8-9
240 Words
Chapter 8: The Clockwork Heart
The golden net ensnared the doppelgänger just as glass shattered below. Seven specimen jars exploded, their fluids forming a whirlpool that vomited up a leather-bound diary labeled:
EMMA'S OBSERVATIONS
Pages flipped autonomously to the final entry:
"Papa says reporters' eyes see through lies. Tomorrow we'll take the seventh pair so I can always..."
The rest was obscured by bloodstains. But tucked in the binding was a newspaper clipping—the Warren family portrait from October 30, 1923, photographed by a journalist whose scar mirrored William's exactly.
Chapter 9: The Embryo of Time
They awoke in the foyer at dawn.
Sunlight through stained glass revealed William's eyes mostly normal, though gold cogs occasionally flickered across his irises. The seven-pointed mark on Jackie's abdomen had faded, replaced by subcutaneous luminescence.
An engine roared outside. The electromagnetic array on Lucas's SUV spun wildly, locked onto William.
"Christ!" Mia leaned out the window. "What did you people unleash?"
William looked up. The golden-haired girl in the nightgown now held up seven fingers behind broken glass.
Water from the basement surged over the threshold, forming seven whirlpools. From each rose a golden eyeball, its pupil reflecting different eras of William:
1923: Strapped to the operating table1967: Convulsing in an electroshock chair1999: Screaming as the needle pierced his eye...
Jackie collapsed, clutching her belly. From within her womb came the child's first cry—a sound no human throat could reproduce.
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