novelraw Chapter 368: The Fragmented Memory
Chapter 368: The Fragmented Memory
The entire room instantly sank into a suffocating silence. No one spoke, because everyone clearly understood the underlying meaning of that statement. In the eyes of the core monsters of CORE, Julian and B-00 were perhaps merely two halves of a machine, two puzzle pieces of a complete biological weapon.
After the call ended, Ethan had to go out to the study room to process a few decrypted files that Helen had just sent over. Julian chose to remain in the living room, sitting alone on the sofa, as still as a statue.
Twin signal.
If there truly was such a tight connection between him and it, if B-00 actually shared his memories, if it had always been silently searching for him in despair, and even retained his habits...
How has it lived all these years?
Julian murmured under his breath.
This was the first time, ever since finding out he was being hunted, that he actively placed himself in the position of B-00 to think. A strong curiosity mixed with a faint hint of pity began to kindle within his heart. It was a sympathy stemming from the most primal instinct. He had been lucky enough to escape, to live in the light, to experience love. As for it, it remained forever buried in those dark underground cellars.
Yet, somewhere in his mind, Julian also briefly wondered: was he A-01? Or was he the Julian of that other world?
Evening gradually fell, and Julian sat leaning his back against the headboard in the bedroom, holding a market analysis document that he needed to look over. The atmosphere was very peaceful, with Ethan sitting at the small desk near the window, entirely focused on checking emails.
Suddenly, Julian paused his hand that was turning the page.
An incredibly bizarre, spine-chilling sensation unexpectedly struck, rushing straight into his mind. It was not the fragmented pieces of memory like the previous time. This time, what invaded him were emotions.
He suddenly felt cold.
A bone-piercing chill seeped into his flesh, even though the heater in the room was still operating steadily. His body instantly became lethargic, utterly exhausted, and most notably, a ravenous hunger tore at his stomach, even though he had clearly just finished dinner not long ago.
At the same time, echoing somewhere deep within his brain were extremely vague noises. There were no clear words, only the sound of heavy, intermittent breathing. The steady dripping of water, pit-a-patting in a damp space. And... the clanking sound of iron chains colliding with one another from a very distant place.
Julian stiffened completely, the document in his hands slipping down onto the mattress.
He realized that these terrible feelings... were absolutely not his own.
His abnormality immediately caught Ethan’s attention. The man hastily stood up and walked quickly to the side of the bed, his eyes full of worry: "Jules, what is wrong with you?"
Julian slowly raised his head, his complexion deathly pale. He grabbed Ethan’s hand, his chest heaving violently, his voice extremely gentle yet carrying a chilling certainty: "Ethan... I think... I just felt its emotions."
Julian’s voice was very soft, as if just a passing breeze would be enough to shatter those fragile syllables, but falling into Ethan’s ears, it was no different from a roaring clap of thunder.
Julian’s face at this moment was pale without a single trace of blood. The small hand gripping the hem of the man’s shirt was as cold as ice, the fingertips trembling slightly. His chest heaved, his breaths broken and chaotic like a person who had just been submerged in dark, deep waters, struggling to surface in search of a bit of depleted oxygen.
Ethan did not ask a barrage of questions.
The hint of panic that flashed through the depths of his eyes was quickly suppressed, replaced by an absolute steadfastness. He decisively reached out his arms, pulling Julian forcefully into his embrace. One of the man’s hands pressed firmly against the back of his neck, the other slipping around his waist, continuously stroking along the tense, slender spine. The scorching temperature from the man’s body pierced through the layers of fabric, attempting to warm the person in his arms.
He merely held Julian, quietly using his own strong heartbeat as a guiding rhythm, waiting until Julian’s breathing gradually stabilized once more.
Only after a long while, upon sensing that the body within his arms was no longer shivering, did Ethan lower his head, his chin rubbing gently against Julian’s soft hair, speaking in a deep, hoarse, and extremely cautious voice: "What kind of feeling was it?"
Julian buried his face into the crook of Ethan’s neck, greedily inhaling the familiar scent to dispel the remnants of the hallucination. He half-closed his eyes, slowly describing the things that had just forcefully flooded into his brain.
