Seven Days Of Redemption

The silence in the alley was deafening.

Aiden stood motionless, his breath still heaving from the fight. Blood dripped from his knuckles, staining the ground, but he didn't feel it. All he could feel was the emptiness where Elena had stood — and now… wasn't.

She was gone.

Not vanished in a puff of smoke. Not rescued. Not escaped. Taken.

His eyes darted through the debris. No scorch marks. No signs of teleportation. Just deep, inhuman footprints—massive, nearly double the size of his. He followed them with dread climbing up his spine.

Then he saw it—Elena's scarf, crumpled and caught on a metal shard, a small trace of her perfume still clinging to the fabric.

His chest tightened.

"No… no, no—" Aiden whispered, gripping the scarf. "Elena…"

And then the scream. A memory? A hallucination? Or real?

It was her voice—cut off sharply. A choked breath. A sob.

He slammed his fist against the nearest wall, cracks spreading like spiderwebs from the point of impact.

---

Earlier, just seconds before Aiden regained himself from the heat of battle…

Elena had run to his side, shouting his name, but he wasn't there—mentally gone, lost to rage. Her words couldn't reach him. The 8-foot-tall figure emerged from the shadows behind her, silent, monstrous, cloaked in something dark and unfeeling.

She turned just in time to see pale, scarred skin and eyes that looked human—but hollow, dead inside.

He didn't speak.

He didn't roar.

He grabbed her like she weighed nothing, slinging her over his shoulder. She screamed, kicked, clawed—but he didn't flinch. Just walked into the darkness and vanished, as if he had done this before.

And no one stopped him.

---

Now, Aiden traced every step they took. Every alley. Every rooftop. He ran until his legs threatened to give out. Still, no sign.

That's when Milo found him.

"Hey—Aiden!" Milo's voice rang out from above, from a second-story fire escape. "What the hell happened?! Where's Elena?!"

Aiden looked up, wild-eyed. "She's gone, Milo… someone took her."

Milo didn't waste a second. He dropped down beside him and grabbed his shoulder. "Who?! Who would take her?"

Aiden didn't know. "Tall. Strong. Moved like a ghost. I couldn't stop it. I didn't even see—until it was too late."

For a moment, Milo was quiet.

"I've heard rumors," he finally said. "About someone called Subject Thirteen. An experiment gone wrong. One of Lucien's... or the people above him."

Aiden's jaw clenched. "You think this... 'subject' was after Elena?"

"No. I think he was ordered to take her."

Aiden's voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. "Then I'll find him. I'll find her."

Milo stepped closer. "There's something else."

"What?"

Milo hesitated. "I hacked one of Lucien's old channels two days ago. There's talk about a girl with 'potential.' A girl connected to someone dangerous. They called her 'the key.' I didn't know it meant Elena. Not until now."

The words punched Aiden harder than any blow.

He stared at the sky, his grip on the scarf tightening.

"They think they can take her like she's nothing… like she's just some tool."

His voice was a vow now.

"I'm going to burn their entire world down."

---

Elsewhere…

In a dark chamber far from the city, Elena sat slumped on the cold floor, her hands bound with some strange metal cuffs. The giant figure stood in the corner, silent as always, watching her but not moving.

"Why did you take me?" she asked, her voice trembling.

No reply.

"Do you even know? Or are you just following orders?"

His eyes shifted to her. Something flickered in them. Confusion? Regret? Or something else?

For just a moment… Elena saw something human in him.

And that terrified her more than anything else.

To be continue...