: The Enigma Within
Dee didn't leave her room for two days. The lights stayed off. The curtains sealed. Her meals sat untouched by the door, cooling into silence. The world outside moved, but she didn't. She didn't cry, scream, or rage. She just stopped.
And Duke noticed.
He stood by her door for hours that first day, then returned again the next with less arrogance and more fear. He knew her silence wasn't peace—it was collapse.
On the third night, the sliding door to the balcony creaked open.
Dee sat there, legs curled against her chest, her thin nightdress fluttering in the wind like it barely clung to her. Her face was gaunt, and the deep shadows under her eyes made her look like a ghost mourning her own life.
Duke stepped beside her.
She didn't turn, didn't blink. Her voice came out flat, dead.
"I don't even have the energy to curse you. So go away."
Duke sat down beside her anyway.
"You hate me," he whispered. "You should. I earned that."
There was a long pause before he spoke again.
"There was a boy once. He had everything—name, money, connections. But he wanted more. Not greed—purpose. He asked too many questions. One day, the wrong people answered. They took him to a place hidden under the earth... they called it The Lab."
Dee's gaze didn't change, but her fingers curled slightly.
"They tore him apart. Not physically. Not all at once. First, his blood. Then his nerves. Then the truth he thought he wanted. They wanted to make him something... more. He survived. But he left pieces of himself on every table they strapped him to."
A chill rolled down her spine. She didn't speak.
"But one day," Duke said, voice tightening, "he'll go back. And destroy them all."
Dee finally turned her face slightly toward him. "So you're broken too?"
He gave a tired smile. "Aren't we all?"
Another silence passed before he added gently, "Dee... they saw your scans. The tumour can be removed. It's not hopeless. But they need time. Three months. Injections, medication to prepare your body. After that—surgery. You'll be okay. I promise."
She didn't respond. But she didn't walk away either.
---
The days blurred after that.
Every other morning, a nurse came in with a chilled metal tray, carrying a syringe filled with glowing fluid. Sometimes blue. Sometimes purple. Dee hated needles, but her limbs were too weak to resist. She let it happen. Over and over again.
The blue serum burned like ice through her veins. The purple one felt heavier, like something ancient waking up under her skin.
Each time, she asked, "What is it?"
Duke always replied the same, brushing her hair gently aside.
"It's a special medicine. Just trust me."
But trust was a corpse between them, and Dee was only playing along until she had the strength to walk again.
After two weeks, her body started changing.
She would stare into mirrors and sometimes see herself blink twice.
She'd dream of a man in black with no face whispering her name.
She woke in the middle of the night paralyzed, her body unable to scream even as she felt something sit on her chest and whisper thoughts that weren't hers.
Her hands would go numb at random. Her eyes glowed faintly in the dark.
And she kept it all to herself.
One evening, as her fever broke and her vision sharpened again, she asked, "Any trace of King?"
Duke nodded. "Yes. My team found a house... hidden in the forest. Middle of nowhere. Someone's been living there."
He showed her grainy photos—a cabin, a figure blurred behind thick trees.
Dee's heart jumped. "We go there after surgery."
"Yes," he said. "I promise."
---
The day of surgery came.
They wheeled her into a stark white chamber deep under the facility. Cold, clinical, eerily silent except for the hum of machines. Dee lay on a steel bed. Her wrists were gently strapped—"for stability," they said.
A circular machine hovered over her, wires slithering down like robotic vines. Two assistants placed a silver crown over her head—dozens of small sensors connecting to her temples.
Dee watched in silence as a nurse slid a large syringe filled with deep violet liquid into her IV. She took a shaky breath.
Then she heard it.
Behind her. Not loud. But clear enough.
"Are we sure she'll survive the experiment?"
Dee's heartbeat exploded.
"Her body adapted to all the trials. She might be the first successful one."
Experiment?
Her eyes widened.
She yanked her hand. The IV tore. Blood spattered across the floor. Panic surged through her. She kicked off the foot straps and bolted from the bed, ripping wires off her head.
She made it two steps before Duke appeared from the shadows.
He grabbed her by the waist and held her tightly as she thrashed. "Dee. Stop."
"LET GO OF ME! WHAT IS THIS?!"
Duke's eyes weren't soft anymore.
"They're the experiments. I knew it. Your cells—Dee, they're not normal. My people discovered something incredible. You can absorb power. Abilities. Energy. You're the first natural conduit."
Her face went pale. "You said this was for the tumour—"
"It is. But you're so much more." His grip tightened. "We've been feeding you enhanced genetic samples. Preparing your body. The surgery was never just removal... it's activation."
"What... what the hell are you turning me into?!"
Duke stepped back. "An Enigma. Stronger than me. The most advanced. A living miracle. And when you stabilize... I'll take your blood. And become like you."
Dee screamed. Her palm struck his face—hard—but her body gave way. The IV had already taken effect. Her muscles failed her. Her breath grew short.
She collapsed.
The nurses returned. This time, they weren't gentle.
She was strapped—arms, legs, chest, neck. They pushed the crown tighter. Locked her head in place.
Another man approached with a chrome syringe as long as her hand.
"Begin serum transfusion."
The fluid inside the syringe shimmered like stars in liquid.
They injected it into the artery near her collarbone. It felt like fire.
Dee screamed, body convulsing. The machines roared. Her eyes rolled back as the serum spread through her bloodstream—rewriting everything.
Her skin steamed. Her pulse distorted. Her bones rattled.
Duke stood over her, watching.
Smiling.
"Let's see what kind of god we've made."
After some hours works.
It's done and now she unconscious duke ask others for when will she woke up and they say we don't know yet .
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