Chapter 13 - The Other ChildHer name was Elena.
She was six years old.
Mariana couldn't take her eyes off her.
Elena looked almost identical to Mateo.
Dark hair.
Brown eyes.
The same unusual mark on her wrist.
But there was something else.
Something unsettling.
Elena wasn't afraid.
Not of the guns.
Not of the bodies.
Not of Adrian.
She looked at everything as if she had already seen it.
Mariana knelt.
“Who raised you?”
Elena shrugged.
“No one.”
Lucía approached.
“My child…”
Elena stepped back.
“You're not my mother.”
Lucía froze.
Mariana looked at her.
“Then who is?”
Elena pointed upward.
“The man behind the glass.”
Rafael.
Mariana's heart sank.
“He raised you?”
“He taught me.”
“Taught you what?”
“How to hear the machines.”
Mariana remembered Mateo.
Patterns.
Signals.
Electrical activity.
“You have it too.”
Elena nodded.
“Everyone like us does.”
Mariana looked toward Lucía.
“How many?”
“Two.”
“Only two survived.”
Elena interrupted.
“No.”
Mariana looked at her.
“There are three.”
“Who?”
Elena smiled.
“The first.”
“What does that mean?”
Elena pointed toward the ceiling.
“He's coming.”
A low vibration shook the building.
Gabriel appeared at the corridor entrance.
He was bleeding badly.
Mariana rushed toward him.
“You're alive.”
“For the moment.”
He looked at Elena.
His expression changed.
“You found her.”
Mariana stared.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because nobody knew where she was.”
Elena approached Gabriel.
She whispered:
“You're lying.”
Gabriel froze.
“What?”
“You knew.”
Mariana looked between them.
Gabriel sighed.
“I knew there was another child.”
“You said two.”
“I wasn't sure.”
Elena smiled.
“You were.”
Gabriel looked at Mariana.
“I found her file seven years ago.”
“Why hide it?”
“Because Adrian was looking for her.”
“And now?”
“He already knows.”
A massive explosion shook the building.
The emergency lights went red.
Gabriel looked toward the corridor.
“We have to leave.”
Mariana grabbed Mateo.
Lucía took Elena.
They ran.
The underground facility began collapsing behind them.
Water burst through the walls.
The ocean was flooding the lower level.
Mariana looked at Gabriel.
“Where's Rafael?”
“He escaped.”
“Adrian?”
“Gone.”
“Then why is this happening?”
Gabriel didn't answer.
They reached an elevator.
It opened.
Inside stood a man in a bloodstained white coat.
He looked terrified.
“Don't get in.”
Gabriel raised his gun.
“Why?”
The man pointed at Elena.
“Because she opened it.”
Mariana stared.
“Opened what?”
The doctor began shaking.
“The door beneath the ocean.”
A deep metallic tone echoed through the facility.
Three times.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Everyone stopped.
Mateo covered his ears.
Elena did the same.
Mariana felt the vibration in her chest.
The doctor whispered:
“It can hear you.”
“What can?”
The elevator lights flickered.
A symbol appeared on the wall.
Three dots.
A vertical line.
Then a circle.
Exactly like Mariana remembered from childhood.
The doctor backed away.
“No.”
Mariana stared at the symbol.
A voice came from the elevator speaker.
Not Adrian.
Not Rafael.
Not human.
A distorted whisper.
“RETURN.”
The elevator doors closed by themselves.
Then the elevator began descending.
The doctor screamed.
“We're going down!”
Gabriel tried the emergency stop.
Nothing happened.
The floor number display changed.
Then disappeared.
A new symbol appeared.
Mariana stared.
“No floor number.”
The doctor whispered:
“Because we aren't in the building anymore.”
The elevator stopped.
The doors opened.
Beyond them was not a basement.
It was a vast underwater chamber.
Dry.
Lit by blue light.
And at the far end stood a giant black door.
Mariana felt Mateo squeeze her hand.
“Mommy.”
“What?”
May you like
The boy stared at the door.
“It knows our names.”