"Very cold..." His voice whispered: "A bone-deep chill, as if there were no heat sources anywhere around. Very hungry and also very tired. A heavy sensation in the limbs, as though it has been a very long time without a complete sleep. Also... the wrists hurt badly, a burning pain caused by tightly constricted metal scraping against flesh."
Julian hesitated, the hand clinging to Ethan’s shirt subconsciously tightening. He looked up, his jet-black eyes brimming with a thin layer of mist, enunciating every word: "But the most terrifying thing is not those physical pains. It is... it is so lonely that it makes me unable to breathe."
Ethan’s chest heaved, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down with great difficulty. The hand that was caressing Julian’s back suddenly turned stiff.
In the quiet space of the bedroom, a complex, dark surge of emotions began to churn within the man’s heart.
He gradually felt distressed, also blaming himself for being powerless to protect the person he loved. Yet Ethan also clearly understood that the entity he was facing was an invisible being, a phantom silently wedging its way into the deepest layer of Julian’s consciousness. A place that no matter how capable Ethan was, he could not reach out to protect or obstruct.
The depths of Ethan’s eyes darkened as he pressed his forehead against Julian’s: "Jules... Do you want to sever it?"
Julian fell into silence once again.
He remained quiet for a very long time, his long eyelashes drooping down to conceal the fluctuations in the depths of his eyes. If he severed this connection, he would be safe. He could hide within the protective shell that Ethan created, living a peaceful life and pretending as though B-00 had never existed. But at the same time, he would permanently lose the chance to uncover the truth about the Eden Project, about the very origins of himself.
More importantly...
"I do not know." Julian gently shook his head. He reached out a hand to touch the angular side of the man’s face: "If I abandon it... then it is no different from abandoning myself."
They were the Twin signal. Abandoning the other half that was dying in the darkness, could Julian’s soul ever truly be complete?
As the night grew late, the space outside the villa completely plunged into a silent veil of darkness.
Ethan felt uneasy, he intended to grab his phone and call Kieran to bring medical equipment over for a check-up, but Julian hastily reached out to stop him.
"Do not call him. I want to try and confirm something."
He wanted to know whether the recent resonance was merely an accidental mishap caused by flickering brainwaves, or if he himself actually possessed the ability to actively establish that line of connection.
Under Ethan’s gaze full of anxiety mixed with disapproval, Julian slowly picked up the carved wooden decoration on the tea table, the conductive object from this morning. He sat with his back straight, shut his eyes tightly, and adjusted his breathing.
One second, two seconds, ten seconds passed.
Initially, there was nothing unusual around him. His brain was completely empty; he could only hear the thumping heartbeat in his chest and the rapid breathing of the man sitting beside him. However, the moment Julian focused his spirit to the highest degree, tearing down the natural defensive barriers of his consciousness, a vague, spine-chilling sensation began to slowly approach.
It was exactly as if someone had managed to tune into the precise frequency of an old, battered radio. A crackling burst of static noise echoed out into the void, and immediately after, an incredibly brief and fleeting fragment of memory was forcefully transmitted straight into his mind.
The surrounding scenery was not clear in the slightest, with everything appearing violently blurred and shaking uncontrollably. Within that severely narrow and restricted field of vision, there was nothing but a thick, impenetrable patch of pitch black darkness. This heavy shadow was only occasionally ripped apart by a solitary streak of cold, inorganic white light that cast its pale glow through the narrow gap of a heavy iron door.
The harsh clanking sound of metal chains relentlessly grating against one another rang out with a deafening noise. Accompanying that terrible sound was a sharp, piercing agony transmitting directly from both of his wrists, feeling exactly as if heavy iron shackles were tightening so fiercely and mercilessly that they were biting deep into his very bone marrow.
He was unable to make out the features of any faces in the gloom, yet Julian could hear the sound of people speaking, and it sounded incredibly vivid and real.
"Do not let it come into contact with anyone else ever again. Isolate it completely." A chilling, utterly emotionless male voice rang out through the darkness.