Chains Of Silence: Where Pains Never Ends. - Chapter 16: The Core Remembers

Jayden placed his trembling hand on the Core panel.

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The lab's lights flickered like a dying pulse.

Monitors screamed. Data surged.

Years of erased memories ruptured through the system.

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“System override initiated.”

Welcome, Initiator 01 — Jayden Crowe.

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But what echoed in Jayden’s head wasn’t a command it was Valerie’s voice, alive within him:

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“Truth is not what you hide. It’s what survives when everything else burns.”

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This wasn’t a system anymore. It was a wound.

A living, bleeding archive of pain disguised as purpose.

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Jayden had reached the true heart of the Chains of Silence.

Not a place of healing… but a theater of mental execution.

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🧪 Meanwhile...

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Rhea, Ezra, Lena, and Elliot sprinted through a gas-soaked corridor, hacking through smoke like ghosts clawing for air.

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“We can’t reach the exit unless we cross the mirror hallway!” Rhea coughed.

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Elliot didn’t hesitate.

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“Then we go through.

No more running.”

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They pushed into the corridor of glass.

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But the mirrors… didn’t show reflections.

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They showed ghosts.

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Ezra saw his son younger, laughing, alive.

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Lena… saw herself.

Not now, but broken.

After her sister's death.

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Rhea saw something impossible:

Jayden, sitting quietly, writing a letter.

A letter she once received, but never knew was from him.

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“The mirror hallway,” Lena whispered, “doesn’t show who you are…

But what your pain left behind.”

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🔌 At the Core…

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Jayden was nearly there.

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Sweat dripped. Veins bulged.

He fought not just code but history itself.

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Then...

The Host returned.

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“You cannot change what was designed to hurt.

You can only redirect the blade.”

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Jayden’s voice cracked.

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“Then let it cut where it should.”

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His fingers hovered… then struck the final override key:

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EMERGENCE-03.01-SILENT-SUNSET

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The lights blinked out.

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Silence fell.

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Then… a final video began playing.

On every wall. Every screen. Every surviving corner of the facility.

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It was a recording.

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Of the very first Silence Protocol meeting.

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Jayden was speaking:

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“If we fail, we erase ourselves.

Let this place remember what we chose to forget.”

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Elliot stood in frame, signing papers.

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And Valerie tearful, defiant screamed behind him:

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“You’re building a tomb for pain… and calling it therapy!”

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And just before the feed cut:

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“Then bury me with it.”

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Jayden collapsed.

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Blood seeped from his nose.

The Core fought back too many memories, too fast.

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He began fading.

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Then Rhea burst in.

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“Jayden!”

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She caught him. He was barely conscious, but still clinging to the control panel.

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Ezra slammed a lever. The gas system hissed, whined then shut down.

Lights returned to a soft hum.

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The cleansing… had been stopped.

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But then

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The central screen changed.

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A new face appeared.

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Not Jayden.

Not Marris.

Not Elliot.

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LENA.

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Her voice played recorded long ago.

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“If they ever find out…

That I programmed the failsafe…

Burn this place down.”

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The walls dimmed.

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A final door unsealed leading downward.

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Not toward justice.

Not toward escape.

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But toward origin.

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Now the question wasn’t:

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“Who started this?”

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But

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“Who made sure the story would never be told?”

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🖋️ Author’s Note:

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They reached the Core.

But what they found… wasn’t a system.

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It was a confession.

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And now?

Even that confession has secrets.

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➡️ Did Lena build the virus?

➡️ Did Valerie know more than anyone?

➡️ Is Jayden still himself after connecting to everything?

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Comment your suspicions. Drop your theories.

Bookmark if you made it this far — because:

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Chapter 17 will break what they thought was already broken.

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🔥 And someone isn’t walking back out.

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