Chapter 9 - Elena woke to the sound of someone pounding on metal.Her vision blurred.
The air smelled chemical.
Emma was crying nearby.
Olivia was unconscious.
Daniel was dragging Adrian toward the door.
Maya was trying to force the control panel.
"How long?" Elena asked.
"Two minutes."
"Until what?"
"The oxygen."
Elena looked at the wall.
A monitor showed the room's air levels falling.
Adrian was barely conscious.
Daniel slapped his face.
"Wake up!"
Adrian opened his eyes.
"What happened?"
"Our father."
Adrian stared through the glass.
The old man was gone.
"Where is he?"
Daniel looked around.
"No idea."
Maya finally opened a maintenance panel.
"There's a manual release."
She pulled it.
Nothing.
"Locked remotely."
Elena looked at the walls.
"Then find the cable."
"What?"
"He controls the door remotely."
Maya understood.
"If we cut the signal..."
"Do it."
She ripped open another panel.
Wires spilled out.
One was different.
Black.
Thicker.
Maya cut it.
The door opened.
Fresh air rushed in.
They stumbled into the corridor.
Elena held Emma.
Olivia woke.
"Where's Vanessa?"
Everyone froze.
Vanessa was gone.
Again.
Daniel swore.
"We need to get upstairs."
Adrian stopped.
"No."
"Why?"
"We're exactly where he wants us."
A voice came over the speakers.
"Correct."
The old man's voice.
Adrian looked up.
"You can't hide forever."
"I don't need to."
"Then come out."
"I already have."
A monitor illuminated.
It showed the nursery.
Vanessa stood beside Emma's empty crib.
In her hands was a file.
Then the image shifted.
Vanessa placed the file into the crib.
She walked out.
The screen changed again.
A recording from twelve years earlier.
A young Elena stood in the same room.
She was crying.
A woman held her.
Elena's mother.
The mother knelt.
"Listen to me."
Young Elena nodded.
"Whatever happens, don't trust Adrian."
The video ended.
Elena stared.
"Why would my mother say that?"
Adrian didn't answer.
Daniel did.
"Because she knew what our father had done."
"What?"
"She knew you were the child chosen."
Elena shook her head.
"I wasn't."
Daniel looked at her.
"You were."
Maya stepped forward.
"Chosen for what?"
Daniel's face was haunted.
"To replace Claire."
Silence.
Adrian suddenly grabbed Daniel.
"Explain."
"Our father lost Claire."
"He didn't lose her."
"He believed she died."
"Then why did he take Elena?"
Daniel looked at Elena.
"Because she looked like her."
Elena backed away.
"You replaced one child with another?"
Daniel said nothing.
Adrian understood.
"Our father made me believe Elena was my niece."
"Yes."
"And then?"
"Then he made everyone forget."
Elena covered her mouth.
All the memories of her childhood seemed suddenly wrong.
A house she barely remembered.
A red door.
A woman crying.
A man telling her to be quiet.
The old man's voice returned.
"You want the truth?"
The monitor showed a live image.
Vanessa was standing in front of a hospital corridor.
Behind her was a woman.
Older.
Weak.
But alive.
Elena's mother.
Elena whispered.
"Mom."
Vanessa looked into the camera.
Then her mother did too.
She spoke one sentence.
"Elena, don't let them bring you downstairs."
The screen went black.
Adrian turned toward Daniel.
"What is downstairs?"
Daniel's expression changed.
"The archive."
"What archive?"
"The names."
"Whose names?"
"Every child."
Maya looked at the map.
"There is another level beneath us."
Daniel nodded.
"And that's where he keeps the originals."
The old man's voice came again.
"Come find them."
A countdown appeared on the wall.
Thirty minutes.
Daniel looked at everyone.
"He wants us to go down."
Elena tightened her grip on Emma.
"Then we'll go."
Adrian stared at her.
"You don't have to."
She looked at the screens.
At the photographs.
At her mother.
At the life someone had stolen from her.
"Yes, I do."
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The countdown reached twenty-nine minutes.
And somewhere below them, a steel door unlocked.
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