Chapter 38 – The Basement in Verona
Chapter 38 – The Basement in Verona
[Aurora]
She didn’t sleep.
The message lingered like a curse—taunting her every time she closed her eyes.
“Ask him about the basement in Verona.”
She paced the room, trying to make sense of it. The night was thick with silence, and the city beyond her window was blurred with rain.
What basement? What happened in Verona?
The name of the city had been a ghost in their conversations—something Damon never lingered on, something he dodged with vague smiles and sharp deflections.
But now, it had claws.
And it was dragging her in.
She grabbed her coat and headed for Damon’s estate.
If he wasn’t going to tell her the truth willingly, she’d drag it out of him.
---
[Damon]
Damon hadn’t moved from the study since Elijah vanished.
His mind was racing.
He replayed the moment over and over—the butler’s voice slipping into Elijah’s tone. The glint of something cold in his eyes. The arrogance.
He hadn’t seen it.
You’re slipping, he told himself.
The camera feed on his phone buzzed with motion.
Front gates. Aurora.
He straightened instantly and moved to meet her.
The look on her face was unreadable, but her steps were determined. No makeup. Hair damp from the rain. But there was fire in her eyes.
She walked past him, into the house, without a word.
Damon followed.
Once inside, she spun to face him.
“What happened in Verona?” she demanded.
He froze.
Aurora’s jaw clenched. “Don’t lie to me, Damon. Someone messaged me again. Told me you’re only telling me half the truth. That something happened in a basement there.”
He looked down. “You weren’t supposed to know about that.”
Her voice rose. “Well, I do now. So tell me. What the hell happened?”
He crossed to the fireplace and stared into the flames.
“There was a mission,” he began slowly, voice low. “Years ago. I was working under one of my father’s covert operations—before I broke off from the family. We intercepted an arms deal. It led us to a safehouse in Verona.”
Aurora’s pulse pounded. “And?”
“There was a basement. Underground vault. Hidden.”
He turned back to her.
“What we found… wasn’t weapons.”
She swallowed. “Then what?”
“People,” he said. “Prisoners. One of them was a scientist. Dr. Emmanuel Voss.”
Her eyes widened. “Voss? As in Elijah?”
Damon nodded. “His father.”
“And what happened?”
“We were ordered to wipe the site,” he said, his voice turning hollow. “But I couldn’t. Voss begged me to spare his son. He said he’d work for us if I kept Elijah safe. So I made a deal. Faked a fire. Faked the bodies. Let them both escape.”
Aurora staggered back a step.
“You let Elijah Voss go?”
“He was a child,” Damon said. “I thought I was saving a life. Not raising a monster.”
“And you never thought to mention this?”
“I was trying to protect you,” he snapped. “From the truth. From the darkness. I thought it would never come back.”
She laughed bitterly. “It always comes back.”
Silence stretched.
Then she whispered, “He’s using me to get to you.”
Damon nodded grimly. “That’s what he’s best at. Playing long games.”
Aurora’s voice broke. “So what happens now?”
Damon stepped forward. His hands gently cupped her face.
“Now I finish what I should’ve ended years ago.”
---
[Elijah]
Elijah sipped his wine, seated at a rooftop bar that overlooked the glittering city below. Rain hadn’t reached this high. The sky was clear here—like it always was for people like him.
Celeste joined him, her heels clicking softly across the stone floor.
“He told her,” Elijah said without looking up.
Celeste raised a brow. “You expected him not to?”
“I expected him to choke on the guilt. But he surprised me.”
“You sound proud.”
“I’m curious,” Elijah said. “That’s different.”
She sat. “So? What now?”
He smiled. “Now we let the past burn its way forward.”
---
[Unknown Location – Shadow Figure POV]
A projector hummed in a pitch-black room. On the wall, footage played.
Grainy. Fuzzy. But clear enough.
The camera showed Damon, in his early twenties, dragging a child—Elijah—through the flames of the Verona basement. In the corner, Dr. Voss’s hand reached toward them, burned and broken.
The figure pressed pause and stood.
He pulled a folder from a drawer and opened it.
Inside were documents labeled:
Project Helix
Voss Protocol
Moretti Asset #7
A gloved hand flipped to the final page.
A picture of Aurora.
And scrawled in ink beneath it:
“Break her. And he breaks himself.”
---
[Aurora]
Dawn broke gently.
Aurora sat on the edge of Damon’s bed, arms wrapped around herself. She hadn’t been able to sleep.
Damon emerged from the shower, steam trailing behind him.
She looked up. “You okay?”
He gave her a small, tired smile. “You tell me.”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore,” she whispered. “I want to trust you. But I keep getting dragged into this web of lies and secrets.”
He knelt before her, took her hands.
“Then let’s untangle it together.”
She stared into his eyes—there was something raw in them. Something wounded but still burning strong.
“I can’t promise you I won’t make mistakes,” he said. “But I promise I’ll never let them take you.”
She nodded slowly.
Then, voice trembling, she whispered, “I dreamed of the fire last night. I saw a boy screaming. I think… I think I’ve been to Verona before.”
Damon’s eyes widened.
Aurora blinked rapidly. “I was just a child. I remember a basement. A man with glasses. Fire everywhere. I thought it was a dream.”
He reached for her. “Aurora—”
“Why don’t I remember it clearly?”
He swallowed. “Because it wasn’t just a fire. Voss’s father experimented on children. You might’ve been one of them.”
She recoiled, breath knocked out of her.
“No,” she whispered. “That can’t be true.”
“We need to find the rest of the files,” he said. “If they touched your memories, there may still be side effects.”
Aurora covered her mouth, shaking.
“I was a project?”
“You were always more than what they made you,” he said fiercely. “And we’re going to find the truth.”
She looked at him again—and saw not just the man who had hurt her, but the one who had tried, always, to protect her.
And she knew.
Whatever the truth was…
They had to face it together.