THE HIDDEN RIVAL

JUST NOTICE

RIVAL’S POV

Something snapped inside me the moment I walked out of Boris’ office, it was not panic or not fear, fear was the last thing I was feeling now, what I felt now is Focus, The kind that kicks in when you realize you’ve stepped onto a battlefield, and there’s no backing out. The only way out is through it and to even know that your enemy was watching your every single move.

But for me to focus first, I needed to know what the f**k I was actually dealing with, I wasn’t going to kill anyone blindly, not even if it meant Boris would personally break every bone in my body, nah am kidding but I needed leverage, a plan or at least a truth I could twist into armor.

So I waited until the next shift change when guards switched duty post, and When they got sloppy. When the lights dimmed, and most recruits passed out from fatigue or hunger, and when am sure the CCTV camera are turned off for thirty minutes like they do daily.

Shadow had dozed off, blade still half-hid under his pillow, I took it as a chance and slipped out.

You don’t survive in Base Two without learning to move like a ghost, The trick wasn’t silence, it was rhythm. You walked when the water pipes hissed. When someone coughed three doors down. When boots echoed around corners. You moved with the chaos, not against it so your foot steps won't be heard.

I slid past three cameras, timing their blink pattern perfectly—and ducked into the hallway that led toward the northern tunnels.

That’s where Base Twelve began, Base Twelve wasn’t like Base Two, I Never saw it but I only heard of it multiple times, cause if you wanna survive here you have to listen to gossip.

It was a deadly place that you can only hear whispers about it. A place they sent the “lost ones.” Kids who’d snapped too far or are too curious just like me, Recruits who refused to break and had to be burned out instead, Most of them never came back, the rest that came back were disabled either you lose your ear and be deaf or your tongue is cut off so you won't say what you saw...but still yet here I was.

I didn’t even know what I was looking for, not exactly, But something in my guts just kept pushing me to keep going, Maybe it was the envelope Boris handed me. The fact that he didn’t name a target meant it was someone inside and someone close to me but I can't quite place who.

And if I was going to survive this mission, I needed to understand why, i went closure and I found the hallway, it was Narrow with a lot of cracked floor tiles and Burnt-out lights.

It smelled like hell and death, I stepped through something that looked like a busted gate, my heart in my throat, and i kept walking until I heard the sound of breathing, it was too quiet but I heard it and it wasn't mine, it made me stop, oh s**t.

Wait is that .....a girl crouched in the corner, her skin was pale with a big head, I don't blame her head for being so big, it must have been from kwashiorkor or something, dried blood was even on her jaw.

Her were Eyes open practically Watching me, I stood still waiting for her to move a muscle or something but she didn’t even move. she just tilted her head like I was some puzzle she was trying to solve, one sec I thought she was a zombie with the way she turned her big head.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” she said almost inaudible.

“I could say the same, I mean what's a girl doing here,” I replied, voice low.

“You’re from Two.”

“You from Twelve?”

She smiled but it was slow and tiring, “No. I’m what’s left of Twelve.”

I stepped closer to get a better look at her. “What the hell does that mean?” She didn’t answer, she Just pointed behind her and I followed her gaze.

There were walls covered in scribbled writing. Messy handwriting with weird number, Names and Even drawings, which means someone had mapped the entire underground layout in chalk and blood.

I walked to it slowly, scanning the map, and my brain Started taking note of them. These were hallways I didn’t know existed,Rooms I’d never seen they even looked better then ours.

Places marked “CONTROL,” “ARMORY,” “CAM LAB,” and one that stopped me cold “PROJECT MIRROR.” with pictures of what looked like dark assassins.

“What is this?” I asked, voice dry, pointing at it.

She didn’t look away from me, “ it something called Project Mirror is why you’re here.”

My stomach clenched. “What do you mean, it's why am here...I was brought here by mistake?”

“Exactly you were an error, they mistook you for another person when they kidn*pped you but they’re still testing the shadows,” she said.

“Like Shadow my roommate or shadow...shadow ?” I asked dumbly.

“No, ughh ,.. i mean people like you.”

“What do you mean people like me ?”

She laughed softly, like I was acting a comedy but It wasn’t amusing, I was scared to s**t.

“You think this place is about training soldiers? Nah, It’s about making them right from scratch, by Stripping them of their names amd giving them numbers in a weird order." She tapped the side of her temple, “like Programming, they train you to survive her and to kill when given an order.”

I stumbled backwards immediately, this can't be true, She was crazy, no no .... She had to be, But then again wasn’t I the one sneaking through forbidden tunnels in a goddamn death trap asking for what wasn't looking for me?

“How do you know this?”

