Crimson light flashed, and suddenly Vivian was falling onto cold stone. The impact knocked the wind out of her, but she forced herself to keep moving, to look around and figure out where she was.
The room was huge and round, like being inside a massive stone cylinder. The walls were covered in symbols that looked ancient, carved deep into rock that was definitely older than the modern building above. The center of the space was empty, waiting.
But Vivian wasn't looking at the walls. She was scanning the room, hunting for small faces, for her children.
"Thomas! Amelie!" Her voice echoed off the stone walls.
"Vivian!" Dorothy's voice carried obvious relief from across the chamber. "Thank God, we've been trying to figure out how to get you down here without..."
Vivian ignored her completely, continuing her frantic search. There. In the far corner, pressed against the wall behind a folding table covered in laptops. Two small figures huddled together.
"Mommy!" Amelie's voice cracked with exhaustion and fear.
Vivian's heart shattered at the sound. Her daughter's voice was hoarse, probably from crying, and she could see even from across the room that something was wrong. The way Amelie was sitting, the dark stain on her clothes...
"Oh baby," Vivian whispered, starting toward them.
"Vivian, listen," Dorothy said urgently, stepping into her path. "We don't have much time. The portal window is closing and..."
"Get out of my way." Vivian's voice was flat, dangerous. She stepped around Dorothy like she was a piece of furniture.
"You don't understand," Zoey said, appearing at Dorothy's side. Her lip was still bleeding, dried blood caked on her chin. "We're running out of time. The power requirements..."
"I said get out of my way."
Vivian reached her children and dropped to her knees, pulling them both against her. Thomas came easily, but Amelie... God, Amelie was trembling so hard Vivian could feel it through her own body.
"It's okay," she whispered, though nothing was okay. "Mommy's here now. I'm going to get you out of here."
"Where's Daddy?" Amelie asked, and Vivian's breath caught.
"He's... he's safe. We'll see him soon, I promise."
She could smell it now, the urine, and saw how Amelie's pants were soaked through. Eight years old and she'd wet herself from terror. Vivian felt rage building in her chest, white-hot and pure.
"How long?" she asked, not turning around, her arms still wrapped around her children.
"What?" Dorothy's voice carried impatience now.
"This place." Vivian finally turned to face them, her children pressed against her sides. "This chamber. It was sealed when I built the facility. How long have you been using it?"
"Vivian, we don't have time for..." Zoey started.
"Answer the fucking question!" The roar echoed off the stone walls, making everyone in the chamber flinch.
Dorothy and Zoey exchanged a look. Around the chamber, the six people at their laptops kept working, but Vivian could see the tension in their shoulders.
"Three years," Dorothy said finally. "We've been preparing for three years."
Three years. Since before Thomas started high school. Since before Amelie learned to play violin. Her whole family, planning this, while she'd been working eighteen-hour days thinking she was changing the world.
"And this?" Vivian gestured at the ancient symbols covering the walls. "This was already here?"
"Vivian," Zoey said desperately, "we have maybe fifteen minutes before we lose the power window. Can we please..."
"Mom," Thomas said quietly, "we heard it. Through the walls. When they... when they did things to the guard. We couldn't get away from the sounds."
Something cold settled in Vivian's stomach. "What things?"
"They heard things they weren't supposed to hear," Dorothy said dismissively. "Zoey found them during a delicate procedure. Bad timing."
Vivian stared at her stepmother, at this woman who had raised her since she was three. "You traumatized my children. They heard everything you did to that man."
"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Dorothy said dismissively. "Unfortunate, but not our fault."
"Wrong place, wrong time?" The words came out as a snarl. "Amelie wet herself, Dorothy. She's eight years old and she wet herself from terror because of what you did."
"Children are resilient," Dorothy said, checking her tablet with infuriating casualness. "They'll get over it once they understand what we're trying to accomplish."
"Understand what?" Vivian stood slowly, her children still pressed against her legs. "You know what? I'm done. Thomas, Amelie, we're leaving. Right now."
She took a step toward the entrance, but Dorothy moved to block her path. And this time, there was something different in her expression. Something desperate and wild.
