CHAPTER 9 :THE REPLACEMENT
1555 Words
“I want my life back.”
The words hit harder than any gunshot tonight.
For a second, nobody moved.
The broken hospital room stood frozen around us — shattered glass on the floor, alarms screaming in distant hallways, rain hitting the windows hard enough to sound like applause.
And standing in front of me…
Was the woman Damian loved first.
The original Elena.
Not a copy.
Not a hallucination.
Real.
My breathing became shallow.
“No,” Damian said hoarsely while forcing himself back to his feet. “You’re not taking her.”
The woman slowly turned toward him.
There was something tragic in her white eyes now. Something almost human beneath all the horror.
“She stole my face.”
His expression twisted painfully.
“She didn’t choose this.”
“Neither did I.”
Silence crashed between them.
I looked back and forth between both of them, feeling like I was standing inside someone else’s nightmare.
“What is she talking about?” I whispered.
Nobody answered immediately.
That terrified me.
“Damian.”
His jaw tightened.
“When Lazarus failed…” he began quietly, “they used Elena’s neural imprint to stabilize your brain activity.”
My stomach dropped instantly.
Neural imprint.
Not memories.
Identity.
“No.”
“They merged fragments of her consciousness with yours.”
The room tilted beneath me.
“That’s impossible.”
The first Elena laughed softly.
“You keep saying that.”
Another violent flash exploded through my head—
Doctors screaming over my dying body.
One shouting:
“She’s rejecting the transfer!”
Another voice:
“Use Subject Zero!”
Then pain.
Unimaginable pain.
I grabbed the edge of the hospital bed to steady myself.
“She’s inside me,” I whispered.
Nobody denied it.
A cold wave of nausea rolled through my stomach.
That explained everything.
The strange emotions.
The memories that didn’t feel fully mine.
The way Damian looked at me sometimes — like he was grieving and loving me at the same time.
I slowly looked toward him.
“You knew.”
Pain crossed his face instantly.
“Elena—”
“You knew I wasn’t fully myself.”
“You are yourself.”
“That’s not what you just said!”
My voice cracked sharply.
The first Elena watched us silently.
Almost sadly.
“You really never told her,” she murmured.
Damian looked exhausted now.
Completely exhausted.
“I was trying to protect her.”
The first Elena smiled bitterly.
“You always confuse love with guilt.”
That sentence landed hard.
Because judging from Damian’s face…
It was true.
Another memory surfaced suddenly—
Damian sitting beside my hospital bed years ago whispering:
“If she wakes up, she deserves a normal life.”
Victor answering coldly:
“She stopped being normal the second you revived her.”
I pressed my fingers against my forehead hard.
Too many memories.
Too many lives mixed together inside my head.
“What am I?” I whispered.
The room fell silent again.
Then the first Elena answered softly.
“You’re what they made after they lost me.”
The words shattered something inside me.
Replacement.
That’s what I was.
Not a miracle.
Not a survivor.
A replacement.
Damian stepped toward me immediately.
“Don’t listen to her.”
“Why?” I asked quietly. “Because she’s telling the truth?”
His silence hurt more than lies.
The first Elena looked at me carefully now.
Not with hatred anymore.
With pity.
“You think he saved you because he loved you,” she whispered.
My throat tightened painfully.
“But he rebuilt me through you.”
“No,” Damian snapped instantly.
She ignored him.
“He couldn’t let me die.”
Another memory crashed through me—
Damian screaming at scientists while holding my lifeless body.
“Bring her back!”
Victor grabbing him:
“She’s gone!”
Then Damian whispering brokenly:
“I don’t care what it costs.”
I looked at him in horror.
“You used me.”
“No.”
“But you let them turn me into her.”
His eyes darkened painfully.
“I was trying to save your life.”
“At the cost of mine?”
That question finally broke him silent.
The room became unbearably quiet after that.
Then suddenly—
The hospital lights flickered again.
The first Elena looked toward the hallway sharply.
“They’re coming.”
Damian instantly grabbed the g*n from the floor.
“Lazarus security?”
“No,” she whispered.
Fear crossed her face for the first time.
Not fake fear.
Real.
“Worse.”
A low metallic sound echoed through the hallway outside.
Heavy footsteps.
