley, gasping.
Aurora trembled, but she was safe.
"Was that real?" Luca asked.
"More than real," Elias said. "We just saw where we need to go."
Adrian looked at Clara. "Then that's our destination."
Elias nodded. "Origin. The core of the Network."
Adrian straightened up, voice steady.
"Then we stop running. We take the fight to them."
Clara's eyes shone, fierce and alive.
"Yes. For the children. For Aurora. For us."
Luca exhaled. "You're all insane," he muttered. Then he smiled faintly. "Let's do it."
Elias's expression softened.
"They built cages, not defenses. They won't see this coming."
Aurora looked toward the pale horizon.
"It's not sunset, is it?"
"No," Clara whispered, squeezing her hand. "It's sunrise."
And for the first time, as the light spread across the sky, they understood, they were no longer prey.
They were the storm coming.