The Last Room
845 Words
9:41… 9:40… 9:39…
The countdown flashed across every screen in the Vault.
Red emergency lights bathed the corridors in crimson.
Dust drifted from the ceiling as the first controlled explosions echoed through the underground complex.
The little girl clutched Nadia’s hand.
“I can take you to him.”
Sarah Kane knelt beside her.
“What’s your name?”
The child hesitated.
“They call me Number Twenty-One.”
Sarah’s face fell.
“No, sweetheart.”
She smiled gently.
“That’s not your name.”
The girl looked down.
“I… I don’t remember my real one.”
Nadia squeezed her hand.
“When this is over, we’ll help you find it.”
⸻
The little girl led Nadia, Vivian, Adrian, and Sarah through a narrow maintenance tunnel hidden behind a collapsed bookshelf.
The passage twisted beneath the Vault.
It ended at a massive steel door unlike any they had seen before.
Above it, engraved in gold, were two words:
FOUNDER’S CHAMBER
Beside the door was a biometric scanner.
Arthur’s voice suddenly crackled through an intercom.
“I wondered how long it would take.”
Nadia stepped toward the speaker.
“Open the door.”
Arthur chuckled.
“Only my daughter may enter.”
Vivian frowned.
“You don’t have a daughter.”
Arthur’s laughter echoed through the chamber.
“Don’t I?”
⸻
A hidden compartment slid open beneath the scanner.
Inside was an old DNA testing device.
Sarah stared at it.
“He wants proof.”
Adrian looked at Nadia.
“It’s a trap.”
“Maybe.”
Nadia stepped forward anyway.
“If this is the only way to stop him…”
She placed her finger on the scanner.
A tiny needle pricked her skin.
The machine hummed.
Everyone held their breath.
Then the screen lit up.
DNA MATCH CONFIRMED
ACCESS GRANTED
The steel door unlocked.
Silence filled the tunnel.
Arthur’s voice became almost gentle.
“I knew you would come home.”
Nadia’s heart pounded.
She looked at Vivian.
“No…”
Vivian whispered.
“This can’t be right.”
⸻
The door slowly opened.
Inside was a luxurious office, untouched by time.
Mahogany shelves lined the walls.
Ancient books filled glass cabinets.
In the center stood Arthur Cole, waiting beside a burning fireplace.
He wasn’t holding a weapon.
Instead, he held a faded photograph.
He offered it to Nadia.
She looked down.
It showed a much younger Arthur holding a newborn baby.
The baby’s wrist bore a hospital tag.
The name on it read:
Emily Hart
Arthur spoke softly.
“I held you before your father ever did.”
Nadia looked at him in disbelief.
“What are you saying?”
Arthur smiled.
“Daniel Hart wasn’t your biological father.”
“He was simply the man who raised you.”
Vivian shook her head.
“Stop lying!”
Arthur reached into a drawer and removed a sealed envelope.
“DNA results.”
He handed them to Nadia.
With trembling hands, she opened the file.
Two names were printed across the top.
Arthur Cole
Emily Hart
The report claimed a 99.99% probability of biological relationship.
The room fell silent.
⸻
Vivian grabbed the report.
“It’s fake.”
Arthur shrugged.
“Perhaps.”
“Or perhaps Daniel stole you from me.”
Nadia’s breathing became shallow.
She remembered Daniel’s love.
His kindness.
His sacrifice.
She remembered Arthur’s cruelty.
His manipulation.
His lies.
One of them had to be lying.
But which one?
⸻
Suddenly, Adrian noticed something strange.
The DNA report carried today’s date.
Yet the laboratory that supposedly issued it…
had been shut down five years earlier.
He smiled for the first time in hours.
“You almost had us.”
Arthur’s expression hardened.
Adrian held up the report.
“You forged it.”
Arthur’s calm mask cracked.
For the first time, he looked angry.
“You always were Daniel’s best student.”
⸻
The countdown echoed through the chamber.
05:00
The floor trembled violently.
Sarah rushed in.
“We’re running out of time!”
Arthur slowly backed toward another hidden door.
“You can save the evidence…”
He smiled.
“…or save yourselves.”
He pressed a concealed switch.
A thick steel barrier slammed down between him and the others.
Arthur disappeared into the darkness beyond.
Nadia ran toward the barrier, pounding on it with both fists.
“Arthur!”
His voice echoed one last time through the speakers.
“You still don’t know the greatest secret of all, Emily.”
“You’ve spent your life searching for who you are…”
“…when you should have been asking…”
“…who your mother really was.”
The transmission cut off.
The countdown reached…
04:32
The chamber shook again.
Concrete began falling from the ceiling.
They had only minutes left to escape—or be buried with the truth forever.
End of Episode 14.
Cliffhanger
As Adrian searches desperately for another exit, Vivian opens Daniel Hart’s journal to its final hidden page.
Written in Daniel’s handwriting are six chilling words:
“Trust neither Arthur… nor Vivian.”
- Writer
