The Recall Trials
Chapter 74: What the Hell Did They Take From Me?

Chapter 74: What the Hell Did They Take From Me?

She was slipping.

Seconds away from death.

Zaara’s fingers clung to the edge of the final platform, her body dangling above the churning lava. One slip. One breath too late...and she’d be gone.

Her eyes found mine. Shimmering with fear and something worse...acceptance.

I wasn’t supposed to care.

But something... twitched inside my chest. A sharp, electric tug like a wire being yanked. Something I hadn’t felt in what felt like centuries.

I didn’t think. My body just moved.

I ran.

The heat smacked me in the face as I dove back toward the edge of the last platform. My knees slammed against the metal as I dropped down, just as her hand shot up.

I caught it.

The second our skin touched, something in me short-circuited.

It wasn’t just her hand. It was her pulse, her fear, the way her eyes was filled with tears. The way it never left mine. As if I were the only thing tethering her to this world.

The volcano beneath us belched a fresh surge of molten heat. Fire licked the edges of her legs.

That sound tore through me.

My heart jerked in my chest like a defibrillator had shocked it back to life.

"Don’t let me go," she whispered again, quieter now.

The rest of the room was chaos, screams echoing behind us as the lava claimed more lives. But in that moment, everything else faded.

Except her.

Her panicked eyes locked onto mine.

"Please don’t let me go."

Time itself stopped.

It wasn’t the game’s doing. It was something inside me...freezing me from the inside out.

The pull in my chest.

What the hell is this?

Not instinct. Not survival.

Not the cold programming the Aetherions had carved into my brain.

It was something else.

And before I could understand it, I was already moving feet slamming into the steel floor, body lunging toward the edge. My breath thundered in my ears. The floor beneath me vibrated. I dropped to my knees just as her grip began to slip.

The platform started sinking into the molten abyss.

She cried out.

Skin met skin..sweat, ash, heat, and desperation.

The world went quiet.

I couldn’t hear the others anymore. Not the screams. Not the roar of lava. Not the relentless ticking of the countdown clock.

All I could hear...was her breathing.

And all I could see...were her. Her terrified eyes.

"Vincent," she said again.

Not as a plea.

Not as a curse.

But as something... softer.

"I’m not ready to die."

The volcano cracked below her, molten liquid bursting upward. A searing splash licked her leg, and her scream tore through the silence.

That sound..her scream...it did something.

Like someone had reached into my ribcage and twisted a live wire.

My grip tightened.

My heart stuttered.

My thoughts weren’t mine.

Her voice... God, why did it sound familiar? Like a lullaby hummed in another life. Like a memory clawing its way back from some black pit.

I clenched my jaw.

"Hold on," I growled.

And I pulled.

Her arm shook violently in my grip. Her legs dangled inches above the lava, the soles of her boots were already melting. I felt her slipping...but I wouldn’t let go.

I couldn’t.

But then. I growled and yanked with everything In me.

She flew upward, crashing into me.

We tumbled hard onto the cold, metal floor of the exit chamber. She lay across my chest, gasping, shaking. My arms were still locked around her, my heart pounding like a drum I hadn’t heard in years.

What... was this?

I stared down at her.

The squeeze in my chest wasn’t pain.

I shouldn’t feel anything.

So why do I feel... this?

I sat up, pushing her gently off me, trying to catch my breath.

My chest ached.

My hands were shaking.

Not from heat. But from her.

I sat up slowly and looked at her. She was breathing hard.

Then, she leaned in, quick and without hesitation, she kissed me.

My heart stopped.

Not skipped.

Stopped.

I shoved her off instantly, stumbling to my feet like she’d set me on fire.

"What the hell was that?!" I growled.

Zaara sat back, startled. Her lips parted, her eyes widened. "Then why did you save me?"

The room seemed to shrink around me.

I didn’t answer.

Couldn’t.

Because I didn’t know.

My hands were still trembling as I looked down at them. They didn’t look like my hands anymore. They looked foreign. Fragile.

I turned away, gripping my head as the quiet hum started in the back of my skull again.

That same high-pitched frequency I’d felt earlier in the mirror. Like static, like something broken trying to reboot.

The pain built.

Behind my eyes.

Behind my chest.

Something was wrong with me.

Something I couldn’t explain.

What the hell did they take from me?

03:00

The countdown blared above the lava pit.

Screams echoed behind me.

Footsteps. Slams. Grunts. The sharp clang of boots.

More contestants had finally caught up, leaping platform to platform in a desperate attempt to survive.

One girl screamed as her foot missed by an inch..just one inch and she plummeted straight into the molten illusion that was far too real. The splash hissed, the smell of scorched flesh filled the air, and her scream was cut off mid-breath.

People were still jumping.

Still falling.

I stood slowly.

Zaara lay gasping on the ground beside me, one hand clutching her chest like she could hold her heartbeat in place.

But I didn’t look at her.

Not anymore.

My eyes were locked on the exit door. That cold, metallic frame. Like it had been waiting for me. Like it knew I’d make it.

I walked toward it in silence.

02:24

I didn’t turn back.

Even when Zaara called softly behind me, "Vincent..."

Even when the others yelled, "Wait...hold the door!" and "We’re almost there!"

None of it reached me.

Not really.

I just walked.

My boots were streaked with ash, scorched at the soles. My shirt clung to me, soaked in heat and sweat and smoke. But I didn’t feel any of it.

Because something in me had gone quiet.

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