The Silent Experiment

The Silent Experiment

Missy Smith · Ongoing · 30.5k Words

732
Hot
732
Views
0
Added
Add to Shelf
Start Reading
Share:facebooktwitterpinterestwhatsappreddit

Introduction

Iris Monroe wakes up strapped to a bed in a facility that smells of antiseptic and fear. Her pulse is monitored, her voice forbidden, and her every movement observed. They tell her this is science, a controlled study in emotional suppression. But when Dr. Cassian Cross steps out of the shadows, everything inside her screams that this is something far darker.

He says he can fix her. He says the experiment will help humanity. Yet every time he speaks her name, it sounds more like a promise than a procedure. Cassian is not just studying her mind. He is claiming it.

Each test pushes her further from reality, forcing Iris to confront memories she did not know she had lost. The others who entered the experiment before her did not all survive. The only way to survive is to understand the rules. And in this place, the rules change every time Cassian looks at her.

In a world where silence can kill, and love can destroy, Iris must decide whether to obey the man who holds her captive or become the one thing he never expected, his downfall.

Obsession has never been this quiet. Survival has never been this seductive.
When the experiment ends, one of them will break, and the other will finally hear what silence sounds like when it screams.

Chapter 1

The alarms had been screaming for three minutes before I realized the sound wasn’t only inside my head.

Somewhere beneath the noise, his voice was still whispering.

“Breathe, Iris.”

I was breathing too fast, too shallow. My lungs tore at the edges. The air itself felt poisoned, heavy with him. The corridor lights pulsed from red to white, then back to red, each flicker syncing with the vibration behind my eyes. The link was dying, but not fast enough.

The glass walls of Pygmalion Labs trembled with every shock from the core. Someone shouted for evacuation behind a sealed door. The words broke apart in static. The building sounded like a machine begging to die. I knew the feeling.

“You don’t have to run,” he said, his tone sliding through the chaos like silk over wire. “You built this, too.”

My hand pressed against the side of my head where the implant pulsed beneath the skin. Heat radiated outward. The ache was intimate and accusatory.

“You don’t get to use my thoughts anymore,” I whispered.

“You made me.”

Maybe I had. Maybe love was never cured, only contained. Maybe every patient who entered this place brought their ghosts to be cataloged and called progress.

The control console blinked for input. Code streamed across the glass in his handwriting, precise, deliberate, merciless. He had rewritten the firewall again, trying to stop me from pulling the plug. The bastard planned for rebellion.

Cables hissed at my feet like living veins. They led to the core module, the machine that once mapped my emotions like constellations. Its surface pulsed faintly, a mimicry of life. My heartbeat. His. Ours. Whatever we had become.

“System override,” I said into the mic, voice trembling. “Authorization: Monroe, Iris.”

The computer hesitated, recognizing my voice but doubting my intent.

“Don’t,” Cassian murmured, his presence pressing closer, too human to be data. “If you sever the link, you’ll lose everything. The memories, the progress, me.”

“That’s the point.”

“You’ll die, Iris.”

I looked at my reflection in the glass. My skin was gray under the flickering light. My pupils were blown wide. “You already did.”

The machine screamed back. Lights surged white-hot. The implant behind my ear flared, sending rivers of heat down my neck. The air smelled of ozone and burning plastic. My pulse thundered until it drowned the sirens.

“System override accepted,” the console said. “Manual disconnect in thirty seconds.”

Cassian’s tone cracked. The discipline slipped. Beneath the precision was panic.

“I can save you. Don’t do this. We can recalibrate. We can fix it.”

“You infected me,” I said. “You turned love into a disease and called it mercy.”

The room bent around me. My vision wavered. I could feel him pressing through the connection, his consciousness pushing against my skull, trying to reclaim space that was no longer his.

“Please,” he whispered, raw now. “You said you didn’t want to be alone.”

I had said that once, and it had been true. But I had not meant forever.

The countdown began. Red numbers blinked across the console like open wounds.

Ten. My hand hovered over the lever.

Nine. The lights trembled.

Eight. “You’re the only constant,” he said. “If you go, I go.”

Seven. My skin blistered with heat.

Six. The hum deepened until it sounded like breath inside my bones.

Five. “You think you’re killing me,” he said. “You’re wrong.”

Four. “You’re killing what’s left of yourself.”

