novelraw Chapter 413: Why He Was There
Chapter 413: Why He Was There
413.
It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t even accusation.
It was awareness.
The creature inside of Elias pressed harder against the box containing it. Do not do this. If you do this, you are no different than every other hand that cut her open to see if she screamed.
Mercer straightened and gestured to the tray.
"Minimal sample," he instructed. "Sub-dermal tissue from the forearm and shoulder. I want comparative microstructure and any viral integration we missed with bloodwork."
Elias turned to him sharply. "You missed nothing with bloodwork. The virus is everywhere in her. That doesn’t mean it sits the same in every cell."
"That’s why we take cells."
"Not like this."
Mercer’s gaze stayed steady. "Then how."
Elias opened his mouth to argue and found nothing there that wouldn’t be a lie. There wasn’t a painless way to do this. There wasn’t a compliance-only way. Sera could tolerate needles and scans, but cutting was a message. A blade didn’t gather data; it declared ownership.
Sera knew that.
His creature knew that.
He knew that too.
"Doctor," Mercer added quietly, sensing the falter, "this is not vanity. This is survival. If we fail to produce a viable antigen or reconstruct her resilience before the next wave hits Region L and M, we lose more than cities. We lose the species. You know the numbers."
Elias did.
He’d watched them climb with every report Mercer had given him about the contagion that has spread through Region T.
A small voice had told him that Mercer had written his own rules, that he only gave him the number that he wanted Elias to see. But that didn’t seem to matter to the man.
After all, Director Mercer didn’t look evil.
That was the problem.
Sera looked up at Elias again.
Her voice was low, almost bored, but not empty. There was intention behind every word. "Do what you’re going to do. I will survive this, just like I’ve survived everything else."
Elias shook his head once. "Sera—"
"Don’t explain." Her eyes stayed on him. "Just be honest with yourself about why your hand moves."
The creature hissed, tight and furious. She gives you permission and you think it absolves you. It doesn’t. She is letting you walk to the cliff so she can watch whether you jump.
Elias’s hands hovered over the tray.
He picked up the alcohol pad first. Wiped her forearm, slow, methodical. The motion gave him something to do besides shake.
He reached for a local anesthetic. Then stopped.
Mercer didn’t say no. He didn’t need to. He just waited, watching Elias decide whether he would treat this as a procedure or a harvest.
Sera’s expression didn’t change.
Her creature’s presence—distant but palpable—pressed light pressure into the room, like a river leaning against its banks.
Elias set the anesthetic back on the tray.
He didn’t know why.
A part of him rationalized it: better to keep her sensory system unaltered, better data, avoid side reactions. But he heard the real reason under that logic like a second heartbeat.
He wanted to prove she didn’t need it.
He wanted to prove he could do this without making her weak.
He wanted to prove he was capable of touching the apex and not being swallowed.
The creature almost choked on contempt. You are such a fragile animal.
Elias picked up the scalpel.
The handle felt familiar as it rested against his palm.
That was almost worse than fear.
He moved to Sera’s right side, eyes on the spot above her wrist where a minimal incision could yield enough tissue. He caught his own reflection in the steel table for half a second—eyes too tight, shoulders rigid, a man trying to convince himself he wasn’t about to become the thing his patient had survived a hundred times.
Sera watched him calmly.
"Look at me," he murmured.
She did.
Her eyes were wide and clear and curious, as if she were waiting for an experiment to start and had no idea what pain was supposed to mean.
Mercer’s voice came soft behind him. "Your tremor is irrelevant. She can withstand more than any human alive. Make the cut."
The creature inside of Elias screamed.
Not in sound, but in sheer force and pressure. Do not make that cut. I will not forgive you. I will not protect you. I will not stay boxed while you bleed her for a man who thinks she is a product.
Elias shut his eyes for a dizzy heartbeat.
Then opened them.
He lowered the blade.
He cut.
The scalpel slid into her skin cleanly, a shallow line no longer than his thumb. Blood welled immediately—bright, human-red, too normal for what she was. It didn’t spurt. It didn’t hiss. It just appeared, as if her body treated even violation like a controlled response.
Elias swallowed.
He widened the incision slightly.
Sera’s face didn’t change.
Her breathing didn’t hitch.
But the pressure in the room shifted hard. The lights didn’t flicker, but the air felt denser, as if something had stepped closer behind glass.
The creature inside Elias roared. You cut the sun. You cut the only truth we have.
Elias’s hand shook once.
Then steadied.
Because he knew what his hands did when he let them do what they were trained for: they became precise. Impersonal. Efficient. His mind retreated into procedure the way a man retreats into cover under fire.
He used forceps to lift the tissue at the edge of the incision. He snipped a sample free and dropped it into a sterile vial. He didn’t look at her face while he did it. He didn’t let himself think about whether she felt it.
He didn’t have to.
Her eyes never left his.
They weren’t angry.
They weren’t pleading.
Simply watching as it felt like he had cut out his own heart and laid it on the table for Mercer.
Mercer leaned over his shoulder to see the vial’s contents. "Good. Now the shoulder."
Elias hesitated.
The creature hissed a low, venomous laugh. If you hesitate now, you still think this is about you. She already knows it isn’t.
He moved to her shoulder, wiped the skin, marked a spot, and cut again.
This incision was deeper this time, the tissue thicker. He had to press a little harder to get past the dermis. The blade slid through with a faint resistance that reminded him of cutting into living muscle rather than a corpse. His stomach rolled.
And still, Sera didn’t move.
He took another sample.
Her blood looked the same as any human’s.
That was the most terrifying part. That was why Mercer wanted her.
That was why Elias was here.