Chapter 20 · Apex Loop: Glitch Evolution - Chapter 20: Reverse Lockup

"Open the door, Doctor." My claw pressed against Vivian's throat, hard enough to stop her breath but not hard enough to crush it.

She stood inside the containment cell with one hand wrapped around the emergency key. Her white coat was torn at the shoulder. A thin line of blood ran from her eyebrow to her jaw.

She looked at my claws. Then at the dead monitors behind me.

"You cannot use the key," she said.

I leaned closer. My breath washed over her face. "Try me."

"The lock reads your mutation pattern. If I open it for you, the chamber will flood with null gas. You will stop moving in six seconds."

"Then you have six seconds to make the door open before I tear your hand off."

Her mouth twitched.

Not fear. Interest.

I hated that look more than the alarms screaming through the ruined lab.

"You changed," she whispered.

"You kept killing me."

"That was the point."

My grip tightened. Her pulse jumped beneath my claw.

"No," I said. "The point was to make me useful. You lost control when I learned how to come back."

The red emergency lights flashed over her face.