CHAPTER 10 final : THE CONTRACT THAT NEVER ENDEDI
972 Words
I couldn’t feel my hands.
That was the first thing I noticed.
Not fear. Not shock.
Just… nothing.
The paper in front of me blurred slightly as my eyes refused to focus on it properly anymore.
SUBJECT: LENA — SUITABLE FOR LONG-TERM CONTROLLED RELATIONSHIP EXPERIMENT
The sentence kept repeating itself in my head like it had nowhere else to go.
Adrian stood across the table.
Watching me.
Not moving.
Not explaining.
Just waiting for me to break.
And I was.
Just… slowly.
“This is fake,” I whispered finally.
My voice didn’t even sound like mine.
Adrian didn’t answer immediately.
That silence hurt more than words.
Then he spoke.
“I wish it was.”
I laughed once.
A small, broken sound.
“Congratulations,” I said quietly. “You’re very good at acting like you don’t destroy people’s lives.”
His jaw tightened.
“That’s not what I did.”
“Oh really?”
I stepped back from the table.
My breathing was getting harder.
“Then explain it to me, Adrian.”
His eyes flickered.
Just once.
Like something inside him was arguing with itself.
Then—
“You weren’t chosen randomly,” he said.
I shook my head immediately.
“Stop saying that word.”
“Lena—”
“NO.” My voice cracked. “Stop controlling the conversation like everything is still a contract.”
That made him go quiet.
For the first time… he didn’t interrupt me.
I kept going.
“If this is real… then what am I? A product? A test subject?”
Adrian took a slow breath.
“No.”
“Then what?”
Silence.
That silence felt like the truth refusing to come out.
Then—
“You were monitored,” he said quietly.
My stomach dropped.
“Monitored?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
Another pause.
Then the answer came.
“Before we ever met.”
Everything stopped.
Even my anger.
“What?”
Adrian looked away slightly.
Like saying it directly hurt him.
“You’ve been in their system for years.”
My knees almost gave out.
“No,” I whispered. “That’s impossible.”
“It isn’t.”
My throat tightened.
“Who is ‘they’?”
That question changed the air in the room instantly.
Adrian’s expression hardened again.
Like a wall sliding back into place.
“You’re not ready for that answer.”
I laughed again.
But this time it was sharper.
“You don’t get to decide what I’m ready for anymore.”
Silence.
Then—
A sound.
Footsteps.
Slow.
From the hallway behind us.
We both turned.
Elena.
But something was wrong.
She wasn’t the same Elena from before.
Her face was pale.
Her eyes were red.
Like she hadn’t slept.
And in her hand—
A phone.
She looked at Adrian.
“I know who did it.”
My heart stopped.
Adrian’s voice dropped instantly.
“Don’t say it.”
Elena ignored him.
And looked at me.
“I know why your name was in that file.”
My mouth went dry.
“Tell me,” I whispered.
She swallowed hard.
Then said the words that shattered everything again.
“Because you’re not just part of the experiment…”
A pause.
Long enough to hurt.
“You’re the reason it exists.”
Silence.
My mind refused to process it.
“That makes no sense,” I whispered.
Elena stepped closer.
“It does.”
She turned the phone toward us.
A video was playing.
Security footage.
Old.
Grainy.
A car crash.
Metal twisting.
Rain.
Screaming.
Then—
A name flashed on the screen:
ELENA — SUBJECT ZERO
My body went cold.
Adrian moved instantly.
“Stop looking at that.”
But I couldn’t.
Elena pressed play again.
Another file appeared.
Another name.
Then another.
And then—
My name.
I stepped back immediately.
“No…”
Adrian grabbed my wrist.
Not tightly.
But firmly.
“Lena, don’t—”
I pulled away.
“Don’t touch me.”
Silence.
The first time I had ever said it like that.
Elena looked between us.
Her voice shook.
“They didn’t start with you,” she said. “They started with me.”
My chest tightened painfully.
“What does that mean?”
She looked down.
“I was the first successful emotional attachment trial.”
Silence.
My brain felt like it was splitting.
Adrian exhaled slowly.
“This is what I was trying to protect you from.”
I turned to him sharply.
“Protect me?”
“Yes.”
I laughed again.
But there was no humor left in it.
“You put me inside it.”
“I didn’t choose—”
“YOU AGREED.” My voice cracked. “You signed it.”
That hit him.
Hard.
For the first time… he looked like he had no defense.
Elena stepped forward.
“This wasn’t just a contract,” she said softly. “It was a continuation.”
My stomach dropped.
“Continuation of what?”
Elena hesitated.
Then said:
“The first attempt to recreate what happened to me.”
Silence.
Adrian closed his eyes briefly.
Like he was exhausted from carrying something too heavy.
I stepped back slowly.
Everything inside me felt unreal.
“So what now?” I whispered.
No one answered immediately.
Then—
A loud alarm sounded in the building.
Red lights flashed suddenly.
Elena’s face changed instantly.
“No…” she whispered.
Adrian looked up sharply.
“They found us.”
My heart dropped.
“Who?”
But Adrian was already moving.
Grabbing my hand.
“Run.”
And for the first time since meeting him…
I didn’t argue.
Because behind the glass walls of the archive…
Shadows were approaching.
And one of them was holding a file with my name on it.
- Writer
