[UNEDITED]

Amaya smirked, and then left the room. The guy called Jerry started poking into his pocket, and then procured a gun similar to the one Amaya had. He aimed at Dylan and then shot at him.

I gasped. Uncle Benjamin only stood there, having fun.

The needle looked exactly like the previous one. This time though, nothing happened to Dylan.

"Dylan?" I called him. He did not move.

"Motor activated," suddenly an automated voice reverberated into the open space, "All human except the subjects are to leave the room immediately."

Uncle Benjamin was excited. He looked at the screen behind me, and I turned my head to look too.

"AnEN administration begins in...ten...nine...eight...seven..."

"Stop them!" I shouted at him, "Please, don't kill them!"

He raised a hand to shut me up, but did not take his eyes off the screen.

"...three...two...one...zero."

There was a loud beep, and then the tubes connected to the people's bodies were filled with bottle-green liquid. I watched in horror as the liquid slowly traveled from the mammoth cylinder towards the veins of those innocent victims. I searched the screen frantically. Somewhere in that room lay Olivia Monroe, the girl who had started to care for me like a sister not long ago.

The bodies in those coffins started to vibrate, as though they were being given electric shock. Then someone screamed--a man, and then another man screamed, followed by a woman. And then every victim in the room started screaming, and it was impossible to figure out man from woman, girl from boy. The microphones were carrying the screams from another part of the house, but I could clearly hear those screams close by, inside my head.

I closed my eyes, trying my best to stop the screams from entering my ears, but my hands were still tied to the chair and I did not have anything to cover my ears with. I was helpless.

And then the cruelest part of all started happening. It all happened so smoothly that it was hard to believe that I was looking at something that was impossible.

The victims started taking shapes. I saw their skin sizzling and then falling off their flesh, and scales reappeared into their places. It happened so fast that I could not believe my eyes.

Some of them had talons like hawks, some had paws like animals. But the distortion and pain was common in them. Their hair fell away, and some were replaced by horns, both small and large. Their eyes were the same pitch black like the woman I had seen earlier, and their expression was bloodthirsty.

They wanted to kill whoever they would find.

One woman--creature--had grown a wing only on one side of her body, and she started beating it. Soon she was airborne, somewhat bobbing in midair, and she broke the cylinder.

A red alert started blaring.

"That was our last supply of AnEN, you assholes!" Uncle Benjamin cursed, "Release them into the city. Hurry!"

I then saw the shackles that held those monsters to the ground, and soldiers started pouring into the room and started poking them with bayonets. The creatures made weird noises, but they tried to fight back. One of them swept at a soldier, and he flew across the room.

They were very strong. Now I understood what Uncle Benjamin had meant by unleashing an army that no one could defend. If these things were let loose into the city, they would turn it into a cemetery.

Dylan stirred in his chair, and then his eyes rolled and fell on me. I shook my head at him, and asked him to close his eyes.

He frowned, but then obliged. Just at the moment, Amaya came inside holding a glass case and a syringe in her hands.

My heart hammered in my chest. I did not want the same to happen to Dylan. If he was injected with the AnEN, he would die in two hours.

Uncle Benjamin was still glued to the screen, cursing people and throwing orders into his microphone. Amaya handed him the glass case, and he put it onto the table in front of him, seemingly worried.

"I will be back in a few minutes," he finally went hysterics over the hullabaloo in the coffin room, and addressed Amaya, "You keep an eye on these two."

He walked to the door and then shut it loudly.

Amaya waited there, staring at the screen. I watched too, how the creatures were being poked and prodded in order to be taken outside. I did not know how they would be released into the streets: any special vehicle? Crates, containers?

Dylan opened his eyes, but I slowly blinked at him, asking him to close his eyes once again.

Amaya noticed this time.

"There's no need to ask him to do that!" she said, "We know how the tranquilizer and the reverse works. It was only a matter of time he would wake up."

I breathed heavily. There went my chances of tricking her and getting out of here. I helplessly looked at the exit, and Amaya laughed.

"Keep dreaming, Naomi, because that's never going to happen."

She pulled out her tranquilizer gun, and my hopes fell ever more.

"Let us go," I begged her, "I am your best friend!"

She shook her head, "You would probably understand the matter even better if you were into my shoes."

She looked back at the screen.

About one-third of the creatures were pulled and prodded out of the room, and it told me that I did not have a lot of time left.

