The Trigger
827 Words
Vivian’s finger tightened on the trigger.
Time seemed to stop.
“Nadia…” Adrian shouted.
Bang!
The g*n fired.
The bullet shattered the brass machine behind Nadia, sending gears and glass flying across the chamber.
Nadia collapsed behind a stone pillar.
She wasn’t hit.
Vivian had missed.
Or…
She had chosen to.
Arthur’s smile vanished for the briefest moment.
⸻
“Finish it,” Arthur ordered.
Vivian slowly raised the pistol again.
Her face remained empty.
Her eyes were distant.
As though she were trapped somewhere deep inside her own mind.
Nadia remembered the injection mark.
She wasn’t acting freely.
“Vivian!” Nadia cried.
“It’s me… Emily!”
No reaction.
“You taught me to ride a bicycle.”
Silence.
“You used to sing to me every night because I was afraid of thunderstorms.”
Vivian’s hands trembled.
Arthur noticed.
“Don’t listen to her.”
⸻
Nadia took one cautious step forward.
Adrian reached for her.
“Don’t!”
But Nadia kept walking.
“If you remember anything…”
“…remember the butterfly necklace.”
Vivian’s eyes flickered.
Just for a second.
A memory surfaced.
Two little girls chasing butterflies through the garden behind Hart House.
One laughing.
One pretending to fly.
The memory disappeared as quickly as it came.
Arthur pulled a small remote from his pocket.
He pressed a button.
Vivian gasped in pain.
She clutched her head.
Then aimed the g*n again.
⸻
Marianne stared at the remote.
“You kept the conditioning chip.”
Arthur smiled.
“I improved it.”
Nadia looked at Marianne.
“What chip?”
Marianne’s face filled with regret.
“When Vivian was taken…”
“They implanted a neural control device.”
“It responds to specific signals.”
“It reinforces memories.”
“And suppresses others.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“Can it be removed?”
Marianne nodded.
“Yes.”
“But not here.”
⸻
Arthur laughed.
“You’ll never get the chance.”
He pressed the button again.
Vivian cried out.
Tears streamed down her face.
She fought to lower the g*n.
But her arm refused to obey.
“I’m… sorry…”
The words barely escaped her lips.
Nadia’s heart broke.
⸻
Suddenly…
The little girl known as Number Twenty-One stepped out from behind a cabinet.
No one had noticed she’d followed them.
She looked at Vivian.
Then at Arthur.
Quietly, she asked,
“Why do you keep hurting your daughters?”
The room fell silent.
Arthur’s face changed.
For the first time…
He looked shaken.
The little girl reached into her pocket and pulled out an old pocket watch.
She handed it to Nadia.
“My mother said to give this to the girl with the butterflies.”
Nadia opened it.
Inside were two tiny photographs.
One showed baby Emily.
The other showed baby Vivian.
Engraved beneath them were the words:
No blood can erase love.
Vivian saw the watch.
A flood of memories burst through her mind.
She remembered her mother.
Her father.
Emily’s fifth birthday.
The night Arthur took them.
The injections.
The lies.
The years she’d spent believing she had abandoned her sister.
The pistol slipped from her hand.
It hit the floor with a metallic clang.
Arthur stared at her in disbelief.
“No…”
Vivian looked at him with tears in her eyes.
“You lied to me.”
Arthur backed away.
“I saved you.”
“You destroyed us.”
⸻
Without warning, Arthur grabbed Marianne and held a knife to her throat.
“Nobody move!”
The chamber froze.
Arthur’s calm mask was gone.
Desperation had replaced it.
“You want the Archive?”
He dragged Marianne toward the brass machine.
“Then watch it burn.”
He reached for a lever labeled:
PURGE SYSTEM
If he pulled it, every original record would be destroyed forever.
Nadia stepped forward.
“Arthur…”
He looked at her.
“You spent your life trying to control our names.”
She met his gaze steadily.
“But names aren’t what make us family.”
Vivian moved silently behind him.
Arthur never saw her coming.
She lunged.
The knife clattered across the floor.
Marianne stumbled free.
Arthur spun around—
—but instead of attacking Vivian…
he smiled.
A slow.
Satisfied.
Smile.
“You finally remembered.”
He pressed something hidden inside his coat.
A shrill alarm echoed through the lighthouse.
Marianne’s face turned pale.
“No…”
Adrian looked around.
“What did he do?”
Marianne whispered:
“He activated the Last Protocol.”
The brass machine shuddered.
Its drawers began opening one by one.
Thousands of original identity records slowly started feeding into an industrial furnace.
The Archive of Names was destroying itself.
End of Episode 19.
Cliffhanger
As flames consume the first records, Marianne grabs Nadia’s arm and says:
“You can save the Archive… or you can save your mother. You don’t have time to do both.”
- Writer
