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.

think this ends well for you?" Hendrix growled, his

you know how

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

A scared little girl with no one

decided to take control. To make them pay. Every bastard who thought they could use me, own me I made them pay. And

no better than the people you claim to hate." Her gaze hardened. "You don't

die for your

think I wanted this? You think I dreamed of running a place like this? No, Angel. I wanted to disappear, to erase every single scar those bastards left on me. But the world doesn't let you heal-not if

the chaos below. "Do you know what it's like to be treated like garbage, 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 puppet on his string. But I control him, Angel. I control this entire place. And the

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 money, their power,

throat. "You're insane. Do you even hear yourself? You're justifying mass murder because you were hurt? How

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 apart

my voice also shook with rage. "No, I wouldn't. Because 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 even

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 insatiable. Do you know what the elite

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

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

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

rose in my throat again, and this time I couldn't 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

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

to reply, Hendrix, who we both forgot about at

grabbed from the hallway and knocked the gun from her hand. It clattered to the floor as he lunged at her.

back with surprising strength and even drove a syringe into Hendrix's thigh. He groaned in pain but didn't

grabbed the gun and threw it over the edge,

on me, fury rising in her eyes. She charged, but I met her head-on and slammed into her with all the strength I had left. We collided, and her momentum carried

railing with her fingers gripping the cold metal as she dangled above the chaos below. For a moment, I thought she

sirens filled the air, and she froze. Authorities had flooded the

she finally give

net caught her mid-fall.

open, and the rest of the group ran onto the balcony. Cylan and Dilara stared