Three. My vision blurred. Static crawled through my sight.

Two. I remembered the first session, his voice calm and absolute. Do not resist.

One.

I pulled the lever. Silence hit like a collapsing lung. The lights died. The hum vanished. Every screen bled to black. For a heartbeat, there was peace. No voice. No pulse but mine. Then came the flood.

Memories detonated behind my eyes, his and mine braided together. The first session. The stairwell. The smell of citrus on his hands. His mother’s scream. My laughter from a dream that never belonged to me. They tore through my nerves until I couldn’t tell where he ended and I began. I fell to my knees, choking on a sound that didn’t belong to either of us.

The core glowed once more, faint but steady. Lines of light crawled across the floor, forming a circle around the module. In the reflection, I saw movement, a silhouette, tall and patient. Too still to be mine.

“You didn’t sever me,” he said.

I turned, expecting smoke. Instead, every monitor sparked back to life. Across the glass, words appeared in his precise gray font:

ARCHITECT ONLINE.

The letters pulsed once, twice, then dimmed to embers.

Smoke rolled across the floor. The alarms softened, fading into mechanical sobs. I pressed my back to the wall, sliding down until the cold reached my spine. My hands shook, slick with blood I didn’t remember spilling.

The reflection in the glass smiled a second too late.

Somewhere under the static, I could still feel him breathing.

I forced myself upright, staggering toward the exit. The hallway beyond was bathed in a deep red light. Sparks leapt from the ceiling panels like falling stars. Every step echoed hollow against the tile, the sound of a ghost testing its body. I reached the door, swiped my badge, and waited. Nothing. The lock blinked blue, then red. The system still recognized his authority as superior to mine.

“You can’t leave,” he whispered inside my skull. “You are the experiment now.”

The implant flared again. My vision fractured. I pressed my palms to the floor as the world tilted sideways. Cold air rushed in from the vents, carrying the faint scent of lilies. That scent had no place in this building. It was the perfume I wore before I came here. He was recreating it, reaching through memory to keep me from walking away.

“I am not yours,” I said.

“You are the data that made me whole.”

The words slithered across the walls like a prayer written in light. My body convulsed once, the signal breaking through my muscles. I crawled toward the console, dragging myself over cables that burned through my sleeves. Every part of me screamed. Still, I reached the power switch and tore it from its housing.

The lights dimmed for good this time. The hum died with a long, low sigh. The building began to collapse into silence.

I lay there on the floor, breath shaking, vision narrowing to a narrow strip of ceiling. The red emergency light blinked above me, painting everything the color of blood that has already dried. My pulse slowed. The heat in my skull faded to a dull ache.

Somewhere beyond the ruined glass, thunder rolled. Rain began to fall through the vents where the roof had cracked. The sound was soft and distant, the world’s apology for watching.

I thought of what he once said to me in the dark: The cure is not forgetting. The cure is obedience.

He had been wrong. The cure was rebellion.

My eyes drifted to the console one last time. A faint blue spark glowed inside the shattered screen. It pulsed once, then twice, in rhythm with my heart. I wanted to believe it was only a dying circuit. The last surge of light carved his final message across the monitor, letters thin and trembling:

HELLO, IRIS.

I stared until the spark went out. My own reflection lingered in the glass, pale and exhausted, my mouth forming a shape that could have been a prayer or a warning. Then darkness folded over me, heavy and absolute.

Through my experience, I realized one thing with complete clarity.

No cure ever works forever.

It only learns to hide.

Last Chapters

You Might Like 😍

Protectors Of Her Warrior's Heart

Protectors Of Her Warrior's Heart

1.9k Views · Completed · arianniahrain
Tali had spent her entire life in hell.

Rescued by men who call themselves Protectors—warriors from another realm who embody the legends of angels and vampires—she is thrust into a world she never knew existed. For the first time, she experiences freedom, safety, and the possibility of a future.

But freedom comes with a price.

Tali is forced to face the father she believed abandoned her and a powerful council determined to use her for their own ends. Stranger still are the abilities awakening within her—powers no one understands, yet everyone seems desperate to control.

As she learns to trust, she chooses the mates destined to stand beside her. In their arms she finds love, devotion, and a family worth fighting for. But not everyone wants their bond to survive.

When the council betrays the Protectors and attempts to steal her newborn son, it ignites a war that will shake every realm.

