CHAPTER 11 THE WOMAN IN THE TRAIN
The train disappeared into the darkness.
Clara stood frozen on the abandoned platform, staring at the empty tracks.
Margaret's last words kept repeating inside her head.
The third girl's mother.
Clara turned toward her.
“Who was she?”
Margaret didn't answer.
“Tell me!”
“She was someone your mother trusted.”
“Who?”
Margaret looked away.
“Someone who died because of you.”
Clara's face went pale.
“Because of me?”
“No.”
Margaret shook her head.
“Because of what you represent.”
Clara didn't understand.
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Margaret immediately grabbed her wrist.
“Don't answer.”
The phone kept ringing.
Clara stared at the screen.
Finally, she pressed accept.
Static.
Then a child's voice.
“Clara?”
She froze.
It was the girl from the train.
“Where are you?”
The child began crying.
“They took her.”
“Who?”
“My mother.”
“Who is your mother?”
Silence.
Then the girl whispered:
“Evelyn.”
Clara's heart stopped.
“Mommy?”
“She told me to find you.”
“Where are you?”
The line crackled.
“Under the station.”
“What?”
“There's a room under the tracks.”
Then the call ended.
Clara looked at Margaret.
“You heard that?”
Margaret nodded.
“She shouldn't be alive.”
“Who?”
“The girl.”
Clara stared at her.
“You said there were three.”
Margaret's expression changed.
“There were.”
“How many are alive?”
Margaret looked toward the dark tracks.
“I don't know.”
Clara stepped toward the station.
“I have to find her.”
Margaret grabbed her.
“No.”
“She called me.”
“It could be a trap.”
“Everything is a trap!”
Clara pulled away.
“I don't care anymore.”
She ran into the station.
Margaret cursed and followed.
They reached the old ticket hall.
Clara searched the walls.
“Under the station.”
Margaret looked around.
“There used to be a maintenance tunnel.”
“Where?”
“Near the old platform.”
They found a rusted door hidden beneath broken boards.
Margaret pulled it open.
A staircase descended into darkness.
Clara turned on her flashlight.
The stairs seemed endless.
They went down.
One floor.
Two.
Then three.
At the bottom was a narrow concrete corridor.
Clara heard something.
A faint tapping.
“Did you hear that?”
Margaret nodded.
They followed the sound.
It led to a metal door.
Clara knocked.
Three times.
The same pattern from the mansion.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
A child's voice answered.
“What's the password?”
Clara froze.
“I don't know.”
The voice whispered:
“Then you're not Clara.”
Margaret stepped forward.
“She is.”
The door opened slightly.
A little girl looked out.
Clara stared.
It was the same girl from the train.
But now she was wearing a different necklace.
A black bird.
Not silver.
Clara whispered:
“Who are you?”
The girl looked at her.
“My name is Lily.”
Clara's heart stopped.
“Lily?”
The name from the photograph.
Daniel's dead daughter.
Lily nodded.
“They told me you were dead.”
“Who?”
“Everyone.”
“Why?”
“Because they needed me to become you.”
Clara stepped closer.
“Are you Daniel's daughter?”
Lily nodded.
“Before you.”
Clara frowned.
“What happened to you?”
Lily looked toward the darkness behind her.
“He killed me.”
Margaret gasped.
“What?”
Lily pointed toward a wall.
A series of photographs had been pinned there.
Daniel.
Vanessa.
Richard.
Jonathan.
And Evelyn.
But one photograph made Clara freeze.
It showed Daniel standing beside Lily.
She was about four years old.
On the back was a handwritten note.
SUBJECT FAILED. BEGIN AGAIN.
Clara felt sick.
“What's subject?”
Lily looked at her.
“You.”
Clara shook her head.
“No.”
Lily took her hand.
“You weren't supposed to survive.”
“Why?”
“Because your grandmother discovered what Daniel was doing.”
“What was he doing?”
Lily whispered:
“Testing children.”
Clara stepped backward.
“What?”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Clara…”
“No.”
Clara looked at her.
“Tell me.”
Margaret hesitated.
“Daniel was using the foundation's medical network to run illegal genetic experiments.”
Clara stared.
“On children?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To identify people who could inherit certain neurological traits.”
Clara didn't understand.
“What traits?”
Margaret looked at Lily.
“Memory.”
Clara's heart began pounding.
“Memory?”
“Your grandmother had an extraordinary memory.”
Clara stared at her.
“And you inherited it.”
“But I don't remember anything.”
Margaret looked at her.
“You do.”
“No.”
“You just don't know that you do.”
Lily suddenly whispered:
“You remembered the night.”
Clara looked at her.
“What night?”
“The night your mother disappeared.”
Clara's breath caught.
“I was in my bedroom.”
“No.”
Lily shook her head.
“You were in the car.”
Clara's mind suddenly flashed.
A road.
Rain.
Headlights.
