Page 79 of Lost Echoes

He staggers, shocked. “What?”

“Sedative,” she says. “You don’t get to monologue your way out of this.”

Radley crumples to the floor, breathing shallow.

The alarms slow. The lights dim.

For a moment, there’s blessed silence.

Then Phoenix looks at me, a flicker of awareness breaking through the static. “You can end it. You’re the last thread.”

I kneel beside him, hands shaking. “Tell me how.”

He gestures weakly to the console behind him. “Cut the signal, sever the feed.”

But I can’t move.

Sofia bolts over to me and blocks my view of the console. She turns around. “Destroying this should wipe everything. The data, the evidence. All of it. You just have to destroy it.”

Phoenix’s hand closes around my wrist. “If you don’t do it, it starts again. They’ll rebuild it somewhere else.”

My pulse thunders. Evidence or freedom. It’s a choice no survivor should ever have to make.

Sofia looks at me. “Kenzi, decide.”

The thread at our feet glows faintly, pulsing with light, as if it’s waiting.

I meet her eyes. “We end it.”

And before either of them can respond, I slam my hands down on the console.

The lights explode white.

Silence.

At first, I think I’ve gone deaf. There’s no sound, only light. It bleeds through everything, white and seemingly endless. Then it finally fades to gray.

I’m on the floor, the console smoking beside me. My hands are shaking, and my fingers are burning at the tips. The thread that covered the floor is gone. Only ash remains, soft and weightless against my palms.

Sofia kneels next to me, her voice raw. “You did it. The signal’s down.”

I blink through the haze. “Radley?”

She turns her head. The doctor lies crumpled against the far wall, still breathing but unmoving. The sedative held.

Phoenix is slumped near the console, mask shattered completely. His chest rises, shallow but steady. The light that had been pulsing beneath his skin has gone dark.

I crawl closer. “Phoenix?”

His eyes flicker open, and now they’re clear. “It’s quiet. Finally quiet.”

I take his hand. It’s cold, but not lifeless. “You’re free now.”

He shakes his head weakly. “No, just… finished.”

Sofia touches my shoulder. “We have to move. The emergency failsafe will trigger. This whole place will bury itself.”

I look up at her, voice low. “Go. You have to get the evidence out. I’ll get him.”