Chapter 12 - The Chrysalis of the Damned
The transport was a hum of vibration and the smell of ozone.
I was strapped into a medical chair,
my arms restrained by cold steel cuffs.
Outside the reinforced windows of the aircraft,
the world was a blur of gray and indigo.
We were flying north,
away from the familiar ruins of my life,
toward a destination that didn’t exist on any map.
Beside me,
in a separate,
glass-walled compartment,
Sadie and Lucy sat perfectly still.
They weren't crying.
They weren't calling for me.
They were looking at each other,
their lips moving in a silent,
rapid conversation that no one else could hear.
“Don't bother,”
a voice said from the shadows of the cabin.
It was Julian.
He had removed his hat,
revealing a head of stark white hair and a brow etched with deep,
ancient lines.
“They are currently in the first stage of the chrysalis.
Their minds are being restructured by the frequency of the obelisk.”
“Restructured?”
I spat,
pulling against the cuffs.
“You’re erasing them!”
“I am liberating them,”
he countered,
holding up a tablet displaying a complex map of neural pathways.
“The human mind is a cluttered,
inefficient thing.
We carry around thousands of years of biological baggage—fear,
shame,
doubt.
The frequency cleans the slate.”
He walked over to the glass wall and tapped it.
The twins both turned their heads in unison,
their eyes glowing with a faint,
internal light.
“They are becoming a hive mind,
Elara.
A dual-processor for the Aethelgard’s data streams.”
I felt a wave of nausea.
The horror of it was beyond anything the Mafia could conceive.
This wasn't about power or money.
This was about the death of the individual.
“What about me?”
I asked,
my voice trembling.
“Why am I still alive?”
Julian’s expression turned predatory.
“The biological cost of the chrysalis is immense.
The girls’ bodies are burning through calories and cellular material at ten times the normal rate.
They need a constant supply of compatible stem cells to survive the transition.”
He pointed to the IV line they were inserting into my arm.
“Your blood,
Elara,
is the only fuel that won’t be rejected by their systems.
You are the biological furnace that will keep them from burning out.”
I looked at the IV,
the clear liquid beginning to drip into my veins.
It felt cold,
like liquid nitrogen.
“You’re going to bleed me dry,”
I realized.
“Eventually,”
Julian admitted with a shrug.
“But by then,
the new world will have arrived.
You should be proud.
Few mothers get to literally give their lives for the future of the species.”
As the aircraft began to descend,
I saw our destination.
It was a massive,
brutalist complex carved into the side of a mountain in the Canadian wilderness.
Searchlights swept the landing pad,
and hundreds of soldiers stood in formation.
This was the heart of the Aethelgard.
This was where the Russo legacy went to die.
As we touched down,
I closed my eyes and focused on the only thing I had left.
My connection to the girls.
I didn't think about the pain or the fear.
I thought about the smell of their hair after a bath.
I thought about the way Sadie’s nose crinkles when she laughs.
I thought about the way Lucy holds my hand when she’s scared.
And in the darkness of my mind,
I heard a whisper.
It was Lucy.
“Mommy…
don't let the fire go out.”
I opened my eyes,
a new resolve hardening in my chest.
May you like
Julian thought he had captured the anchor.
He didn't realize that an anchor is also a weight that can drag a ship to the bottom of the sea.
