Reborn in the Enemy's Embrace

Under the projector, Sophia Milford... AKA "me" stood, well and alive.

She flashed us a smile and opened her mouth.

"Damien... will you marry me?"

I glanced at Damien. He was influenced as well and started making his way forward.

Afraid that he’d also be affected, I held onto Dexter anxiously.

Thankfully, he was immune.

He held me in his arms and whispered, "It must be a fake if the first person you call out to is Damien. If it were actually you, you’d definitely call out my name first."

I leaned against his shoulder in resignation. "How could you be jealous at a time like this?"

"Violette..."

Zion pulled her back, but she was adamant about moving forward.

She walked toward the hologram and reached out to touch "Sophia".

"I’m sorry, Sophia," she choked out the words. "I should’ve brought you away sooner."

The floor abruptly opened up again with a loud snap. Violette fell down as well.

There was the sound of machinery.

Everyone could hear it. They could hear the screams. Afterward, they smelled the blood.

Then, blood started oozing out from the tiles where Joel and Violette fell.

I tried to hold onto Dexter’s collar. My heart was beating rapidly, and my entire body was shaking.

It was that feeling again...

The same feeling where I’d go mad from despair, but I couldn’t do anything at all.

My chest was numb yet aching at the same time. I wanted to cry, scream, and go insane.

"Dexter..." My voice was hoarse. It felt suffocating, but I had no energy to fight back. I was desperately trying to hold Damien back.

Dexter reached out and helped me restrain him.

Damien regained his senses. His breathing was rapid.

Juliet appeared to be influenced and tried to walk forward as well.

Damien grabbed her and yelled solemnly, "Get a hold of yourself, Juliet!"

After seeing Violette fall down with his own eyes, Zion went mad and tried to go over as well. He only regained his senses after Eason punched him. Quinn was sobbing on the floor.

Everyone was in despair.

What did it feel like to watch the people you cared about-your friends, the ones you loved-fall into an abyss and die a horrific death in front of you? "Can you feel it? This is despair. It’s suffocation, sadness, pain, struggle, and anger..."

The girl under the projector laughed eerily, as though she was provoking us. "And the lot of you, you’re cowards."

I clenched my fists tightly. My entire body was shaking, but I didn’t know how to express my emotions.

Was it anger? Was it pain?

What kind of feeling was this?

"She’s dead... She was your best friend," the girl taunted me.

The floorboards opened up, and she held up a bloody head.

It was Violette’s head...

"I’ll kill all of you!" Zion struggled against Eason’s restraint like a madman.

Quinn was crying in despair.

Zion was going mad.

Eason was holding him with all his might.

Juliet hid in Damien’s arms, trembling.

Damien was looking at me with bloodshot eyes.

In that split moment, it was as though Dexter’s heartbeat was all I could hear.

"Monster, she’s a monster! An emotionless monster!"

My head felt like it was about to split open from the pain.

I fell onto my knees, panting.

All the blame and accusations the children used to throw at me echoed in my ears.

"Sophia... She has no emotion. She never gets angry or feels afraid. She has no feelings."

"Why did you kill that bird, Sophia?" Peter’s voice was laced with interrogation.

"Its wings were broken. A bird with a

broken wing only meant death. Instead of letting it die a painful death by predators and being fed on by insects, I wanted to help it..."

"Sophia?" Dexter was calling me.

I snapped back into reality. I stared down at the girl who was taunting me with reddened eyes.

I recognized her. The little girl in the red dress was me when I was younger. It was Sophia as a child.

"Sophia!" pushed Dexter aside and

crossed the red line. I stepped

the tiles and walked toward the

center step by step.

Anger?

I seemed to have felt it!

"Sophia!"

Dexter was yelling. He wanted to stop me, but Eason was hugging his legs, holding him back.

Dragging the ax Joel left on the floor, I made my way down the hall.

I stepped on the tiles one by one as though I knew that those weren’t a trap.

Upon closer inspection, the trap was right above where the dominos fell.

I walked toward the center and looked up at the projector. Furious, I smashed it.

The projector was destroyed. The girl who was projected slowly blurred and then disappeared.

However, she soon reappeared from the projector on the right.

"Congratulations, Sophia. You’ve learned how to be angry."

She was mocking me.

She was trying to provoke me.

I broke one projector after another before slumping listlessly on the floor.

After all the projectors were gone, the bloody head on the floor slowly dissipated as well.

It was a hologram; it wasn’t actually Violette’s head.

But I had to admit, they actually managed to anger me.

I got up and started axing the floor, trying to create an opening. I desperately clawed at the tiles until my hands bled.

"Violette..." I cried, my tears dripping onto the tiles.

"Violette!" I screamed and cried her name as I tried to pry the tiles open like a madwoman.

Come out...

Don’t die.

Dexter pushed Eason aside. He followed the marks on the floor and made his way over. He tried to stop me but was pushed aside.

I felt numb as my tears fell onto the ground.

Through the gap, I could see Violette down the abyss. She was barely alive, and she looked as though she was about to drown in a pool of blood. Yet, I couldn’t save her.

"Have you lost all hope, Sophia? Does it feel suffocating?" The voice rang out again. "You’re human, and humans have feelings and desires." Hopeless?

Was this what hopelessness felt like?

I pounded on the floor with fists as Dexter tightly embraced me from the back.

I watched through the gap between the tiles as Violette was swallowed by the red pool of blood.

I couldn’t save her.

This was what despair felt like.

"This is just the beginning, Sophia... You’ve just lost friend. Soon, you’ll lose a lot more,"

The people behind the incident on the 14th floor were after me all along!

"Come out! I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill you!" I screamed while looking at my surroundings.

I wanted to kill someone.

I wanted to kill her...

My entire body was shaking. I couldn’t hold back my tears.

The time I spent with Violette all these years flashed in my head.

"If we never end up getting married, let’s spend the rest of our lives together, Sophia."

"Sophia... I don’t want to get married. I want to spend my days with you."

"What’s so great about Damien, Sophia? Can you not like him anymore? "Let’s go shopping, Sophia."

"Hi, Sophia. My name is Violette Qualls. I just transferred here too."

"We’ll be classmates from now on. Can we be friends?"

"Sophia?"

I cried out in despair, my entire body shaking.

Dexter stayed silent and held me tightly. He could feel my pain.

Even if I didn’t say a single thing, he was the one who was the most attuned to my feelings.

And Dexter was the only one who understood me. "I’m here, Sophia," he comforted me with a hoarse voice.

He was the one who told me he’d always be there for me.