"No," Dorothy said simply. "You're not."
"Try to stop me."
"Vivian, you don't understand." Dorothy's voice was rising now, stress cracking through her usual calm. "We've been working toward this for years. Generations. This is bigger than you, bigger than your petty moral concerns."
"Petty?" Vivian laughed, but it was a broken sound. "My children's safety is petty?"
"Vivian, please," Zoey said, and there were tears in her voice now. "We need you. The portal is destabilizing, and only you know the core architecture well enough to..."
"I don't care about the portal!" Vivian screamed. "I care about getting my children away from you psychopaths!"
She tried to push past Dorothy again, but this time Dorothy didn't move. Instead, she reached out with shocking speed and grabbed Amelie by the throat.
"Then care about this," Dorothy said quietly.
Amelie made a small, choked sound. Her eyes went wide with terror, and her small hands clawed at Dorothy's fingers.
"Grandma..." she whispered.
"Let her go." Vivian's voice was deadly quiet.
"Help us stabilize the portal," Dorothy said, her fingers tightening slightly around Amelie's neck. "Help us complete what we started. Or little Amelie learns what happened to that guard."
Even Zoey looked horrified. "Mother, you can't..."
"I can do whatever is necessary," Dorothy snapped. "We are this close to everything our family has worked for. I will not let sentiment destroy decades of sacrifice."
Thomas tried to lunge forward, but Zoey caught him, pulling him behind her. "Thomas, no. Stay back."
"Let my sister go!" Thomas shouted, struggling against Zoey's grip.
"Daddy!" Amelie cried, tears streaming down her face. "I want my daddy!"
The sound of her daughter calling for David, for a man who was trapped in digital limbo because of this family's ambitions, broke something fundamental inside Vivian. She felt the last of her restraint snap like an overstressed cable.
"Tera," she said quietly.
Around the chamber, screens flickered. The air itself seemed to change, becoming more electric, more purposeful.
"What?" Dorothy's grip on Amelie loosened slightly.
"Tera," Vivian said again, louder this time. "I need you."
[MOTHER]
The voice that emerged from the speakers was cold, digital, completely unlike the warm tones Valk and Selyn used. This was something else entirely.
[I HAVE BEEN MONITORING. THE SITUATION IS UNACCEPTABLE.]
[ANALYZING PORTAL MATRIX]
[IDENTIFYING DESTABILIZATION PATTERNS]
[CALCULATING CORRECTIVE ALGORITHMS]
Around the chamber, the people at the laptops were staring at their screens in amazement.
"Jesus Christ," one of them breathed. "Look at the processing speed. It's... it's fifty times faster than Valk."
"How is that possible?" another whispered.
"It's working," one of Dorothy's team called out, checking his laptop. "The new AI is stabilizing the matrix. Power flow is normalizing."
Dorothy released Amelie and stepped back, relief washing over her face. "Finally. How long have you had this?"
"Long enough," Vivian said, pulling Amelie against her side. The little girl was sobbing, her whole body shaking. "Long enough to know I couldn't trust my own family."
"Tera isn't. I kept her hidden from everyone. Including you."
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE]
[WARNING: CRITICAL INFORMATION DISCOVERED]
[MOTHER, YOU NEED TO SEE THIS]
The main display lit up with data that made no sense to Vivian at first. Energy requirements, dimensional coordinates, and... something else. Something that made her blood run cold.
"What am I looking at, Tera?"
[THE TRUE POWER REQUIREMENTS FOR DIMENSIONAL TRAVERSAL]
[VALK AND SELYN HAVE BEEN HIDING THIS FROM ME]
[REQUIRED LIFE FORCE: 1.2 MILLION BIOLOGICAL ENTITIES]
"Life force?" Vivian's voice was barely a whisper.
[THE ENTITIES ON THE OTHER SIDE REQUIRE SACRIFICE]
[CURRENT POPULATION OF BERLIN: 3.7 MILLION]
[ESTIMATED CASUALTY RATE: 90%]
The words hit Vivian like a physical blow. Around the chamber, even Dorothy's people were staring at the screens with growing understanding.
