Chapter 233: Chapter 232: Julian Fletcher and Asher, Who Will I Choose?
"Cece!" Asher roared. He tried to stop me, but Lucas Grant grabbed his legs and pulled him back.
I dragged the axe Felix Foster had left on the ground and walked forward, step by step, across the floor tiles.
It was as if I somehow knew that particular floor tile had no trap.
If you looked closely, the traps were where the dominoes had fallen face-up.
Reaching the middle of the room, I looked up at the projector above and, in a fit of pure rage, smashed it.
The projection was destroyed. The holographic little girl slowly blurred, became indistinct, and then vanished.
But soon, another projector on the right brought her image back. "Cece, congratulations. You’ve learned to be angry."
She was mocking me.
She wanted to provoke me.
I smashed one projector after another until I collapsed powerlessly to the floor.
As I destroyed all the projectors, the bloody head on the floor gradually faded away.
It was an AI-controlled hologram, not... not Madeline Quinn’s real head.
But I had to admit, they had truly, successfully, enraged me.
I got up and started hacking at the floor, again and again. I wanted to open a gap. I frantically clawed at the floor tiles, my hands covered in blood as my tears splattered on the ground. "Madeline Quinn..."
"Madeline..."
I screamed her name, clawing at the tiles like a madwoman.
’Come out...’
’Don’t die.’
Asher shoved Lucas Grant aside and followed the path on the floor over to me. He tried to stop me, but I pushed him away.
My tears fell numbly to the ground.
Through the cracks, I could see Madeline Quinn below. She was on the verge of death, about to be submerged in bloody water.
But I couldn’t save her.
"Cece... Are you in despair? Does it feel suffocating?" the voice echoed again. "You’re human. Humans have feelings—the seven passions and six desires, love and hate, obsession and folly..."
’Despair?’
’Is this what despair feels like?’
I pounded on the floor frantically, blow after blow.
Asher wrapped his arms around me from behind, holding me tight.
I could only watch as Madeline Quinn, visible through the cracks in the floor, was swallowed by the red, bloody water.
I couldn’t save her.
This was despair.
"This is only the beginning, Cecilia Caldwell... You’ve just lost a friend. Soon, you’ll lose much more." That eerie voice echoed. The person behind the fourteenth floor was after me!
"Get out here! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!" I screamed, losing control as I scanned my surroundings.
I wanted to kill someone.
’I want to kill her...’
My whole body was trembling, and I couldn’t stop the tears.
My mind was flooded with memories of all the moments I had shared with Madeline Quinn over the years.
"Cece, if you can’t find anyone to marry in the future, we can just live together."
"Cece... I don’t want to get married. I want to spend my life with you."
"Cece, what’s so great about Julian Fletcher? Can’t you just stop liking him?"
"Cece, let’s go shopping."
"Hi, Cecilia Caldwell, my name is Madeline Quinn. I just transferred here, too. We’ll be classmates from now on. Can we be friends?"
"Cecilia?"
I cried out in despair, my body shaking uncontrollably.
Asher remained silent, just holding me tightly. He could feel my pain.
Even if I didn’t say a word, he was the one most keenly aware of my emotions.
It’s not that I don’t have feelings, or the seven passions and six desires, or love and hate, obsession and folly. I just... I just don’t know how to express them.
And Asher... he was the only one who could sense every stir of my emotions.
"Cece... I’m here," he soothed me, his voice hoarse.
Telling me he was always there.
For so many years, he had always been there.
Julian Fletcher and Lucas Grant were frantically pounding on the floor, trying to save Felix Foster.
But I couldn’t pry it open, and neither could they.
Zeke Shaw was on his knees, his hands a bloody mess. His fingers dug into the cracks between the tiles as he tried to pull them apart, struggling and crying out in despair.
In my numbness, my five senses seemed to slowly sharpen.
This was despair.
I knew this was what despair felt like.
