Breaking Point
I could feel the weight of his words like a physical blow. Erase me? The idea that they could simply remove me from existence as if I were nothing more than an inconvenience made my stomach turn. But I wasn't ready to let that happen. Not yet.
The older man stood up slowly from his chair, his movements calculated, controlled. He was in no rush. He had all the time in the world, but I didn't. My body was tense with fear, my mind racing with a thousand different plans, none of which felt like they would work. I was trapped in a spider's web, and it seemed like every time I tried to move, I only got more entangled.
"You don't understand, Sarah," he continued, his voice cold but not unkind. "You've wandered into a world that doesn't let people like you in. And when you stumble into something like this, it's better to just walk away. You can't fight us. We're everywhere."
I clenched my fists at my sides, doing my best to ignore the lump that had formed in my throat. "You don't know me," I said, my voice more forceful than I felt. "I don't walk away from anything. Not until I get the answers I deserve."
The man smiled at my defiance, almost amused. But there was something about that smile that made my skin crawl. "You have spirit. I'll give you that. But it won't save you. People like you—people who think they can change things—they're always the first ones to fall."
I didn't reply. I didn't have to. The words were pointless. He was trying to break me, but I wasn't going to let him see how much I was crumbling inside.
Suddenly, the door opened with a creak, and I turned instinctively to see who had entered. My heart stopped for a brief moment.
It was Olivia.
She stepped inside, her face pale, her eyes shadowed with fear. But it wasn't just fear. There was something else there—something darker, more calculated. I could see the way she held herself, the way she avoided meeting my gaze. This wasn't the Olivia I had known. This was someone different.
"Olivia…" My voice was shaky, and I couldn't help the tremor that ran through me. "What are you doing here?"
She hesitated, then finally met my gaze. For a brief second, I saw a flicker of guilt in her eyes, but it was gone before I could process it.
"They're right, you know," Olivia said softly, her voice hollow. "You can't win this. You don't know what you're up against."
I shook my head, my chest tightening. "No. You're lying. You don't really believe that. You've been part of this all along, haven't you?"
Olivia's lips pressed into a thin line, and for the first time, I saw the full weight of her resignation. "I don't have a choice, Sarah. None of us do."
Her words hit me like a slap. She didn't have a choice. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This wasn't the person I had trusted. This wasn't the friend who had laughed with me, confided in me, and promised she would help me. This was someone else, someone I didn't recognize.
"You knew all this time?" I whispered, my voice thick with disbelief. "You knew about the Shadows—about everything—and you didn't tell me?"
Olivia's gaze dropped to the floor, her fingers fidgeting with the edge of her sleeve. "I didn't want you involved," she said, her voice barely audible. "I never wanted you to get hurt."
"But I am hurt, Olivia!" I shot back, the words escaping before I could stop them. "This whole time, I've been fighting to get to the truth, and you've been lying to me. You've been hiding from me."
She flinched at my words, and I saw a flicker of something—regret, perhaps? But it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to fix what she had done, what she had allowed to happen.
The older man, who had been silently observing our exchange, finally spoke. His voice was cool, almost too patient. "You see, Sarah," he said, his words cutting through the tension in the room, "there are always people like Olivia. They do the dirty work for us. They think they're helping, but they're just pawns in a much bigger game. Just like you."
Olivia flinched, and I could see her struggle to hold it together. Her expression hardened, but I could tell she was fighting the guilt that was clawing at her insides. I wanted to believe her—wanted to believe that there was still a way to save her—but I was running out of time, and my faith in her was slipping away by the second.
I turned to face the older man, ignoring Olivia for the moment. "What do you want from me?" I asked, my voice raw. "Why won't you just leave me alone?"
The man's lips curled into another cold smile. "It's not about you, Sarah. Not really. It's about what you know. It's about what you're capable of. We've been keeping an eye on you for some time now. You've uncovered things that we didn't want uncovered, and now you're in our way."
My heart sank as the truth of his words hit me. All this time, I thought I was in control, that I was making the choices. But the truth was, they had been manipulating me from the start. I was never in control.
"Why?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper. "Why did you let me get this far?"
The older man's gaze darkened. "Because we needed you to get this far. We needed you to come to us. To prove that you were a threat. And now that we know you are, we'll have to deal with you accordingly."
My blood ran cold at his words. It was a warning. I had come too close, and now, there was no way to turn back.
Suddenly, Olivia stepped forward, her voice shaking. "Please, Sarah… You don't understand. You don't know everything. There are things… things that even I can't control. But I'm not the enemy."
"Then stop helping them!" I snapped, my frustration boiling over. "Stop being a part of this!"
Olivia's eyes welled up with tears, but she didn't speak. She just stood there, torn between her loyalty to them and the person I had once believed her to be.
I turned away from her, facing the man again. "You'll never get away with this," I spat. "I'll make sure the world knows what you've done. I'll expose all of you."
The man's eyes narrowed. "You think you're the hero, don't you?" he said softly. "But let me tell you something. Heroes don't survive in our world. People like you… people like us… we don't play by the same rules. You'll learn that soon enough."
A chill ran down my spine. I had crossed a line, but now, there was no going back. They were right—I wasn't just a pawn in their game. I was the game. And if I wanted to survive, I had to play by their rules.
The question was, could I?
As the door slammed shut behind me, I realized that I was standing on the edge of a precipice, with nothing left to hold me up but my will to fight. And fight I would. Because I had no other choice.