Chapter 18 – Awakening
Chapter 18 – Awakening
The words cut through Zane like a jagged blade, twisting deep into his chest and shredding what was left of his fragile hope. An icy coldness seeped through his veins, numbing everything except the storm raging inside him. Every fear, every nightmare he had buried clawed their way back in an instant, tearing open wounds he thought he'd sealed long ago.
"No..."
The thought echoed hollowly in his mind, as if even his inner voice couldn't believe it. "How... How could it be? The system... It said—"
But no matter how much he tried to string the words together, his mind refused to form a coherent sentence. He sat there, paralyzed—not from the straps still partially tied to him, but from the crushing weight of disbelief.
It couldn't be. It shouldn't be. The system had promised. It told him he would be accepted. That he was different.
He wanted to scream, to shout at them to check again, to beg for another injection, another test—anything that would keep his dream from slipping through his fingers.
But all that came was a bitter, lifeless smile. A broken curve of the lips that held no emotion except hopelessness. The silence that followed was deafening. It echoed louder than any scream.
This was it.
The last nail in the coffin. The final betrayal of a world that had already taken so much from him.
Even when he tried not to expect anything—even when he prepared for the worst—life had found a way to mock him once more. It dangled hope before him like a carrot before a starving man, then ripped it away the moment he reached out.