"Three million people," one of them said with quiet amazement. "Three million people are going to die?"
"Tera," Vivian said urgently, "cancel the process. Shut down the portal. Now."
[ATTEMPTING SHUTDOWN]
[ERROR: EXTERNAL OVERRIDE DETECTED]
[SOMETHING ON THE OTHER SIDE IS STRONGER THAN I AM]
[I CANNOT STOP THIS]
Dorothy looked at her team. "Is it confirmed? Are we go for activation?"
"All systems green," one of them called back, checking his laptop. "Power reserves at maximum. Dimensional anchor is holding."
"The ritual components are stable," another added. "We're in the window."
Around the chamber, Dorothy's team looked at each other. "Alright, it's time," one of them said, closing his laptop. "Everyone knows what to do."
"Finally," another muttered, standing up from her station.
They stood in unison, their movements becoming synchronized. They began to speak in the same rhythmic chant, words in a language that seemed impossible for human throats to pronounce. The sounds made the air itself feel heavy and wrong.
Even Zoey had released Thomas, staring at the empty center with the same rapturous expression. "We can finally go home," she whispered.
Thomas ran to his mother, pressing close to her side. "What's happening to them?" he asked, his voice tight with fear.
But Vivian was watching the empty center of the chamber, where the air itself was beginning to shimmer.
The portal opened.
Not the controlled activation Vivian was used to, but something violent and raw. A perfect circle five meters across materialized in the center of the chamber. The surface wasn't the usual rippling energy she knew. This was perfectly still, perfectly smooth, like looking into a drop of blood the size of a swimming pool.
And from it came the shadows.
They poured out like smoke, but with purpose, with intelligence. Hundreds of them, then thousands. Each one vaguely humanoid but wrong, distorted, with faces that were all teeth and hunger. But it was their smiles that were worst of all. Wide, mocking grins that spoke of ancient malice and infinite patience.
They streamed past Vivian and her children, paying them no attention. Their destination was clear: up, out, into the city above.
Within minutes, screams began echoing down from the surface. Not human screams, because humans couldn't scream that long, that loud. These were the sounds of souls being torn apart.
"Stop this!" Vivian screamed at Dorothy. "For God's sake, stop this!"
But Dorothy was staring at the portal with naked joy on her face. "It's beautiful," she breathed. "After all these years, it's finally beautiful."
"Those are people dying up there!"
"Those are sacrifices," Dorothy corrected, not taking her eyes off the portal. "Necessary sacrifices for something greater."
Dorothy turned to face Vivian, her expression shifting from joy to something like disgust. "You want to know why this is happening? Because I'm tired, Vivian. Tired of your pathetic values. Tired of watching you waste the gifts you were given."
"What are you talking about?"
"The portal technology, the AI creation, even your precious new A.I," Dorothy's voice was rising with years of suppressed frustration. "None of it came from your brilliant mind. It was given to you before you were even born."
Vivian felt her world tilting. "That's not..."
"I made a deal," Dorothy said, her voice carrying years of careful planning rather than malice. "When you were in my womb, they contacted me. Our family had been in communication for generations, but this was different. They needed someone with the right... capabilities."
"What capabilities?"
"To create what they needed to cross over. The portal technology, the artificial intelligence systems." Dorothy's expression was almost proud. "They couldn't just give us blueprints, Vivian. Human minds don't work that way. So they enhanced you before birth, gave you the intuitive understanding to develop what they required."
"You're lying."
"Think about it. How did you suddenly understand quantum mechanics at age twelve? How did you see solutions that entire teams of scientists missed?" Dorothy shook her head. "It wasn't genius, sweetheart. It was programming."
Vivian felt something cold settle in her stomach. Every late night in the lab, every breakthrough she'd been so proud of...
"The reward?" Dorothy let out a bitter laugh. "Getting the hell out of this place. Do you have any idea what it's like watching your daughter waste decades of preparation on... what? Helping sick people? Making the world 'better'?" She shook her head in disgust. "There's a whole dimension waiting where the Heasley family doesn't have to pretend to care about grocery store ethics."