“I was in Project Mirror but not Until I started asking questions with the way most of our group left but never came back, Then they made me stay here.”

My pulse thudded hard in my ears, I looked back at the wall, right at the scribbles and maps and codes and something inside me left immediately.

I took a quick photo of the wall on the burner phone I swiped last week from a guard’s locker, yeah am smart I know, I took one snap and that’s it.

Then by the time I turned back, But she was gone, Just… disappear or something.

There was no sound or even a door creak, she didn't leave any hint of footsteps, she just Vanished like a ghost, I mean what was I expecting from someone trained as a gorilla.

I slowly crept back to our cage, I didn’t sleep that night, I just couldn't get myself to close my eyes.

I didn’t tell Shadow either, Not because I didn’t trust him, but because the less he knew, the safer he stayed. To be sincere shadow was the kind of guy who wore silence like armor, but I’d seen his cracks, his worst fear was losing his roommate.

I wasn’t going to let him take a bullet meant for me, not this time, The next morning, things were kind of different or perhaps it was only me that noticed cause I've known what am not meant to know.

The guards were sort of tenser, there Eyes were sharper, they held their guns tighter.

Someone must have escaped last night, apparently and I knew who but they didn’t say who.

But I just knew it was the girl from Twelve Or maybe she never existed at all, At breakfast, Redhead slammed his tray next to mine, ugh just when I thought I can enjoy my breakfast in peace.

“Sleep well, golden boy?” he sneered.

“Better than you look,” I muttered, not meeting his gaze cause I just don't want trouble this morning.

He chuckled. “Careful. You’re starting to sound like a leader of a gang man.”

I stayed silent, I was not in the mood for playing this morning not after what I saw last night and theses ones are oblivious of what they were gonna do to them, my mind drifted back to the envelope from Boris, it was still tucked under my mattress, still not opened yet and very muchly Still sealed, it still burning a hole in my head, I was too scared to check the content.

Shadow watched me this morning, he was unusually warm and curious, kind of like he was calculating and trying to check what am up to.

I avoided his gaze by all means, Later on, when we were taken to the yard for sparring, I noticed something strange, The sparring partners weren’t random anymore it was like, they were targeted, and am starting to notice it.

Shadow was made to fight the talkative Redhead, I fought some kid named Viktor. he was thick-necked like he ate extra meal after they served us, the boy had too much pride and no real technique just jumping like a frog up and down.

The guards were watching us closer than usual and I did what I never, I didn’t win the fight.

I destroyed it, I broke Viktor’s nose and made sure to dislocate his wrist with him screaming out his lungs but I had a smile on my face to tell them that I wasn't scared of torture, I Shoved his face in the dirt until the instructors had to drag me off.

The guards said nothing, but I saw the way they nodded, I noticed one of them mutter something into the comm he had.

I was being tested and Evaluated just like the base twelve girl said...man why haven't I noticed all these things till now.

I was being graded like a goddamn science experiment or weapon, When we got back to the cage, Shadow sat up on his slab.

“You wanna tell me what’s eating you?” he asked finally like he was tired of me being quiet.

“Nope.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah am sure .” I said without looking him in the eye.

“You’re a shitty liar.” aha ..I said it that he would catch me.

I let the silence hang, Then I finally asked him “Have you ever heard of something called Project Mirror, since you've been here?”

He stiffened slightly but masked it well, like he doesn't want me to know “No. Should I have?”

“Guess not,” I lied just like he did...two can play.

I didn’t bother to tell him about the girl Or the map that I snapped or the chalk on the wall that looked like someone wrote with blood.

I didn’t tell him about the message from Boris Or the target I still hadn’t opened, Some things had to stay buried, Especially now that I didn't know whether I could trust him.

That night, when Shadow was tired of waiting for answers, he finally fell asleep, I slowly pulled out the envelope from under my mattress, I stared at it for a long time like they implanted bomb on it or something.

Then opened I finally opened it, it was a photo, it was Printed in black and white.

then I looked closer to see the target? and my mouth fell open it can't be what the...the target is my roommate Shadow!.

My fingers went cold, the man I’d shared a cell with and had training with, the only person who made this place even slightly bearable for me and Boris wanted him dead.

He wanted it Clean, was and untraceable, Suddenly, all the whole stuff made sense.They had been watching and they’d seen us grow close and they hated it, Base Two wasn't a place friendships.

They wanted killers, who are obedient and Efficient, who also work alone, I shoved the photo back into the envelope, my heart was hammering in my chest, there was no way in hell I was killing him, but now I had a problem.

Because Boris wasn’t the kind of man who took no for an answer and I wasn't ready to die just yet...