Chapter 10 - The Countdown
The red LED numbers on the digital timer bled a harsh, rhythmic glow across Victoria’s face.
00:48... 00:47... 00:46...
"Victoria, have you lost your mind?!" Elena shrieked, lunging forward with a rare display of frantic terror, abandoning all her composure as she clawed at the air between them. "You're standing right next to it! You'll kill yourself along with us!"
"Good," Victoria replied, her voice eerily calm as she stepped back, pressing her spine against the reinforced steel door of the boiler. "At least then I won't have to spend another second wearing a name that was built on murder."
Julian didn't hesitate. Ignoring Elena entirely, he lunged across the concrete floor, closing the distance between them with surprising speed for a man his age. He threw his arms around Victoria, tackling her hard to the damp floor just as a sharp hiss erupted from the ignition charge.
"Let me go!" Victoria screamed, thrashing beneath him, her fists pounding against his shoulders. "Let me burn! It’s the only way to end it!"
"I lost you once twenty-two years ago, and I am not losing you again," Julian grunted, pinning her wrists to the concrete with all his strength while keeping his body arched over hers to shield her from the inevitable blast.
00:25... 00:24... 00:23...
Elena screamed, turning and scrambling backward toward the stairwell, her hands tearing at her hair as she hauled herself up the concrete steps with desperate, animalistic panic.
"Julian! Get out of there, you fool!" Elena’s voice echoed down from the darkness of the stairwell before the sound of her frantic footsteps faded into the distance.
Julian didn't look back. He kept his eyes locked on Victoria, whose furious thrashing had suddenly slowed, replaced by wracking, silent sobs as the realization of what she was doing washed over her.
"Why... why didn't you just let me stay in the dark?" Victoria wept, her voice breaking as her hands curled into the fabric of Julian’s black suit jacket.
"Because the dark is where monsters live, Victoria," Julian whispered, his own tears finally mixing with the soot on his face. "And you are not a monster. You are my daughter."
00:08... 00:07... 00:06...
Julian squeezed his eyes shut, wrapping his arms tighter around her and bracing for the shockwave.
The digital timer hit zero.
A deafening roar ripped through the subterranean vault, followed by a blinding flash of orange light that swallowed the darkness whole. The concrete floor shuddered violently beneath them, and the heavy iron pipes overhead groaned, snapping from their moorings and crashing down like iron rain.
Then... silence.
The acrid smell of burnt gas filled the air, but the explosion had fizzled out, choked by the damp, oxygen-deprived concrete walls before it could ignite the surrounding rubble.
Julian slowly opened his eyes, coughing violently as plumes of gray smoke drifted past them. He looked down. Victoria was lying limp beneath him, her eyes wide, staring blankly at the ruined ceiling above.
"Victoria?" Julian choked out, shaking her gently. "Victoria, look at me."
She didn't move. But as Julian reached out to check her pulse, a faint, metallic clinking sound echoed from the dark stairwell behind them.
Julian froze, turning his head slowly toward the shadows as a pair of polished leather shoes stepped quietly onto the basement floor.
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"Well, well, well," a smooth, unfamiliar voice cut through the smoke. "It seems the Blackwood family has quite a talent for burning down their own house."
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