CHAPTER 15: PHASE TWO
981 Words
The words on the screens glowed like a death sentence.
SUBJECT L HAS FULL RECALL POTENTIAL.
INITIATE PHASE TWO.
The classroom fell completely silent.
Even the storm outside seemed quieter for one terrifying second.
Lyra stared at the monitors while her pulse slammed violently inside her chest.
“What does Phase Two mean?” she whispered.
Nobody answered immediately.
And that terrified her most.
Nova slowly looked around the room.
“Why does everyone suddenly look like we’re about to die?”
Elowen’s face had gone pale beneath the red emergency lights.
Caius looked furious.
Elian looked… concerned.
That alone made Lyra’s stomach twist painfully.
Finally Elowen spoke quietly.
“Phase Two only happens when someone remembers too much.”
Lyra looked sharply at her.
“Remembers what?”
“The underground chamber.”
Another memory flashed violently through Lyra’s mind before anyone could answer.
A circular room beneath Blackthorne.
Bright white lights.
Children standing in rows.
White masks watching from above.
A little boy crying.
Kael grabbing Lyra’s hand tightly—
RUN.
The memory shattered apart instantly.
Lyra gasped sharply and nearly fell again.
Caius caught her immediately.
“Lyra.”
His voice sounded distant through the pounding in her ears.
“It hurts,” she whispered.
Another alarm blared through the academy.
The classroom door unlocked with a loud click.
Elian reacted instantly.
“We’re out of time.”
Caius stepped protectively in front of Lyra.
“She’s not going with you.”
Elian’s silver eyes darkened.
“You no longer decide what happens to her.”
“She’s not part of The Circle.”
“She was born into it.”
Silence exploded across the room.
Lyra stared at Elian in horror.
“What?”
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
Then Elian said calmly:
“Your mother volunteered you.”
The words hit harder than anything else.
No.
No no no.
“That’s a lie.”
But even as she said it—
Another memory surfaced.
Her mother signing papers.
White masks standing behind her.
A younger Lyra asleep nearby.
Then Iris Vale whispering softly:
“She’ll survive it.”
The memory vanished.
Lyra stumbled backward away from everyone.
Terror spread through her chest like poison.
“She gave me to them.”
Nobody denied it.
That silence broke something inside her.
“No…”
Caius moved toward her carefully.
“She was trying to protect you.”
Lyra laughed once.
A broken sound.
“By giving me to a cult?”
“You don’t understand what Blackthorne was back then.”
“I don’t think I want to.”
The academy speakers crackled overhead again.
“Phase Two teams deployed.”
Heavy footsteps immediately echoed somewhere beyond the classroom hallway.
Fast.
Multiple people.
Nova looked horrified.
“Okay, I’m officially begging someone to explain what Phase Two actually is.”
Elowen answered quietly:
“They erase unstable subjects.”
Silence.
Pure silence.
Nova blinked slowly.
“…Erase?”
Caius grabbed Lyra’s hand instantly.
“We’re leaving.”
Elian stepped into their path.
“You can’t stop this.”
Caius’s expression turned deadly cold.
“Watch me.”
The tension exploded.
Then suddenly—
The classroom windows shattered inward violently.
Everyone ducked as rain and broken glass burst into the room.
Masked figures climbed through the windows immediately.
White masks.
Black circle eyes.
Watchers.
Nova screamed.
Caius reacted instantly.
He shoved Lyra behind a desk just as one Watcher lunged toward them.
The room exploded into chaos.
Elowen grabbed a broken chair leg and slammed it into another masked figure.
Nova threw a heavy textbook directly at someone’s face.
“TAKE YOUR TRAUMA CULT ELSEWHERE!”
A Watcher grabbed Lyra’s arm suddenly.
Cold gloves tightened painfully around her wrist.
“Subject L secured.”
Panic exploded inside her chest.
She fought hard, kicking violently.
The Watcher barely reacted.
Then Caius hit him.
Hard.
The masked figure crashed into a desk while Caius pulled Lyra free immediately.
“MOVE!”
They ran.
The classroom door burst open as everyone rushed into the dark hallway outside.
Emergency lights flashed red across the walls while alarms screamed throughout the academy.
Students poured from classrooms and dorms in terrified crowds.
Nobody knew what was happening anymore.
Only panic remained.
“THIS WAY!” Nova shouted.
She led them down a side staircase while shouts echoed behind them.
The Watchers followed.
Always silent.
Always fast.
Rain thundered against the academy windows while lightning lit the hallways in violent flashes.
Lyra’s memories kept crashing into her mind between every heartbeat.
The underground chamber.
White lights.
Kael.
Her mother crying.
Then—
A woman screaming behind locked doors.
Lyra grabbed the stair railing hard.
Caius noticed instantly.
“What did you see?”
She looked at him shakily.
“There were children.”
His expression changed immediately.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
“You remember the chamber.”
“What was it?”
Caius stayed silent too long.
Lyra’s voice cracked slightly.
“What did they do to us?”
Before he could answer—
A loud explosion shook the entire academy.
The lights went out completely.
Students screamed somewhere above them.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Nova looked upward in horror.
“Please tell me this school isn’t exploding now.”
Another explosion echoed from the west wing.
Smoke drifted into the stairwell.
Elowen looked stunned.
“That wasn’t The Circle.”
Everyone turned toward her.
“What?” Caius asked sharply.
Elowen’s face tightened.
“They don’t destroy Blackthorne.”
A terrible realization spread across the group.
Someone else was attacking the academy.
Then suddenly—
The emergency lights flickered back on.
And every screen across the hallway lit up at once.
A face appeared on them.
A woman.
Dark hair.
Sharp eyes.
Beautiful.
Familiar.
Lyra stopped breathing.
Her mother.
Iris Vale stared directly through the screens calmly.
Then she smiled slightly.
“Hello, Lyra.”
- Writer
