Darkness.
Then the sound of a chair scraping.
When the lights came back, Mara was still at the head.
The 9 shadows stood behind her, hands on her shoulders.
Daniel was at the door, blocking it. Gun drawn.
Claire was in the middle of the room. Alone.
"Don’t," Daniel said. "There has to be another way."
Mara shook her head. Tears on her face.
"I read the note too. ‘Someone has to take their place.’
If I leave, it’s not free. It just moves."
One of the shadows leaned down and whispered in Mara’s ear.
Mara flinched.
"They said if no one sits, they take everyone.
The whole bloodline. 22 of us. At once."
Claire stepped forward. "Then let them take me."
Daniel spun. "No. You’re not Weiss blood."
Claire pulled out her FBI badge. Tossed it on the table.
"Then we change the rules again."
She looked at Mara. "You said freedom has a price.
What if the price isn’t a person? What if it’s the deal itself?"
The shadows tightened their grip on Mara.
Claire walked to the table. Didn’t sit.
She picked up Mara’s plate. The chipped one. WEISS - SEAT 10
And she broke it. On purpose.
Over her knee.
The sound echoed.
All 9 shadows screamed. Not in anger. In pain.
The wall of names cracked. Ink poured out.
The drain in the floor started to fill with light instead of darkness.
Mara gasped. "What did you do?"
"I refused the choice," Claire said. "Hale chose to wait.
You were asked to choose to stay.
I choose neither."
She knelt in front of Mara. Took her hands.
"The price isn’t blood. The price is memory.
You said they were starving for 100 years because people forgot them.
So we won’t forget. But we won’t feed them either."
Claire turned to the 9 shadows.
"You’re free. But you don’t get to eat.
Not people. Not fear. Not waiting.
You get to be remembered. In books. In files. In history.
And that’s it."
The shadows flickered.
One by one, they let go of Mara’s shoulders.
They looked at each other.
Then at the broken plate on the floor.
Chair 1 — Anna — stepped forward. Touched Mara’s hair.
A cold hand. A mother’s hand.
Then she turned to dust.
One by one.
9 shadows. Gone.
The room went warm.
The drain was dry.
The wall was blank.
Only the broken plate remained.
Mara collapsed into Claire’s arms. "It’s over?"
Claire held her. "I don’t know. But they’re not here."
Daniel let out a breath he’d been holding for 2 years.
He kicked the door open. Sunlight from the hallway.
On the table, where the plate was, there was now a book.
Old leather. No title.
Inside, one sentence written in 9 different handwritings:
We were hungry. Thank you for remembering.