Chapter 8 - David felt as though the entire world had become unreal.Sarah had just told him she hadn't given birth to Leo.
Reed stood twenty feet away.
Smiling.
“You've been lying to me for two years.”
Sarah shook her head.
“I didn't know.”
“Then who is Leo's mother?”
Reed answered.
“Emma.”
Sarah looked at him.
“No.”
“Biologically, yes.”
David stared at Leo.
The boy was crying.
Tank struggled to stand.
David rushed toward him.
The dog collapsed.
David put his hand against Tank's side.
Alive.
Barely.
Reed walked closer.
“You don't understand what Leo is.”
“I understand he's my son.”
“No.”
Reed's expression hardened.
“He is evidence.”
“Of what?”
“The project.”
Sarah whispered:
“What project?”
Reed smiled.
“Your father called it the Lantern Program.”
David froze.
“My father died ten years ago.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you talking about him?”
“Because he didn't die.”
David stared.
Reed turned toward Sarah.
“Neither did hers.”
Sarah's face became blank.
“My mother?”
Reed nodded.
“She runs everything.”
David felt sick.
The woman in the attic.
Emma.
The hidden rooms.
The cameras.
The dog.
Everything led back to one person.
Sarah's mother.
“But why Leo?”
Reed looked at the boy.
“Because he can remember people who never existed.”
David frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Reed pulled out his phone.
He showed a recording.
Leo at two years old.
He was looking at photographs.
A voice asked:
“Who is this?”
Leo pointed.
“Mommy.”
The photograph showed Sarah.
Then another.
An old woman.
Leo pointed.
“Mommy.”
Then another.
A dead man.
“Daddy.”
David's heart stopped.
The dead man in the photograph was his father.
Leo had never met him.
Reed continued.
“He doesn't memorize faces.”
“He recognizes memories attached to them.”
David shook his head.
“That's impossible.”
“Then ask him about Tank.”
David turned toward Leo.
“Leo.”
The boy looked up.
“Who is Tank?”
Leo pointed at the injured dog.
“Daddy's friend.”
David swallowed.
“How long has he known him?”
Leo answered:
“Before Daddy.”
David stared at Sarah.
Tank's eyes were open.
The dog looked exhausted.
Reed's expression changed.
“He's remembering.”
“Remembering what?”
“The first time you saw him.”
David's mind flashed.
The warehouse.
The rain.
Tank chained to a fence.
Except…
Something was wrong.
David had always remembered finding Tank behind an abandoned warehouse.
But now another image surfaced.
A white room.
A table.
A camera.
Tank as a puppy.
And a woman holding him.
Sarah's mother.
David stumbled backward.
“No.”
Reed whispered:
“You were part of it too.”
David's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
His father's voice came through.
“David.”
David dropped the phone.
Reed smiled.
“Now you believe me.”
The voice continued through the speaker on the ground.
“You brought the boy home.”
David slowly picked it up.
“Dad?”
A laugh.
“You were always easier to manipulate than Sarah.”
David felt rage burning through him.
“Where are you?”
“Where I've always been.”
“Where?”
The voice answered:
“Under your house.”
The line went dead.
David looked toward the property.
The secret tunnels.
The hidden nursery.
The cameras.
Everything suddenly made sense.
The house wasn't hiding the project.
The house was the project.
David looked at Sarah.
“We have to leave.”
She nodded.
Tank tried to stand.
David lifted him.
They ran.
Behind them, Reed didn't follow.
He simply watched.
Because he knew they were running toward the only place left.
May you like
The hospital where Leo had been born.
And where the real story had begun.
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