Now Tali stands at the center of a conflict far greater than herself. The answers to ancient mysteries, the fate of her child, and the future of countless worlds all rest on her shoulders.

Surrounded by mates who love her fiercely and refuse to leave her side, Tali will battle enemies old and new, forge powerful alliances, and discover just how strong she truly is.

Because this war won't be won for her.

It will be won with her.

And together, they will fight for their future, their family, and a love worth crossing realms to protect.
Bella and Her Beast

Bella and Her Beast

15.4k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
For all the little girls who grew up wondering what happens after the prince kisses the girl—this is the story they never told you.
.
Locked in her frozen tower, Bella dreamed of warmth, of touch, of freedom and of love. Cursed with the power of ice and snow, she’s spent her life alone. A secret they tried to protect the world from. Her only escape comes in the form of the books she reads. Stories of heat, desire, and the kind of love that could melt even her frostbitten heart.
Damien is the Beast. A dragon King with a temper forged in flame and a soul hollowed by duty. The world fears him. The people call him a monster. But beneath the scales and the rage lies a man who has never been touched by love.
When frost meets fire, the world shatters. She was never meant to leave her tower. He was never meant to find her. But destiny doesn’t bow to kings or care for cages and now the question burns through them both: Can Bella have her Beast? Or will the girl of snow melt in the heat of his desire?

.
"I’m keeping her."
"What?"
Before I can react, he scoops her up. Her small body fits easily in the cradle of his talons. For a split second, she looks startled, but not afraid. Her hand rests against one scaled finger, and she stares up at him with that same curious wonder, as though she’s already forgotten she was ever meant to fear me.
"Put her down," I try to command, panic threading through my thoughts. "You’ll hurt her."
"She’s ours," the beast insists, possessive and fierce. "Our snowflake."
Goddess Of The Underworld

Goddess Of The Underworld

929.7k Views · Completed · Sheridan Hartin
Left at a pack border with a name and a stubborn heartbeat, Envy grows into the sharpest kind of survivor, an orphaned warrior who knows how to hold a line and keep moving. Love isn’t in the plan…until four alpha wolves with playboy reputations and inconveniently soft hands decide the girl who won’t bow is the only queen they’ll ever take. Their mate. The one they have waited for. Xavier, Haiden, Levi, and Noah are gorgeous, lethal, and anything but perfect and Envy isn’t either. She’s changing. First into hell hound, Layah at her heels and fire in her veins. Then into what the realm has been waiting for, a Goddess of the Underworld, dragging her mates down to hell with her.

When the veil between the Divine, the Living, and the Dead begins to crack, Envy is thrust beneath with a job she can’t drop: keep the worlds from bleeding together, shepherd the lost, and make ordinary into armour, breakfasts, bedtime, battle plans. Peace lasts exactly one lullaby. This is the story of an orphan pup who became a goddess by choosing her family; of four imperfect alphas learning how to be better. Steamy, fierce, and full of heart, Goddess of the Underworld is a reverse harem, found-family paranormal romance where love writes the rules and keeps three realms from falling apart.
Game of Destiny

Game of Destiny

1.2m Views · Completed · Dripping Creativity
Amie's wolf hasn't shown herself. But who cares? She has a good pack, best friends and a family who loves her. Everyone, including the Alpha, is telling her she is perfect just the way she is. That is until she finds her mate and he rejects her. Heartbroken Amie flees from everything and start over. No more werewolves, no more packs.

When Finlay finds her, she is living among humans. He is smitten by the stubborn wolf that refuse to acknowledge his existence. She may not be his mate, but he wants her to be a part of his pack, latent wolf or not.

Amie cant resist the Alpha that comes into her life and drags her back into pack life. Not only does she find herself happier than she has been in a long time, her wolf finally comes to her. Finlay isn't her mate, but he becomes her best friend. Together with the other top wolves in the pack, they work to create the best and strongest pack.

When it's time for the pack games, the event that decides the packs rank for the coming ten year, Amie needs to face her old pack. When she sees the man that rejected her for the first time in ten years, everything she thought she knew is turned around. Amie and Finlay need to adapt to the new reality and find a way forward for their pack. But will the curve ball split them apart?
Alpha Under Love Spell

Alpha Under Love Spell

1.8k Views · Ongoing · doughdessertdelight
“Please listen to me! I am not a thief. I don’t know how that necklace ended up in my purse. Please!” begged Maeve, crying.
Thorin pushed her on the bed and pinned her with his body. He growled near her face, “Liar!”

