Chapter 6 - Paranoia and BloodDaniel pulled a concealed pistol from his glove box, his hands shaking violently as he stepped through the shattered glass of his front doors.
“Michael!” Daniel screamed, his voice echoing through the vast, empty marble hallway. “Michael, don't believe the audio! It was Emily! She’s alive! She tricked us!”
A shadow glided across the upper balcony. BANG!
A bullet ripped through the wall right next to Daniel’s head, shattering a decorative vase. Daniel ducked behind a grand pillar, heart pounding, sweat blinding his vision.
“Liar!” Michael’s voice roared from above, filled with unhinged paranoia. “I saw the bank transfers, Daniel! The money went to an account in your name! You tried to frame me! You were going to leave me to take the fall for the cartel!”
“She hacked the accounts!” Daniel yelled back, tears of terror mixing with the blood on his cheek. “Listen to me, brother! She survived the fall! She’s playing us against each other!”
“She couldn't swim!” Michael screamed back, his footsteps heavy as he moved down the spiral staircase, holding a heavy shotgun. “Stop lying! You always wanted everything for yourself! The company, the money, the estate!”
While the twin brothers hunted each other through the dark, opulent hallways of their own home, Emily sat inside her control vehicle parked on the hill overlooking the mansion. Through thermal optics and audio bugs planted days ago, she watched the two monsters who ruined so many lives destroy themselves.
“It’s poetry,” Marcus murmured, watching the heat signatures move on his monitor. “They spent their whole lives using identical faces to deceive the world. Now they can’t even trust the face in the mirror.”
“Push the final trigger,” Emily said coldly.
Marcus hit a key on his laptop.
Suddenly, the smart home system inside the mansion glitched. The lights flashed blood-red, heavy steel emergency shutters slammed down over all the doors and windows, locking both brothers inside the pitch-black house.
Then, over the mansion’s surround-sound speaker system, Emily’s voice began to echo from every wall, every room, every ceiling.
“Which twin will survive tonight?” her voice purred through the dark. “The one who pushed me... or the one who watched?”
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Chapter Hook: Inside the dark, locked living room, Michael fired blindly into the shadows at a moving figure. A body hit the floor with a heavy thud. Michael laughed hysterically, stepping forward with his lighter to check his brother’s body... only to realize he had just shot Victoria, who had been tied up and gagged in the dark by Emily hours before.
And right behind Michael, a cold metal barrel pressed against the back of his skull.
