I couldn’t stop.

  I had to keep going.

  For her. For all of us.

  —

  After Luna finished her shower, it was my turn. I had already grown used to my burden, but facing the mirror still disturbed me. I couldn’t understand how I hadn’t lost control yet… how I could still recognize myself in that reflection.

  I started wearing loose clothes, avoiding exposure, hiding everything I could. It became routine. Even so, I didn’t know how much longer I could keep it up. Every night, as I went to sleep, the same fear followed me: the fear of no longer waking up as a human… but as one of those things.

  There was a knock on the bathroom door.

  “I’m coming, just a second.”

  Luna’s voice came muffled from the other side.

  “Erick… they’re calling for you.”

  Who could it be at this hour?

  When I stepped out of the bathroom, Luna was standing there. She was visibly nervous—restless eyes, stiff posture, as if bracing for the worst.

  “They’re outside,” she whispered. “A Black woman with short hair… some soldiers… and droids.”

  My stomach twisted.

  “Erick… what’s going on?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I opened the door.

  “Captain…”

  I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

  “What’s happening?”

  She didn’t answer right away.

  “Go. Now.”

  Two men lunged toward me.

  I anticipated their movements with ease. My body reacted before my mind could catch up.

  I punched the first one in the plexus. He was thrown nearly two meters back, crashing into the others. I spun and kicked the second man’s knee. The dry crack of breaking bone echoed through the corridor.

  “LUNA, CLOSE THE DOOR!”

  I shouted with all the air in my lungs.

  But it was already too late.

  One of the droids had her in its sights.

  My entire body burned. I knew it. I wouldn’t make it in time. I couldn’t stop that shot.

  “Erick… what’s happening?!” she screamed.

  “I’m sorry, Luna…”

  I took a step forward.

  My whole body burned with rage—but there was nothing I could do.

  “I surrender!”

  I turned and faced the captain.

  “Good choice, kid.”

  They restrained me. Thick, cold cuffs—made specifically for me.

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  Luna screamed, demanding answers. People from nearby quarters began stepping out. The noise had drawn dozens of curious—and terrified—eyes.

  Carlos appeared.

  “Sister, what’s going on here?”

  Only later would I learn that Carlos and the captain were siblings. He was the younger one. We served together now. Earlier that same battle, I had saved him from the claws of one of those creatures. He escaped with only a few scratches.

  He owed me his life.

  I hoped that meant something.

  “Silence. Orders from above.”

  “But why? What did Erick do?!” Luna shouted.

  “Darilis, do it.”

  The soldier beside me stepped forward and tore my clothes open.

  Everything I had hidden was exposed.

  The sight of crimson veins pulsing across my body, crawling beneath my skin—alive. Grotesque. Terrifying. Even I hadn’t gotten used to it, despite seeing it every day in the mirror.

  For them… it was too much.

  They all stepped back.

  “He’s one of those things…”

  “They’re among us…”

  “What do we do now?”

  Panic and paranoia filled the air.

  I turned my face away.

  Luna was on her knees. Green eyes wide with terror. One hand covered her mouth as tears streamed freely down her face.

  I couldn’t keep looking.

  “I’m sorry…”

  I whispered.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  There were no words capable of easing that pain.

  They dragged me through the corridors while everyone stared at me with fear… and disgust. I just wanted it to end. I felt like some kind of twisted circus attraction.

  Corridor after corridor, until the elevator.

  Sector 3.

  I thought we were going up.

  But the elevator started going down.

  My heart raced.

  Sector 4.

  They were taking me there.

  When the doors opened, I saw the corridor again. This time, the lights didn’t flicker. The environment was colder. Cleaner. More controlled.

  They took me all the way to the end.

  I knew that place. I knew that room.

  When we entered, everything was different. The blood of Saklas they had stored was gone. Only the tank remained… now repaired.

  Empty.

  Maybe not for long.

  “Erick…”

  The voice echoed through the room.

  I knew that voice… but it sounded different.

  Footsteps approached. A silhouette emerged.

  As she came closer, I saw the repairs. Cybernetics. Replaced organs. Exposed metal. The mechanical sound of moving parts echoed with every step.

  “Dr. Helena…?”

  “Yes. Well… what’s left of me, at least.”

  Her eyes were now black, like camera lenses. From her abdomen up to her neck, everything was metal. She wore only an open lab coat, making no attempt to hide what she had become.

  “Most of my organs were no longer usable.

  We had to replace them. And there wasn’t enough synthetic skin to cover everything.”

  She tilted her head slightly.

  “But honestly… does that even matter? The world is ending anyway.”

  She stepped closer.

  “Don’t look at me like that. I’m still a woman. Well… part of me is,”

  she said, laughing softly.

  Then her gaze hardened.

  “Good boy. Before he died… that bastard left something special inside you.”

  My blood ran cold, remembering what they had done to Saklas.

  “Something that might be our hope.”

  She leaned in.

  “You could be the key to all of this, kid.”

  “Me?”

  I swallowed hard.

  “Have you looked at me? Seen what I’ve become? Do you really think I can still be called human?”

  “And have you looked at me?” she replied.

  “It’s all relative, kid. We’re talking right now, aren’t we? Yes… we’re still human. At least enough.”

  She examined me like an unfinished project.

  “I need to understand how this works inside you.”

  —

  Luna

  Erick was taken away.

  And I couldn’t do anything.

  His body… I couldn’t believe he had hidden all of that from me. I knew something was wrong, something different—but this…

  How foolish I was.

  My chest burned, as if I were breathing fire. It wasn’t just guilt. It was anger. Anger at those who took him from me. Anger at this world. Anger at myself.

  The guards were still holding me when I heard a voice.

  “Release her.”

  “Mr. Crox.”

  The man now stood a few meters away. His expression was exhausted. Something about him felt different, as if a much heavier weight now rested on his shoulders.

  “WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO HIM?!

  “He didn’t hurt anyone! You treated him like a monster!

  “You all know him! You know he’s not one of those things!

  “MY BROTHER IS NOT A MONSTER, YOU BASTARDS!”

  “Luna, calm down,”

  he said, his voice heavy.

  “I’m sorry. But we can’t take that risk. Too much is at stake. You wouldn’t understand.”

  “You took him from me! What are you going to do to him?!”

  He sighed.

  “If you calm down and come with me, I can explain. Maybe we still have a chance.

  But I need you to listen.”

  I took a deep breath.

  “Fine. Then talk.”

  I followed him to the Sector 2 elevator.

  We went to his office.

  Inside, there was an older man—scruffy beard and hair, partially burned. The badge on his chest read:

  Dr. Lúcius Varela.

  So this was him.

  They said he was reclusive. That he rarely left Sector 3. Always buried in machines and experiments.

  And now he was here.

  What the hell were they planning?

  And what was my brother’s true role in all of this?