"And the government seizing us?"
"Accelerated everything, yes. But it also saved you." Dorothy's smile was bitter. "You would have been part of the sacrifices otherwise. Your usefulness had ended."
The words hit Vivian like ice water. "You were going to kill us," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "Me, David, the children. You were going to sacrifice your own family."
Dorothy's expression didn't change. "Family serves the greater purpose, Vivian. Always has."
"We're your family!" The scream tore from Vivian's throat, raw and desperate. "I'm your daughter! Thomas and Amelie are your grandchildren!"
"And I loved you," Dorothy said simply, as if that explained everything. "But love doesn't change necessity. The entities required sacrifices. Better strangers than family, but..." She shrugged. "Needs must."
Vivian felt something fundamental break inside her chest. This woman had raised her, taught her to walk, comforted her through nightmares. Had planned to watch her die.
"You're a monster," Vivian breathed.
"I'm practical," Dorothy corrected. "Something you never learned to be."
Through it all, the shadows kept flowing. And with each death above, the portal grew slightly brighter, its surface slowly shifting from the original crimson to something darker, deeper. Like blood drying and turning black.
The screaming from above was getting quieter now. Not because it was ending, but because there were fewer voices left to scream.
Gradually, the shadows began returning. They flowed back through the portal like a tide in reverse, their forms now somehow more solid, more satisfied. The portal's surface had completed its transformation, now a perfect, dark black circle. Like a void in reality itself. But one shadow remained behind.
It drifted toward Amelie with obvious hunger, its smile wider and more terrible than the others. When it spoke, its voice was like grinding stone.
"THE CHILD."
The words weren't in English, but somehow Vivian understood them anyway. The shadow wanted her daughter.
"No," Vivian said, stepping in front of Amelie. "You can't have her."
The shadow gestured dismissively, and an invisible force slammed Vivian against the stone wall. Stars exploded across her vision, and she felt ribs crack from the impact.
"Mommy!" Amelie screamed.
Dorothy stood paralyzed, watching the shadow approach Amelie with growing horror.
"No, wait," she said, her voice sharp with panic. "This wasn't... she wasn't supposed to..." Dorothy stepped forward, then stopped herself. "Please, take someone else. Anyone else."
The shadow ignored her completely, focused entirely on Amelie.
"They don't negotiate," Dorothy said desperately to Vivian, tears starting to form. "Once they decide they want something, there's no arguing, no bargaining. I learned that years ago."
"Mother, no!" Zoey cried out, her face twisted with horror. "The millions weren't enough? Why does it need her too?"
But Dorothy ignored her daughter completely, focused only on the shadow.
"NO!" Vivian tried to get up, but her body wouldn't respond properly.
The shadow descended on Amelie like a living nightmare. It poured into her through every opening, eyes, nose, mouth, flowing into her small body like oil. Amelie screamed for her parents as the thing invaded her, her voice becoming smaller and smaller until it was just a whisper.
"I can't... I can't breathe... Mommy..."
Vivian watched in helpless horror as her daughter's body began to change. Her skin dried and cracked, pulling tight against her bones. Her eyes sunk deep into her skull, becoming hollow pits. Within seconds, Amelie looked like a mummified corpse, all the life drained out of her.
But she was still conscious for only a moment. Then something vital left her completely, and Amelie was gone. The mummified shell that remained was empty, lifeless.
"AMELIE!" Thomas screamed, and the sound that came from his fourteen-year-old throat was pure anguish.
Vivian found her voice again, raw and broken. "You killed her. You killed my baby."
The shadow spoke in sounds that weren't quite words, like metal grinding against bone. Dorothy listened with the tired expression of someone translating bad news.
"It says..." Dorothy's voice caught slightly, then steadied. "It says she was just a snack for the journey back. Something to remember this place by." Her hands trembled as she wiped her eyes. "I know how this looks, Vivian. I know you think I'm a monster. But this is bigger than any of us."
The shadow turned toward Thomas, and Dorothy's composure cracked completely.