"The Enigma is the strongest microbe on earth..." Uncle Benjamin's voice came floating back to me from my memories.

I looked at Dylan, and he was trying to break free from the bond. The chair had metal in its handle, and if he could manage it, he might be able to melt it.

But then I thought about it. Where would we go even if he melted the chair? He had already used so much of his energy today that he might pass out at any time. He had been shot and then sedated, and I did not know if they had done something to him once I left him back in the corridor. Dylan would not be strong enough to put up a fight, and he would be injected with the serum nonetheless. I would lose him, and I could not let that happen to me.

"I don't know why you are still working for him," I told Amaya.

She turned, "I knew you had a stupid brain inside your head. I told you already."

"And I think you have heard him correctly as well," I told her sharply, trying to provoke her, "He will never let you be in my position. It's me and me forever."

Amaya narrowed her eyes, "Just shut up, okay?"

"I am telling you the truth," I laughed, "He might be angry with me now, but he will get over it once all of this is over!"

She glared at me.

"You're just going to be that second girl. The spare one. You're not his own blood. You're always going to be the one who comes second in everything as long as I am alive."

I waited as the words sunk into her brain. I looked at the screen. Almost all those creatures were out of the room.

Amaya looked from my face to Dylan's, and then I saw her eyes linger to the AnEN shot on the table. I closed my eyes and said a small prayer. I did not know whether the thing I had been aiming for was the correct one, but I needed to take a shot at it. I knew that Uncle Benjamin would never even put a scratch on me, but Dylan would definitely pay for it in plenty.

Amaya thought for a few moments, and then she figured that she had made the right decision. I prayed so that she would get my hint, and I wanted her to make a move already.

"What happened?" I jeered at her, "Instead of worrying you should get used to being the makeshift heir of the Wilkins', because that's what I will see you as for the rest of my life."

Amaya walked up to the table and picked up the glass case from the table. Dylan stopped heating the metal and looked up at her, slightly frightened.

"You know what," Amaya turned towards me, "Now that I think of it, there is no need for you to be around. Of course you are Benjamin's daughter and whatnot, but so am I. You can obviously die tomorrow, then why not today?"

Dylan shifted in his chair, and as Amaya's motives became clearer to him, he concentrated on the handles of his chair again. I prayed so that they would not melt easily, because there was only one way out of this place.

"What are you talking about?" I tried to feign surprise, "What do you mean by this?"

Amaya opened the case and then pulled out the syringe and the vial. The dark green substance shone just a little in the light, and I felt my heart beat faster than ever. Would it hurt? Would I scream like those people on the screen?

Would I still be myself or would I become like those puppets? Would I die?

"Amaya," Dylan fired off, "What the hell? Don't do this."

I wanted him to remain quiet, but he simply wouldn't. He struggled against the chair, but the metal was not burnt properly, and the straps would not give way.

"I'm sorry Naomi," Amaya tilted her head slightly, "But I have to do this. You won't understand the pain of being the less significant daughter of the family."

"You are not a part of this family yet," I told her, "And once this is over, I am going to tell Uncle Benjamin everything, and get you and your mom tossed out into the Old World."

She was in flames. Bullseye.

Dylan was madly shaking the chair, but he was too weak to even do anything. I closed my eyes as an enraged and shaking Amaya filled the syringe with the contents of the vial.

I looked at Dylan, and as his eyes fell on me, I drank in the blueness of them. I did not know if I would still be myself or if I would make it after the two designated hours. I mouthed 'I love you' as he struggled more to get out. If I died, I knew what I would be missing: a wonderful life with the most wonderful boy I had met in my entire life. But this war was more important than some stupid, lovesick girl like I was. So many people had already been turned into weird creatures and sent out to meet their destiny, which was set to end in their death, and all I could do was watch them.

If I was not wrong, this was the last of those AnEN shots. After Amaya injected me with it, Uncle Benjamin would not have anything to punish Dylan with anytime soon. I wanted to teach him a lesson, and if that meant to snatch his most valuable possession away from him, then I was ready to do that. I owed Dylan this much. He had his life ruined in the hands of my uncle long ago, I did not want the same to happen today.

Amaya turned to me. I looked at the screen, there was no one left in the room.

"Goodbye, Princess," Amaya's eyes glistened with joy as she held the syringe in her hand like a knife, and then she drew her hand back to bring it down onto my shoulder.

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