Slow.
Precise.
Not human.
Every instinct inside me screamed danger.
Damian moved protectively in front of me again without thinking.
The first Elena noticed.
And something painful flickered across her expression.
“He used to stand like that for me too.”
Before anyone could respond—
Something slammed into the hallway wall outside hard enough to shake the room.
Concrete cracked.
Another impact followed immediately after.
Closer.
Damian cursed softly under his breath.
“What is that?”
The first Elena’s expression darkened.
“The final Lazarus subjects.”
My stomach twisted.
“There are more?”
Her eyes shifted toward me.
“You weren’t the only successful one.”
The hallway lights suddenly exploded one by one.
Glass shattered.
Darkness swallowed the corridor outside.
Then came screaming.
Men screaming.
Not for long.
Gunfire erupted instantly afterward.
Then silence.
Complete silence.
Even Damian looked unsettled now.
The first Elena backed slowly toward the window.
“They found us too fast.”
“You led them here?” Damian asked coldly.
She looked offended.
“You think I want them near me?”
Another loud metallic crash echoed outside the room.
Closer now.
The broken hospital door slowly creaked wider open by itself.
Nobody stood there.
Just darkness.
And then—
A hand appeared around the doorway.
Not normal.
Metal fused into skin.
Black veins crawling beneath pale flesh.
My pulse spiked violently.
The thing stepped into the room slowly.
Human once.
Maybe.
Now?
Something else.
Its eyes glowed faintly blue beneath cracked skin.
Wires disappeared into the side of its neck like veins.
And carved directly into its chest—
The Lazarus symbol.
My blood froze.
The creature tilted its head slightly while staring directly at me.
Then in a distorted voice, it spoke.
“Subject E-17 located.”
The first Elena whispered:
“Oh God.”
The creature moved instantly.
Faster than humanly possible.
Damian fired twice without hesitation.
Bullets slammed into its chest—
And did nothing.
The thing grabbed Damian by the throat before he could react.
I screamed.
It lifted him off the floor effortlessly.
The first Elena lunged forward instantly and slammed the creature into the wall hard enough to c***k concrete.
The entire room shook violently.
“What IS that?!” I shouted.
The first Elena kept fighting while answering through gritted teeth.
“Lazarus perfected.”
The creature threw her across the room hard enough to shatter another cabinet.
She hit the floor violently but stood again almost immediately.
Not human.
Neither of them were human anymore.
The realization hit me like ice water.
This was Lazarus.
Not resurrection.
Transformation.
Another creature appeared behind the first one in the hallway.
Then another.
Three total now.
All wearing the same symbol.
All staring at me.
“Why are they after me?” I whispered.
Damian ripped free and grabbed my wrist instantly.
“Because you control them.”
“What?!”
“No time!”
The creatures started moving again.
Fast.
Too fast.
The first Elena shoved one through the broken doorway while screaming:
“RUN!”
Damian dragged me toward the emergency hatch near the bathroom wall again.
But before we reached it—
One of the creatures suddenly stopped moving.
Its glowing eyes locked onto me strangely.
Then it whispered:
“Creator.”
Everything froze.
The other creatures stopped too.
Even the first Elena looked shocked.
“What did it call me?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Then another memory exploded through my head—
Me standing inside the Lazarus laboratory while rows of unconscious bodies floated inside glass tanks.
Victor asking:
“What if they obey only one neural signature?”
And me answering confidently:
“Then they obey me.”
I stopped breathing.
No.
No no no.
The creatures slowly lowered their weapons.
Like soldiers before a commander.
Damian stared at me in horror.
“Elena…”
The creatures spoke together this time.
“We have waited for your return.”
Fear crawled up my spine slowly.
Because suddenly…
I remembered something worse than death.
I remembered why I erased my own memory.
Not because I was afraid of dying.
Because I was afraid of what I created.
The first Elena looked at me like she finally understood something terrifying.
“That’s why they kept you alive,” she whispered.
The creatures stepped closer in perfect synchronization.
“We are ready,” one said mechanically.
My heartbeat pounded painfully.
“Ready for what?”
The creature tilted its head.
Then answered with words that made the entire room fall silent.
“For the extinction event.”
chapter 10 coming soon...............
- Writer
