Darn Stupid Brother You Are by Mairee

Chapter 117

(Angel's POV)

The room was suffocating. I sucked in air as the reality of the situation sank in. Dr. Nixon-Aurora-stood before us with her face no longer covered by a mask. She still looked unaffected and cold. The mastermind behind all of this horror had been right in front of us the entire time.

I turned to my mom as my voice trembled. What is she even doing here? "Is it true, Mom? All Hendrix told me about you conspiring with Joe?"

She flinched and her gaze darted to the floor. Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides as if she wanted to grab the words back before they could even escape her lips. "Angel..."

"Tell me!" I shouted; the betrayal stung deeper than any wound.

She didn't answer, but her silence spoke volumes. My knees nearly buckled. The woman I'd looked up to, the one I'd wanted to believe had my best interests at heart, had been a part of this nightmare.

I turned back to Nixon. "You pretended to be our ally. You fed us lies, acted like you were helping us. And now we find out you've been running this hellhole all along? How could you?"

Her lips curled into a bitter smile. "How could I? That's a question I've been asked my entire life, Angel. How could I survive when no one else did? How could I rise above the filth that tried to swallow me whole? You wouldn't understand." Before I could reply, the door burst open, and Dr. Joe stormed in with a gun in hand.

"Aurora!" he barked, his eyes wild. "You're running out of time. We need to leave" His words trailed off when his gaze landed on us. His confusion quickly morphed into anger. "What the hell is this?"

Aurora didn't flinch. "Relax, Joe. I've got it under control."

But Joe's expression twisted further when he truly saw her-wigless, maskless, exposed. "You?" he stammered in equal disbelief. "It was you all along?"

Aurora's smirk didn't waver. "Surprise."

Joe raised the gun, but Aurora moved faster. With a flash of a move, she grabbed his wrist, twisted it, and sent the weapon clattering to the ground. She shoved him aside, and before I could react, she bolted toward the hallway. "Go after her!" Hendrix shouted, already moving.

We chased Aurora through the center, past blinking monitors and walls smeared with the remnants of the rebellion. My legs burned as I pushed myself to keep up, my lungs screaming for air.

We burst through a set of double doors and onto a balcony overlooking the facility grounds. Aurora was cornered, her back to the edge. The chaos below was a fitting backdrop for the monster she truly was.

She held the gun she'd retrieved from the ground and aimed it at us with a steady hand. "Stay back," she warned, sounding eerily calm.

this ends well for

let out a hollow laugh. "You're all so naïve. Do you know how much this operation

words hit like a slap. "Saved?" I spat. "You've butchered innocent people, destroyed

my stomach sink. "I was just like you once, Angel. A scared little girl with no one to protect her.

thought they could use me, own me I made them pay. And then I realized... why stop there? The world

just another monster. You justify your greed and your crimes with some twisted idea of justice, but you're no better

many had to die for

wanted this? You think I dreamed of running a place like this? No,

Angel? To have men look at you like you're nothing but a plaything? Joe... he's no different from them. He looks at me and sees what he thinks he can control. A junior doctor, a

were the first. But as I climbed higher, I realized something. The world is full of men like them. Men who think they own the world. So I started taking from them, one by one. Their

the bile rising in my throat. "You're insane. Do you even hear yourself? You're

"Better? I'm not better, Angel. I'm worse. Because I know exactly what I've done. But don't stand there and act like you wouldn't do the same if the tables were turned. You think you're different, that you wouldn't break if the world ripped you

what you've done isn't justice it's greed. It's selfishness. You stopped fighting for survival a long time ago, and now you're just fighting for power. You're everything you hate, and you don't

what I've built, Angel. Do you think this center is the only one? Oh no. This is just one cog in the machine. The demand grew. The market for fresh organs, especially from young, healthy bodies... it's

like this one. Each disguised as a safe haven, a place to cure or treat the sick. But behind every locked door, we were harvesting. Slicing open the bodies of people the world wouldn't miss. Who was going to care about a girl with no family? A boy with a record? A woman whose only crime was being too broken to fight back? No one. That's who." Aurora's voice dropped into an unnatural tone. "This isn't just my revenge, Angel. This is a system. A perfectly oiled, profitable machine that exploits the cruelty of this world. People like Joe, they're tools. Weak, vile tools who think they're in control, but they're not. They never were. They're just the faces I use to keep this empire running. And the people who pay me? They're

at her and make her stop talking. But her words pinned me in place. Each one was a revelation that felt like a dagger in my

None. Because saving people doesn't pay. It doesn't keep the lights on. It doesn't fund the operation. But harvesting... that's the future. That's the world we live in." Her voice softened, almost wistful. "At first, I thought I was helping. I targeted the worst of the worst-men who deserved to lose everything. But then, the demand grew, and I had to adapt. I had to reach younger, healthier donors. And places like this... they became my solution. A steady supply of

hold back. "You're disgusting," I spat. "You've turned pain into profit, suffering into a business. And you think that makes you powerful? All it makes you is empty. A hollow shell of a person who can't

no denying the faint flicker of doubt that crossed her face. For the first time, I thought I saw a crack in her confidence. But her voice remained steady and her grip on the gun didn't shake. "Say what you want, Angel. Hate me all you like. But in the end, I've survived. And survival is all

reply, Hendrix, who we both forgot about at

hand. It clattered to the floor as he lunged at her. The two

Hendrix's

the gun and threw it over

but I met her head-on and slammed into her with all the strength I had left. We collided, and her momentum carried us dangerously

clawed at the railing with her fingers gripping the cold metal as she dangled above

she froze. Authorities had flooded the grounds. Their presence was an overwhelming force

mine, and I could see the rage and resignation in them. Would she finally

screamed, expecting her to plummet to her death, but a net caught her mid-fall. The authorities

rest of the group ran onto the balcony.