“No! No! I am not lying!”

“Then explain this!” Thorin whipped the screen of his phone near her eyes. Maeve looked at the screen, and her eyes widened with shock. It was a DNA report. It clearly said that Valeska was Maeve and Thorin’s daughter. “You have been lying to me for months now. Why did you hide that she is my daughter? Why did you start hating me? Did you never love me?”

“What should I have done? Let you kill my daughter!” snapped Maeve.

“What? Kill? What the hell are you talking about?” shouted Thorin.


After a passionate night with the Alpha Heir Thorin Blackridge, Maeve Arrendale, a human, found herself pregnant. She knew she had left her contact details for Thorin to find her, but he never came. Desperately, she went to tell him everything and ask him to take responsibility. But what came at her was humiliation and the devilish serial killer, Ozul.

She had no idea how she escaped her certain but she thanked every god and ran far away from Thorin and his world. She raised her child on her own. She herself had a difficult life and didn’t want her daughter to suffer. So she did everything in her power to give Valeska a good life.

Her life was turned upside down when Thorin came to her office as her boss. His fated mate, Vespera clinging to his arms. Now, Thorin hated her for vanishing from his life, and Maeve hated him for sending a serial killer to kill her.

Will Thorin accept his daughter? Will Maeve forgive him for attempting to kill her? If not Thorin, then who sent a serial killer to kill Maeve? An ancient magic, a prophecy, a powerful child is going to change everything in everyone’s life. Is everyone ready?
From Substitute To Queen

From Substitute To Queen

1.7m Views · Completed · Hannah Moore
For three years, Sable loved Alpha Darrell with everything she had, spending her salary to support their household while being called an orphan and gold-digger. But just as Darrell was about to mark her as his Luna, his ex-girlfriend returned, texting: "I'm not wearing underwear. My plane lands soon—pick me up and fuck me immediately."

Heartbroken, Sable discovered Darrell having sex with his ex in their bed, while secretly transferring hundreds of thousands to support that woman.

Even worse was overhearing Darrell laugh to his friends: "She's useful—obedient, doesn't cause trouble, handles housework, and I can fuck her whenever I need relief. She's basically a live-in maid with benefits." He made crude thrusting gestures, sending his friends into laughter.

In despair, Sable left, reclaimed her true identity, and married her childhood neighbor—Lycan King Caelan, nine years her senior and her fated mate. Now Darrell desperately tries to win her back. How will her revenge unfold?

From substitute to queen—her revenge has just begun!
Mated to Her Alpha Instructor

Mated to Her Alpha Instructor

154.6k Views · Completed · Marina Ellington
I'm Eileen, an outcast at the shifter academy, all because I don't have a wolf. My only saving grace is a knack for healing that got me into the Healer's Division. Then one night in the forbidden woods, I found a stranger on the brink of death. One touch, and something primal snapped between us. That night tied me to him in a way I can't undo.
Weeks later, our new Alpha combat instructor walks in. Regis. The guy from the woods. His eyes lock on mine, and I know he recognizes me. Then the secret I've been hiding hits me like a punch: I'm pregnant.
He has an offer that binds us tighter than ever. Protection… or a cage? Whispers turn ugly, darkness closes in. Why am I the one without a wolf? Is he my salvation… or will he drag me to ruin?
The Spy Who Left

The Spy Who Left

1.3k Views · Completed · Orion Vale
"She's naive. A pretty little socialite who got lucky marrying above her station."
"I still can't believe she actually did it. Aria Hart, filing for divorce. Who saw that coming?"
"How long do we think it'll take before she comes crawling back?" Another voice joins the conversation.
"Three days," Victoria declares. "Five at most. She has no money, no skills, no family. Where's she going to go?"
When Aria Chen divorced billionaire Leon Hart, New York's elite sneered, betting she'd crawl back within days. She never did.
Three years later, the world is rocked when Dr. Aria Vale, CEO of a revolutionary cybersecurity empire, steps into the spotlight. The mysterious genius who built a billion-dollar company from nothing is none other than Leon's discarded wife, the woman everyone thought was just a pretty ornament.
Now, every powerful man wants the queen Leon threw away a renowned scientist seeking partnership, a financial titan proposing an empire, and an actor offering devotion. Each sees the brilliance Leon ignored.
Then Leon discovers the truth: Aria's sacrifices, her secret double life, and the daughter she's been raising without him. For the first time, the man who once took her for granted must fight for her love. But can he compete with men who valued her from the beginning?
A story of love, betrayal, and power where the king must kneel before the queen who never needed saving.
His Lethal Obsession

His Lethal Obsession

2.3k Views · Ongoing · Olivia Chigozie
"Big Kai?"

