Chapter 2808 Story 2809: The Face Beneath the Skin

The creature’s enormous hand burst through the shattered barrier.

“RYAN!” Zara screamed.

Ryan threw himself sideways as black fingers smashed into the floor. Concrete erupted around him, and golden fluid splashed across the laboratory walls. The creature’s countless faces twisted in agony, their mouths opening to release a deafening chorus.

Adam seized Zara and dragged her behind an overturned console.

“Stay down!” he shouted.

Ryan scrambled to his feet. Across the chamber, the woman who looked like his mother stood inside the creature’s shifting body. Her lips moved silently, but her eyes pleaded with him.

“Help me!” she finally cried.

Ryan reached toward her.

Then he noticed something impossible.

Her reflection in the broken glass was not human. It showed a tall, faceless figure standing behind her, its arms wrapped around her shoulders.

Ryan stopped.

“You’re not my mother.”

The woman’s expression collapsed. Her face stretched unnaturally, skin splitting around a mouth filled with golden teeth.

“Such a cruel thing to say to the child you carried,” it whispered.

The creature lunged.

Ryan rolled beneath its arm, grabbed a fallen metal rod, and struck the nearest cable bundle. Sparks exploded. The golden veins covering the chamber flickered, and the creature recoiled with a sound like tearing metal.

Adam stared at him. “The cables! They’re feeding it!”

Zara recovered her rifle and fired at the exposed connections. Bullets severed several wires, sending showers of sparks across the floor.

The creature shrieked. Every face embedded in its body screamed separately.

For a moment, Ryan saw his real mother beneath the shifting darkness. Her face was pale, exhausted, and unmistakably human.

“Ryan,” she whispered. “Your father is alive.”

Before he could answer, the creature swallowed her face beneath a wave of black flesh.

Ryan charged forward, but Adam blocked his path.

“She’s gone!”

“You don’t know that!”

“I know what happens when it gets inside your head!” Adam shouted. “It uses everything you love until you willingly become its prisoner.”

Ryan stared at his brother. “Then why did you bring me here?”

Adam’s expression hardened.

“Because I was ordered to.”

A metallic click sounded behind them.

Captain Hamza stood in the laboratory doorway, holding a compact weapon aimed directly at Ryan. His uniform was torn, and blood ran down his forehead.

“Step away from the subjects,” he ordered.

Zara raised her rifle. “You brought us into this?”

Hamza ignored her.

“Ryan, you must understand. Your mother was only the first vessel. Adam was the second attempt.”

Ryan slowly turned toward his brother.

Adam lowered his head.

Hamza continued, “But neither of them was the real objective.”

The creature suddenly became still.

Every golden eye in the chamber turned toward Ryan.

Hamza’s weapon trembled.

“You,” he whispered. “You were designed to contain it.”

Ryan felt a burning sensation spread across his chest. Beneath his shirt, a golden symbol began glowing against his skin.

From inside the creature came a familiar voice.

“Now, my firstborn, open your heart.”

The symbol split into seven radiant lines.

And something inside Ryan answered.