The paranoia had become a living thing inside me, clawing at my ribs, whispering that every distant siren, every footstep in the hallway, every shadow moving past the window was the beginning of the end.
I paced the small apartment like a caged animal, the cheap middle-class walls feeling thinner than ever. The reinforced door I had been so proud of now seemed like a joke. Skylar was awake. She was talking. She was telling the world exactly what I had done to her. The Harrington family had the money, the power, and the rage to burn entire districts to the ground if it meant finding me. Corporate security teams were already tearing through Skyfall City. Private investigators were offering rewards. One slip, one wrong word from a neighbor, one lucky scan from a patrol drone, and they would come for us.
We were going to die. Or worse — they would take Sophie and wipe her completely, erase everything that made her *her*. They would lock me away or execute me on the spot for "kidnapping and abuse of a high-profile citizen." Skylar would be "rescued" and turned into a martyr for the family's public image.
I couldn't stay still. I kept checking the window, peering through the blinds at the street below. The neon lights of Skyfall City's middle-class district flickered in the night — cleaner than the undergrid but still dirty enough to feel familiar. A few people walked the streets, but nothing suspicious. Yet.
The door finally opened.
Sophie stepped in first, calm and composed as always, followed by Lecy carrying a worn, dirty backpack. The girl looked exhausted, her thin frame hunched under the weight of whatever few possessions she still owned from her old life on the streets. Her clothes were the same torn ones she had been wearing when I found her — a short skirt that barely covered anything and a cropped top that hung loosely on her frail body.
"Put your stuff in the room next to ours," I told Lecy, pointing to the small second room. My voice came out rougher than I intended. "Settle in. Don't make noise."
Lecy nodded silently and walked into the room without a word. I followed her briefly, watching as she dropped the bag on the floor and looked around the bare space. She didn't say anything. She just stood there, staring at the walls like she was already accepting her new prison. I left her there and closed the door.
I returned to the main room where Sophie was waiting near the window.
"We need to find me a new job," I said, rubbing my face. "Something that pays better than the warehouse. Something that doesn't put us on anyone's radar. I can't keep doing this forever."
Sophie nodded, about to reply, when I heard muffled talking coming from Lecy's room. Low voices. A phone call.
I frowned and walked over, knocking once before opening the door.
Lecy was standing in the middle of the room, holding a cheap burner phone to her ear. Her eyes widened when she saw me.
"Who the fuck are you talking to?" I demanded, stepping inside.
Lecy's head twisted. She reached into her bag and pulled out a small pistol, hands shaking but aim steady on my chest.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, voice cracking. "They offered me money. Enough to start a new life. I can't live like this anymore."
I lunged for the gun.
She fired.
The first shot hit me in the stomach — a white-hot explosion of pain that folded me in half. I staggered, blood pouring between my fingers as I clutched the wound. The second shot hit Sophie, who had rushed in behind me. Lecy kept firing — three more shots into Sophie's chest and stomach as she collapsed in front of me. Sophie's eyes met mine, wide with shock and pain, blood bubbling from her lips as she fell to the floor, her body jerking with each impact.
"No!" I roared, trying to reach her, blood soaking my shirt and dripping onto the floor.
Lecy spoke into the phone, voice trembling but determined. "Job is done. They're down."
The door exploded inward with a deafening boom.
Corporate agents in matte-black exo-suits stormed the apartment, red visors glowing, heavy rifles raised. They were clearly hired by the Harrington family. One of them kicked the gun from Lecy's hand and dragged her away. She didn't resist. She just looked at me with empty eyes as they pulled her out.
I pointed my middle finger at the agents with my good arm, blood pouring from my stomach, before the world went dark as I collapsed beside Sophie's motionless body.
They threw me and Sophie's body into the back of a van. The ride was rough, my vision fading in and out from the pain in my gut. Sophie wasn't moving. Her eyes were open but empty, blood pooling beneath her.
The van stopped violently. The doors opened. They dragged us out and threw us into a massive landfill on the edge of the city — mountains of trash, rusted metal, broken electronics, and toxic waste.
I lay there among the garbage, barely alive, blood soaking my clothes. The agents stood over us, pouring gasoline from cans onto our bodies.
Fucking fate, I thought, the pain almost blinding. Giving me the same end I gave Skylar. I'll survive. I must survive.
The match hit.
Flames engulfed us.