Her mother's hand.
A man's voice.
Don't look back.
Clara grabbed her head.
“Stop.”
Lily held her.
“You saw everything.”
“I don't remember.”
“You were made to forget.”
Margaret's face became pale.
“Who did this?”
Lily looked at her.
“Daniel.”
Clara stared.
“He gave me something.”
“What?”
“A medicine.”
“Why?”
“To erase the memory.”
Clara's breathing became rapid.
She suddenly remembered a glass.
A bitter taste.
Her mother crying.
Daniel standing beside the car.
And another woman.
Vanessa.
Clara opened her eyes.
“I remember.”
Margaret grabbed her shoulders.
“What?”
“Vanessa was there.”
“Yes.”
“She wasn't driving.”
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
“Someone else was.”
“Who?”
Clara looked at Lily.
“Your mother.”
Lily's face changed.
“Vanessa?”
Clara nodded.
“Vanessa was driving.”
Margaret whispered:
“But that's impossible.”
“No.”
Clara shook her head.
“I remember.”
She closed her eyes.
The memory came back.
Rain.
The cliff.
Vanessa screaming.
Daniel yelling.
Evelyn trying to open the door.
Then a third person in the back seat.
A woman.
Clara had been sitting beside her.
The woman had held Clara's face.
And whispered:
“Don't worry, little bird. I'm your real mother.”
Clara opened her eyes.
She was shaking.
“Mommy wasn't the woman in the back seat.”
Margaret looked confused.
“Then who was?”
Clara pointed toward Lily.
“Her mother.”
Lily stepped backward.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Clara whispered:
“Vanessa.”
Lily's face went white.
“My mother?”
Clara nodded.
“Vanessa wasn't trying to kill Evelyn.”
Margaret stared.
“Then what was she doing?”
Clara remembered the rest.
“She was trying to save her.”
Silence.
Suddenly the lights in the underground room flickered.
Lily looked terrified.
“Someone's coming.”
Margaret grabbed Clara.
“Where's the exit?”
Lily pointed toward another tunnel.
“There.”
They ran.
Footsteps echoed behind them.
Fast.
Getting closer.
Clara looked back.
A figure appeared at the end of the corridor.
Daniel.
He was holding a gun.
“Clara!”
She ran faster.
“Keep going!”
They reached the end of the tunnel.
A locked metal gate blocked the way.
Margaret tried the handle.
“It's locked!”
Lily pointed toward Clara.
“The necklace.”
Clara looked down.
The silver bird.
She pressed it against the lock.
Nothing happened.
Then Lily grabbed Clara's hand.
“Not the necklace.”
“What?”
“Your blood.”
Clara stared.
Lily pointed toward a tiny scanner.
“Press your thumb.”
Clara did.
The scanner flashed green.
The gate opened.
They rushed through.
Daniel fired.
The bullet struck the metal wall.
They escaped.
The gate slammed shut.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Margaret looked at Clara.
“Do you know where we are?”
Clara looked around.
The room was filled with old medical equipment.
Beds.
Monitors.
Cabinets.
Photographs.
Then she saw a sign on the wall.
WHITMORE RESEARCH FACILITY
Clara stared.
“This was under the station?”
Margaret nodded.
“It was shut down nine years ago.”
Lily whispered:
“No.”
She pointed toward the monitors.
“Someone has been using it.”
One screen suddenly turned on.
A live video appeared.
Evelyn.
She was sitting in a chair.
Alive.
Her hands were tied.
Daniel stood behind her.
Richard beside him.
And between them was a woman Clara had never seen before.
The woman leaned toward the camera.
She smiled.
“Hello, Clara.”
Clara froze.
The woman continued:
“You finally remembered.”
Margaret whispered:
“No…”
Clara stared at the screen.
“Who are you?”
The woman smiled.
“I've been waiting nine years for you to ask.”
She turned toward Evelyn.
Then back to the camera.
“I am the woman your mother stole you from.”
Clara's blood ran cold.
The woman lifted a photograph.
It showed Evelyn holding a newborn baby.
Then another.
A second newborn.
Then a third.
Three babies.
Three silver bird necklaces.
The woman whispered:
“One of them is you.”
Clara stared.
“And the other two?”
The woman smiled.
“One is dead.”
A pause.
“The other is sitting beside you.”
Clara slowly turned.
Lily was crying.
Then the woman on the screen said:
“And now that all three girls are together…”
She smiled.
“…we can finally begin the experiment again.”
The screen went black.
A door behind Clara unlocked.
Lily whispered:
“Run.”
Clara turned.
But it was too late.
The door opened.
A dozen armed men stepped into the room.
And behind them stood Vanessa.
She looked directly at Clara.
Then she whispered:
“I'm sorry, sweetheart.”
She raised her gun.
“Your mother was never the one they wanted.”
May you like
The gun clicked.
“They wanted you.”