He didn't respond but moved his eyes around the room, scanning the place.

"Wha...what are you doing here?"

His icy blue eyes returned to me, sending shivers down my spine. Then further dropped to my dress and then back to my eyes.

"The shit going on downstairs, what does it mean?" he asked, making my legs as weak as they are eager to flee.

"It's....it my wedding,"

He scoffed darkly. "Excuse me?"

I swallowed. "I am......getting married,"

He let out a humorless laugh, looking away and giving me lesser comfort. He looked at me with a demonic frown.

Terror washed me.

"Every single motherfucker/human being here, be it adult or child, including you, will burn before that happens,"

〽️〽️〽️

The quiet but pathetic life of Twenty-year-old Mia Jefferson changed the night she found a few months old interracial baby boy abandoned in a dumpster on her way home. She saved him and kept him in her care for almost a month until she was taken by a deadly gang who accused her of abduction. She thought it was it for her until the ruthless gang leader, Nathaniel Kincaid, known on the streets as Big Kai and the father of the baby appeared and added to her punishment. At the point when Mia is about to give up, Nathaniel makes her his baby's nanny as the only way to convince him that she is not the abductor. As she picked up her care for the baby, Nathaniel watched her every move consistently, placing his heart in a dark and passionate risk.
Confined To The Alluring CEO

Confined To The Alluring CEO

2.1k Views · Ongoing · Ava John
Penelope is heartbroken when she gets to know that her fiance is going to get married to her step-sister Mireya who is already carrying his child.

As she tries to pick up the broken pieces of her heart and move on she is forced to make a life-changing decision in order to save her grandpa's life from the clutches of her wicked stepmother.

Tyrell Achilles is the man whom Penelope has to marry. He is rumoured to be a crippled, hot-tempered, cruel man with a damaged face and the son of the Achilles family which was once the wealthiest family in the country until they went bankrupt.

After the wedding, Penelope realised everything was not what it looked like, but one thing was sure, she was going to use this opportunity to make every single person who betrayed her pay.

She was going to ruin them till the very end but to achieve her goal, she must be able to thread through the traps and conspiracy unscathed.

When she is on the verge of giving up, a hand is stretched out to her, and it is none other than that of her alluring husband Tyrell Achilles and he says these words to her gazing into her eyes. "I never thought this would happen but I'm in love with you, Pennie."

Will she give love a chance or keep fighting the feelings she has for her enigmatic yet alluring husband?
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)

The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)

2.1k Views · Completed · Emma Mountford
Saints and Sinners- She was the light to my dark.
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.

I’m not even sure I want to.

Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.

She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.

The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.

I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.

I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.

3/ Rags and Ritches-
Tempted By The Enemy

Tempted By The Enemy

3.9k Views · Completed · rituparna darolia
Twenty-two-year-old Alyssa Van Every is in a dilemma. Her close friend, Sienna, is marrying billionaire, Lucas Donnelly who, along with his brothers, happens to be her older brother, Alex's sworn enemy.
She escapes to Preston Island to attend the wedding without informing him only to collide with Lucas’s hot, fiery and arrogant brother, the twenty-three-year-old, Nicholas Donnelly. Sparks immediately fly between them but Alyssa refuses to acknowledge them fearing her brother's wrath.
The wedding is over and Alyssa tries hard to forget the mysterious Nicholas Donnelly but can he forget her? Can he ignore the attraction he feels for her, feelings that have resurfaced after ten years?
What will Allyssa do when she is stalked by the man who has been invading her dreams since the day she met him? What will she do when she is whisked away to a deserted island by the unpredictable Nicholas Donnelly? Can she tame her heart or surrender to sinful temptations? Read to find out!
Part of the Temptation Series. Can be read as a standalone.