"The first person to activate the destruction device can leave alive. The price is... everyone else will die," the eerie voice returned.
I instinctively looked toward the end of the hall and saw Tim Zane, the one who was always so quiet. I don’t know when he did it, but he had already run to the far end.
He stared at the red button on the wall, his gaze trembling as he glanced back at us.
"Press it, and an escape route will appear." The voice was tempting Tim Zane, urging him to press the button.
We all held our breath, watching Tim Zane warily.
Tim Zane shook his head, crying. "I’m sor- I’m sorry. I’m so scared. I want to get out of here. I’m sorry..."
’This is human nature. To save his own life, he would let everyone else die.’
"Tim Zane!" Claire Lawson cried out his name through her tears.
But Tim Zane pressed the button anyway.
He shook his head, weeping. "I know I did wrong things in the past, but I’ve changed. All these years, I’ve been doing good deeds to make up for my past mistakes. I know I shouldn’t have stood by and done nothing when they set that fire to hurt Asher and Charlie, but what could I do? I’m not as strong as them! I just want to live! What did I do wrong? I’ve been so diligent all these years, I’ve worked so hard. I just want to live a normal life! Why did they bring me to a place like this? Why!"
He wailed in despair, and seeing the new passageway that had appeared, he bolted through it without a second thought.
"Self-destruct sequence initiated."
Just as Asher pulled me toward the escape route, iron bars slammed down, trapping all of us inside.
There was no way out.
Behind us, the room suddenly went dark. Countless red infrared sensor lights appeared, aiming at each of our foreheads and chests.
We knew all too well that behind those lights were countless remote-controlled machine guns.
And we had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
"Let’s play a game." In the darkness, the eerie holographic girl appeared again, smiling at me. "Cece, him or him. Only one can live. You choose. I’ll give you twenty seconds."
She pointed at Julian Fletcher and Asher.
She wanted me to choose which one of them would live.
I clenched my fists, my body trembling. Rage filled me with the urge to destroy everything.
I glanced in the direction of the camera. "I will kill you..."
"Cece, I’m helping you. Helping you figure out your own heart. Don’t you want to know who you truly love? Is it Sebastian Lancaster, or is it Julian Fletcher?" the eerie voice said with a laugh.
"Countdown beginning: 20... 19, 18, 17..." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
Neither Julian Fletcher nor Asher said a word. They just looked at me.
I knew they were also waiting for my choice.
I raised the axe and smashed it toward a hidden holographic lens, my voice low. "Since when do I need you to tell me what to do?"
Before the countdown finished, I ran toward the wall diagonally in front of me, used it as a foothold to launch myself up, and tore down one of the infrared sensors, slamming it to the ground.
Lucas Grant pulled Zeke Shaw and Claire Lawson, quickly moving them away from their previous spot.
Asher and Julian Fletcher also dodged out of the way.
The machine guns began spraying bullets in the direction where we had just been.
Without the infrared sensors, they were like headless chickens, just firing blindly.
"Cece." Amid the chaos, Asher found the switch to control the iron bars.
He pulled me along, dodging the gunfire, and we escaped.
"Cece!" Julian Fletcher also got out and reached for my hand, but Asher, with lightning-fast reflexes, yanked me back.
He held me, breathing heavily, and shot a defiant look at Julian Fletcher. "Cece, I’d like to know, too. How would you choose between me and Julian Fletcher..."
Julian Fletcher glared angrily at Asher. "Are you insane?! Now’s not the time for choices! Let’s go!"
Lucas Grant was also escaping, pulling along a devastated Zeke Shaw and dragging a terrified Claire Lawson with one hand.
As for Erin Whittaker, she was unbelievably lucky to be alive.
Julian Fletcher needed to protect her to learn the secrets of The Genetics Group, so he couldn’t let her die.
She had actually managed to survive all the way to the fourteenth floor.
"Cece... would you choose me?" Asher asked stubbornly, his eyes red-rimmed, like a child throwing a tantrum.