Chapter 9 - Insider
Night fell like a held breath.
The city did not sleep—it waited.
Streetlights hummed softly beneath low-hanging clouds, their pale glow stretching across empty roads and shuttered shops. Windows were dark. Doors were locked.
Even the air felt restrained, as though the world itself had learned to move quietly.
Victoria stood before the mirror, fingers trembling.
The mask lay on the table beside her.
Matte black. Smooth. Featureless except for two narrow slits where her eyes would be. It wasn't elegant. It wasn't intimidating in the way X's gas mask was.
It was worse.
It erased her.
She stared at her reflection—pale skin, dark circles under her eyes, lips pressed tight like she was afraid words might escape without permission.
This isn't me, she thought.
Her resonance stirred faintly, lightning prickling under her skin like static before a storm. It responded to her fear, to her anger, to the hollow pit in her chest that never went away anymore.
Behind her, the door slid open without a sound.
"You're hesitating," X said calmly.
She didn't turn.
"I'm thinking," she replied.
"That's the same thing."
She closed her eyes briefly, then picked up the mask. It felt colder than she expected.
"What if I refuse?" she asked quietly.
X didn't answer immediately.
When he did, his voice was closer.
"You won't."
She met his gaze in the mirror. His gas mask reflected nothing—no emotion, no humanity.
"Tonight," he continued, "you will stand beside me. You will say nothing unless I tell you to. You will not fight. You will not run."
"And if I do?"
X leaned in, his voice dropping just enough to crawl into her ears.
"Then I make an example out of someone you'll recognize."
Her breath caught.
That was how he controlled her.
Not with chains.
With anticipation.
She put the mask on.
The world narrowed.
The square was different at night.
The same place where panic had erupted days earlier now sat under a heavy silence, barricades lining the streets, armed patrols stationed at every corner. Drones hovered overhead, red lights blinking like distant eyes.
People still came.
They always did.
Fear drew crowds better than curiosity ever could.
X emerged first, stepping into the open like he owned the ground beneath his boots. The gas mask gleamed faintly under the floodlights. Murmurs rippled through the gathered civilians. Some already filled with fear. Resonance users were present, but, fear had already been carved into their being.
Then Victoria followed.
Masked. Hooded. Silent.
The crowd stiffened.
"Another one?" someone whispered.
"No… look at her."
She felt every eye on her, felt their fear brush against her skin like cobwebs. Her heart pounded so loudly she was sure it could be heard.
X raised a hand.
The murmurs died instantly.
"You see her," X said, voice carrying effortlessly. "She is proof."
Proof of what? Victoria wondered.
"That power does not belong to governments," X continued. "It does not belong to institutions. It belongs to those strong enough to take it. She is proof that even the so called innocent ones can be affected by all the evil that's going on in the world. Proof that the system only pretends to take enact justice for the innocents, but it changes when power is involved"
Behind the barricades, soldiers shifted uneasily.
Victoria's resonance flickered.
X felt it.
He turned his head slightly toward her—not looking, but aware.
"Stay," he murmured.
She clenched her fists.
X gestured to the sky. Blood weapons forming from a cut in his hand. He threw it up.
A drone exploded.
Not violently—precisely. It dropped from the air in a spiral of sparks, crashing into the empty street behind him.
Screams erupted.
"This is your final warning," X announced. "Stop hunting monsters you created. Stop pretending control exists. And finally, to all those hearing me" he paused for dramatic effect.
"If you know that you have something to do with how I've ended up, have it in mind that I'm coming for you. Prepare"
He placed a hand on Victoria's shoulder.
The touch burned.
"And understand this," he said. "I am not alone."
Cameras zoomed in.
Victoria felt like she was standing at the edge of something vast and irreversible.
X leaned closer to the nearest camera.
"Next time," he said, "I won't come to a square."
He turned.
The crowd watched as they walked and vanished into smoke and darkness, leaving behind fear that would not fade for the next few days"
Miles away, Aria sat bolt upright in bed.
She had just watched what happened on the Internet.
Her heart raced.
Something was wrong.
She didn't know how she knew—it wasn't logic, not evidence. It was instinct, sharp and screaming.
She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood, pacing.
That presence… she thought. I've felt it before.
The next morning, the siblings gathered without speaking about it first. They didn't need to.
Paul slammed his phone onto the table.
"It's him, I've finally confirmed it"he said flatly.
Leviathan stared at the paused video frame—X, mid-speech, gas mask tilted slightly.
"And her," James added quietly.
Mary frowned. "She didn't move. Didn't speak. She's his victim. Like he was before"
Sophia's fingers trembled as she scrolled. "The timing. The location. It's all wrong."
Aria swallowed.
"He's not doing this randomly," she said. "He's circling. Moving closer and closer to this side of town"
Leviathan's eyes darkened.
"He's calling us out," he said. "And when he's done…"
Paul finished the thought.
"He's coming."
Dave stood alone in the scan chamber, lights dimmed to near darkness.
The map hovered before him, layers of data sliding over one another—movement patterns, resonance traces, thermal signatures.
Too clean.
Way too clean.
X's trail stopped and started like a controlled burn. No panic. No residue. No mistakes.
Dave rubbed his temples.
"No one's that perfect," he muttered.
He activated his resonance again.
The mark on his forehead glowed faintly.
Images flooded in—streets, rooftops, hidden corridors.
And something else.
A door opening where it shouldn't.
A system override executed seconds before a scan completed.
A file deleted just as he reached for it.
Dave's stomach tightened.
"Someone's inside," he whispered.
He pulled up access logs in his memory.
One name blinked, then vanished.
Redacted.
Dave straightened slowly.
"This isn't a hunt," he said aloud. "It's a setup."
He shut the system down.
For the first time since this began, fear crept into his chest.
Not of X.
Of the person standing quietly behind him, watching everything he did.
Victoria removed her mask hours later, hands shaking.
Her face felt wrong without it—too exposed, too human.
X watched her from across the room.
"You did well," he said.
She laughed softly, bitter. "You made me a symbol."
"Yes," X replied. "And symbols are powerful."
She met his gaze.
"You're using me."
"Of course."
She swallowed.
"And when I'm no longer useful?"
X stepped closer.
"Then you'll already be something else."
Her resonance pulsed, confused and angry and alive.
Outside, sirens wailed in the distance.
The world had seen them now.
And it would never forget.
—
Far away, Aria stared out the window, hand pressed to her chest.
"I know it's you. But please," she whispered into the night, "stop playing games."
The darkness did not answer.
But somewhere, a man in a gas mask smiled. B