Chapter 20 - The Girl Who RememberedI found her the next morning.
Her name was Anna.
She was nine years old.
She lived in a quiet town three hundred miles away.
And she had my eyes.
The DNA test confirmed what the photograph had already told me.
She was my daughter.
A daughter I had never known existed.
A daughter hidden from me for nine years.
When I met her, she didn't look afraid.
She simply stared at the tattoo on my arm.
“You finally came.”
My heart stopped.
“Who told you about me?”
She smiled.
“Mom.”
“Where is your mother?”
Anna looked down.
“She died.”
I crouched.
“I'm sorry.”
“She wasn't killed.”
I stared.
“She disappeared.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Cold moved through my body.
“Who took her?”
Anna looked at Logan.
Then Marcus.
Then me.
“The people you thought you defeated.”
I felt my stomach sink.
“They're still alive?”
She nodded.
“My mom said Helix was never the real enemy.”
“Then what is?”
Anna reached into her backpack.
She pulled out a notebook.
Inside were hundreds of drawings.
People.
Faces.
Buildings.
Maps.
Machines.
One drawing showed the Helix symbol.
But underneath it was another symbol.
A circle split in half.
“What does this mean?”
Anna looked at me.
“It means Helix was only one branch.”
“Branch of what?”
She leaned closer.
“The Archive.”
I remembered my mother's final words.
People always rebuild what they fear.
Anna opened the notebook to the last page.
There was a list of names.
Every name crossed out except one.
COLIN CARTER.
I stared.
“Why am I the only one left?”
Anna smiled faintly.
“Because they need you.”
“For what?”
She turned the page.
A photograph was taped there.
It showed a massive underground facility.
Thousands of lights.
Rows of servers.
And at the center...
A door.
On the door was my tattoo.
Beneath it were six words.
THE ORIGINAL HELIX WAS A TEST.
I looked at Logan.
He had gone pale.
“What?” I asked.
He whispered:
“We were never fighting Helix.”
“What were we fighting?”
He looked at Anna.
Then back at me.
“The people who invented us.”
My blood went cold.
“Us?”
Logan nodded.
“The resets.”
“The tattoos.”
“The memories.”
“Eli.”
“Anna.”
“Everything.”
He swallowed.
“We weren't victims.”
“What then?”
“Subjects.”
Anna took my hand.
Her fingers were cold.
“Dad,” she whispered.
“They're coming tonight.”
Outside, thunder rolled across the sky.
I looked toward the window.
A black SUV stopped across the street.
Then another.
Then another.
Marcus reached for his weapon.
Logan stood.
Eli woke up.
Anna smiled.
“They found us.”
I looked at my family.
For years, I had believed my life was a mystery.
Then I believed it was a conspiracy.
Then I believed it was a lie.
Now I understood.
It was an experiment.
And whatever had been watching us for all these years had finally decided the experiment was over.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Nobody spoke.
Then I heard a child's voice.
My voice.
A recording from years ago.
“Colin, if you're hearing this, don't trust anyone.”
A pause.
Then:
“Not even yourself.”
The call ended.
The lights in the house went out.
Every window shattered at once.
Gunfire erupted outside.
Logan dragged Anna behind the table.
Marcus returned fire.
Eli screamed.
I grabbed my weapon.
Then I saw something in the darkness.
A figure standing across the street.
A man.
Tall.
Still.
Wearing a silver ring.
He stepped into the moonlight.
And I recognized him instantly.
He looked exactly like me.
Same eyes.
Same face.
Same tattoo.
My twin.
Another Logan.
He smiled.
Then he mouthed four words through the glass:
You have six hours.
May you like
And somewhere deep inside my mind...
A memory I had never lived before began to wake up.
