*Chapter 16: Two Weeks To Live*
603 Words
Ava didn’t drink it. Not yet.
The red liquid sloshed against glass. Her hands shook.
“Stop,” Alexander said. He grabbed her wrist. Cuffs clanged against her skin. “Look at me.”
*Plot point 1: The truth about the red vial*
Victoria rolled her eyes. “Oh please. She thinks it’s suicide.”
She snapped her fingers. A screen lit up behind her. Lab footage.
“Red isn’t poison. It’s accelerant. It burns through the clone degradation in 14 days. No pain. No cell collapse. Just… 14 days of him being 100% human. No weakness. No seizures. No dying by inches.”
Alexander’s jaw tightened. “You’re lying.”
“I built you,” Victoria said. “Blue keeps you sick for 2 years. Red makes you live for 2 weeks. Your choice, copy.”
Ava understood now. Blue = slow death, watching him fade.
Red = fast life, then gone. Quality over quantity.
*Plot point 2: First real kiss, no glass*
Alexander let go of her wrist. Stepped closer. Blood from the broken glass dripped on his shirt.
“2 weeks,” he whispered. “I’d choose that too.”
He didn’t kiss her on the mouth. He pressed his forehead to hers again. Same spot as jail. Same spot as Room 404.
“I was programmed to obey Victoria. Programmed to control. No one programmed this,” he tapped her chest, over her heart. “This was me. Choosing you. Every time.”
Then he kissed her.
Not desperate. Not like a man dying. Like a man finally free.
Her fingers tangled in his bloody shirt. His hand cupped her face, thumb wiping a tear she didn’t know she cried.
Victoria slammed the desk. “Enough! Drink it or I shoot him!”
*Plot point 3: Sophia’s double-cross*
Gunshot.
But not at them.
Sophia stepped from the shadows behind Victoria. Her own gun smoking.
“I lied about the false bottom,” Sophia said. She tossed Ava a third vial. Clear liquid. “This is the real antidote. Victoria’s red vial only buys 14 days. This gives him 20 years. I made it 6 months ago.”
Victoria spun, furious. “You backstabbing—”
“Because you jumped,” Sophia said to Ava. “You ran TO him when everyone ran FROM him. Even I did.”
Ava caught the clear vial. But Alexander pushed it away.
“No,” he said. Voice rough. “If I take that, I spend 20 years waiting to die. If I take red, I spend 2 weeks knowing I lived.”
*Plot point 4 + Cliffhanger:*
Ava looked at the 3 vials on the floor. Blue: shattered. Red: in her hand. Clear: at her feet.
Alexander touched her face. “Choose me, Ava. Not the years. Me.”
She uncorked the red vial. Put it to his lips instead of hers.
“Then we live 14 days like we had 40 years,” she whispered.
He drank.
For 3 seconds, nothing. Then his eyes flared gray → black → gold. Veins lit under his skin like wires. He gasped, back arching, and pulled her into his chest.
Victoria screamed. “You i***t! He’ll burn out in 2 weeks!”
Alexander lifted his head. Smiled. For the first time, no pain in his eyes. Just her.
“Start the timer,” he told Ava. “Day 1 of 14. Kiss me again before I waste it.”
Alarms blared. Victoria’s guards flooded the room.
Ava didn’t run. She kissed him again. Day 1 had just started.
*[END CHAPTER 16 - CLIFFHANGER]*
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- Writer
