Chapter 13 - The Basement DoorVanessa led us through the flooded corridor.
Water rose past our knees.
The girls screamed.
Cole found a metal grate in the floor.
He kicked it open.
A tunnel.
Narrow.
Dark.
We crawled.
Claire carried Lily.
I carried Emma.
Vanessa followed.
Behind us, alarms screamed.
The tunnel ended beneath an abandoned warehouse.
We climbed out.
Police surrounded the building.
A helicopter crossed the sky.
For the first time in hours, I thought we were safe.
Then Cole looked at Vanessa.
“Where is Michael?”
She shook her head.
“Gone.”
“And Adrian?”
“Gone.”
We searched the warehouse.
A server room remained powered.
Files were still downloading.
Thousands.
Children.
Families.
Hospitals.
Schools.
Police officers.
Doctors.
Everyone connected to the project.
Then we found one file labeled:
DANIEL MERCER / BASELINE
Cole opened it.
The footage showed my life.
My childhood.
My marriage.
My brother.
Claire.
Emma.
Every major event.
They had been recording me for years.
Not because I was a random victim.
Because I had once been part of the project.
I stared at the screen.
“No.”
A document appeared.
SUBJECT D-17
My name.
Then another:
MEMORY SUPPRESSION SUCCESSFUL
Cole turned toward me.
“What does that mean?”
I couldn't answer.
Another video started.
Michael stood beside me six years earlier.
“You'll forget.”
I was bleeding.
“Why?”
“Because if you remember, you will tell them.”
“Tell who?”
“The police.”
“Then let me go.”
Michael shook his head.
“You already know too much.”
I watched myself say:
“What about Claire?”
Michael replied:
“She'll forget too.”
The video cut.
I looked at Claire.
She was crying.
“We were both subjected to it.”
“Why?”
“Because we found the children.”
“And the project?”
“We tried to expose it.”
Vanessa suddenly spoke.
“The camera wasn't originally for Emma.”
We all looked at her.
“It was for Daniel.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“They wanted to watch whether your memory came back.”
The hidden camera had never been primarily about Emma.
It had been monitoring me.
My reactions.
My dreams.
My behavior.
My memories.
Emma had become important because she started remembering things too.
The same things I had forgotten.
Then a computer chimed.
A new file appeared.
MEMORY RECOVERY TRIGGER
Cole opened it.
Audio.
A child’s voice.
Emma.
“Daddy, remember the red door.”
I froze.
A memory slammed into me.
The warehouse.
Six years ago.
Claire.
Michael.
Four children.
A fifth person.
A woman in a blue coat.
She was holding a baby.
My baby.
I remembered.
Emma wasn't born afterward.
She was already there.
A toddler.
I had met her.
I had promised her I'd come back.
Then someone injected me.
I forgot.
I looked at Claire.
“Why did you let me forget?”
“I didn't.”
She cried.
“They took that memory from both of us.”
Then Vanessa stepped closer.
“There is something else.”
“What?”
“I know who the woman in the blue coat is.”
She pulled out an old photograph.
The woman stood beside Michael.
Her face visible.
My stomach dropped.
It was my mother.
Dead twelve years.
Cole stared at the photograph.
“That's impossible.”
Vanessa nodded.
“She isn't your mother.”
“Then who is she?”
Vanessa looked at Claire.
Claire whispered:
“Her name is Eleanor Voss.”
Martin Crowe's wife.
The woman who had founded the Observatory.
The woman everyone believed was dead.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
Michael.
His voice was calm.
“Now you remember.”
I said nothing.
“I'll see you at the house.”
“What house?”
He laughed.
“Yours.”
May you like
The call ended.
Then the warehouse lights went black.
