OUT OF MIND² ━━ Bellamy Blake

𝐗𝐗𝐕: God Complex

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GOD COMPLEX

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IN THE HEART of an apocalyptic storm, shadows staining moon as rain black as night corrupts the Earth, a glass heart is cracking.

     Crude lightning shatters the heavens above, contorting it into something malevolent and twisted. Devouring the light. Here and now, at the beginning of the end, a soul teeters at the edge of dark and light, threatening to fall apart. What had once been whole and crafted of glass now threatens to fall apart in a coevolved blaze. Tumbling into coal flames, tendrils officials the dark infernal night rising up to meet her, smokeless, viscous, suffocating, ink-stained sin seething within her.

"Vital signs are strong." Abby's steady voice rings throughout the lab. "Jackson, seal the chamber."

"Copy that." Jackson adjusts the straps chaining the unconscious Baylis down within the tube. "He's ready."

"Yeah," a shadow flits across Raven's features. "But are we?"

     Her words echo in the lab that feels more cavernous than ever before. Everyone on the island had come to watch the experiment that would either fail or succeed, the one that would damn humanity either way. Nate stands just beside Lyra, his hand on the small of her back. She fights the urge to shake away his touch. It brings her no comfort, but the relief on his face is worth it. Still. Black bile creeps into her throat as she watches Baylis's chest rise and fall ━━ is she really about to condemn another person to die?

He'll survive, she tells herself. He'll survive and so will the rest of them.

"The guy's a monster," Emori says defensively, staring the mechanic down as if challenging her on this.

"We've been over this." Clarke steps into the blinding white light cautiously, as if afraid one sudden move might set everyone off. Honestly, it might. "None of us want to do this, but the death wave will be here in 10 days. Luna's stem cells grafted successfully. Baylis is making nightblood on his own. This really is our only hope."

"We really still talking about this?" Murphy's grating voice slices through the tense air like a sword. "Black rain is already here. 18 people died in it yesterday at Arkadia, so if Nightblood can let us walk around in it, I, for one, want to know about that."

That's enough of a reminder for Lyra. Her last conversation with Bellamy haunts her.

She gives Abby a curt nod.

"OK." Abby takes in a deep breath and then turns to face Jackson. "Jackson, proceed."

"Copy that. Initiating." Jackson's attention is solely on the monitors and control panels as he presses buttons and turns up dials. His face is still as stone as if there is no room for flaws. "500 REM. 850. This is where we'd see symptoms in a non-nightblood."

The radiation chamber hums to life. Blazing light ignites from within, crowning Baylis. His chest rises and falls rapidly, but his skin remains porcelain.