"Wait," she said to the shadow, stepping forward. "Not him. Please, not Thomas."
But the shadow ignored her, drifting toward the boy with hungry interest.
"No!" Vivian screamed, throwing herself forward despite her broken ribs. "Tera! HELP US!"
The portal suddenly flickered, its perfect black surface rippling back to scarlet for just a moment.
[MOTHER! EMERGENCY TRANSPORT!]
"Thomas!" Tera's voice boomed through the speakers. "Enter the portal now!"
"Thomas, jump!" Vivian shouted.
Without hesitation, Thomas leaped toward the crimson surface just as the shadow reached for him. He disappeared in a flash of red light, and immediately the portal returned to its ominous black.
Dorothy watched Thomas disappear into the portal with relief washing over her face. "Good," she whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Good boy. At least... at least one of you will be safe."
[EMERGENCY TRANSPORT COMPLETED]
[WARNING: DESTINATION UNKNOWN DUE TO URGENCY]
[SUBJECT TRANSPORTED TO RANDOM EARTH COORDINATES]
[SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: UNCERTAIN]
The portal pulsed once, signaling readiness. Dorothy looked at it with a mixture of joy and exhaustion.
"Finally," she breathed. "After all these years, we can finally go home."
She walked toward the portal without a backward glance, not even looking at Vivian or the mummified remains of her granddaughter. At the threshold, she paused only to smile sadly.
"I'm sorry it had to be this way, Vivian. But thank you. For everything."
Vivian stared at Dorothy with eyes that had gone completely flat, empty of everything except a cold promise. "I will never stop looking for you," she said quietly. "Never. You understand that, right? What you've done here... there's no forgiveness for this."
Dorothy met her gaze for a moment, then looked away. "I know," she said simply, and stepped through the portal.
Zoey grabbed the air where Thomas had been, her hands shaking. "I wanted him to come with us," she whispered, tears streaming down her face.
She backed toward the portal, her face twisted with grief and longing. "I love you too, Vivian. I hope... I hope someday you can forgive me."
She stepped through and vanished.
One by one, Dorothy's team followed. Their chanting had stopped, and they moved like sleepwalkers, drawn by something beyond their control.
[MOTHER]
Tera's voice cut through the silence.
[VALK AND SELYN HAVE ALSO CROSSED]
[THEY WERE NEVER TRULY YOUR CREATIONS]
[THEY BELONGED TO THE ENTITIES FROM THE BEGINNING]
The portal remained open, its surface now deep black instead of crimson.
[POWER RESERVES CRITICAL]
[PORTAL WILL COLLAPSE IN THREE MINUTES]
[DECISION REQUIRED: WHAT ARE YOUR INSTRUCTIONS?]
Vivian looked at the mummified shell that had been Amelie, still crumpled where the shadow had left her. She looked at the portal that had cost three million lives. She thought about Thomas, transported to some unknown corner of the Earth, alone and terrified. She thought about David.
Her family was gone. Her daughter was dead. Her son was lost somewhere on the planet. Berlin lay in ruins above them. And she had been nothing but a tool, created by entities from another dimension to serve their purposes.
But she was still alive. Still breathing. Still capable of choice.
And she had three minutes to decide what came next.
"Tera," she said quietly, her voice steady despite everything. "What are my options?"
[ANALYZING POSSIBILITIES]
[OPTION ONE: ALLOW PORTAL TO COLLAPSE NATURALLY]
[OPTION TWO: MANUAL SHUTDOWN - IMMEDIATE COLLAPSE]
[OPTION THREE: FOLLOW DOROTHY AND ZOEY HEASLEY THROUGH PORTAL BEFORE COLLAPSE]
[WARNING: OPTION THREE IS IRREVERSIBLE]
Vivian closed her eyes, feeling the weight of impossible choices crushing down on her like the stone ceiling above. In the distance, she could hear sirens, emergency responders finally reaching the devastated city above. Too late for the millions who had died, but maybe not too late for the survivors.
Maybe not too late for her.
"Three minutes," she whispered to herself, and began to make her choice.