CHAPTER 10 THE HOUSE THAT REMEMBERED ME
We reached Connecticut just before dawn.
The house stood exactly as I remembered it.
Tall stone walls.
Black shutters.
A dead garden buried beneath winter frost.
The place where I had spent my childhood.
The place my father had supposedly abandoned seventeen years ago.
But something was wrong.
The front door was open.
Luka stopped the car.
“Stay here.”
I shook my head.
“My daughter is inside.”
“We don't know what's waiting for us.”
“I don't care.”
I stepped out.
Daniel followed, still pale from the gunshot.
My mother stayed behind for a moment.
Then she opened the passenger door.
“I’m coming.”
Luka looked at her.
“You shouldn't.”
She stared at the house.
“I've been running from this place for twenty-three years.”
Then she whispered,
“It's time I stopped.”
We entered together.
The smell hit me first.
Dust.
Old wood.
And something metallic.
Blood.
I froze.
“Do you smell that?”
Luka nodded.
Daniel whispered,
“Someone's hurt.”
My mother looked toward the staircase.
“No.”
“What?”
“They're waiting for us.”
The lights suddenly turned on.
Every light in the house.
One by one.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Until the entire mansion was illuminated.
Then a child's laughter echoed from upstairs.
My blood froze.
“Amelia.”
I ran.
Luka grabbed my arm.
“Wait.”
I pulled free.
“That's my daughter.”
We climbed the stairs.
At the end of the hallway was my old bedroom.
The door was open.
I stopped outside.
The room looked exactly as I remembered.
My childhood bed.
My old books.
The stuffed rabbit I hadn't seen since I was five.
And sitting in the middle of the bed was Amelia.
Alive.
Safe.
Smiling.
“Mommy.”
I rushed toward her.
I grabbed her and pulled her against my chest.
She wrapped her tiny arms around my neck.
I cried.
“Amelia.”
She giggled.
“I knew you'd come.”
I kissed her forehead.
“Who brought you here?”
She pointed toward the closet.
“Him.”
I froze.
Luka raised his weapon.
“Who?”
Amelia pointed again.
“The man who looks like Mommy.”
My blood turned cold.
The closet door slowly opened.
A man stepped out.
He was tall.
Dark hair.
Pale skin.
My eyes.
My jaw.
My scar.
My face.
Except male.
I couldn't move.
He smiled.
“Hello, sister.”
My mother screamed.
“Elias.”
The man's smile widened.
“Hello, Mother.”
I looked at my mother.
“Elias?”
She couldn't speak.
Gabriel's first child.
My brother.
The one she had said was buried.
The man stepped into the light.
He looked about thirty.
But if he was truly my brother, he should have been much older.
I stared at him.
“How old are you?”
He smiled.
“Depends.”
“Depends on what?”
“Which body you're counting.”
My stomach turned.
Luka stepped forward.
“Step away from the baby.”
Elias laughed.
“You still play the hero.”
“Who are you?”
“I told her.”
He looked at me.
“I'm her brother.”
Luka raised his gun.
“Prove it.”
Elias pointed toward the wall.
A hidden panel opened.
Inside was an old photograph.
My father.
My mother.
And two children.
Me.
And Elias.
I stared at the picture.
I was five.
He looked about fifteen.
My mother was smiling.
My father stood behind us.
The photograph was real.
I touched it.
“Why don't I remember you?”
Elias looked at me.
“Because you asked them to erase me.”
My chest tightened.
“Why?”
“Because I knew what Father was doing.”
“What was he doing?”
“He wasn't trying to save himself.”
I looked toward my mother.
She began crying.
Elias continued.
“He was trying to create a family that could never die.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“He believed memory was the only real form of identity.”
He pointed at me.
“You were the daughter.”
Then at himself.
“I was the son.”
Then at Amelia.
“And she is the successor.”
I held Amelia tighter.
“No.”
Elias's smile disappeared.
“You still don't understand.”
“I understand enough.”
“You think you're protecting her.”
“I am.”
“You can't.”
“Why?”
“Because she's already connected.”
“To what?”
Elias looked at my daughter.
“To every version of us.”
The room became silent.
Amelia suddenly looked at him.
“Uncle Elias.”
I stared at her.
“How does she know your name?”
Elias smiled.
“Because she remembers.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“She is a newborn.”
Elias stepped closer.
“She was never only a newborn.”
My mother's voice trembled.
“Elias, stop.”
He looked at her.
“You lied to me too.”
“I was protecting you.”
“You erased me.”
“I had to.”
“You killed me.”
My mother closed her eyes.
“I didn't.”
“You buried my body.”
“I buried the body they gave me.”
Elias's expression changed.
I looked between them.
“What does that mean?”
My mother finally spoke.
“Elias died when he was seventeen.”
I stared at him.
“Then who is this?”
She shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Elias smiled.
“I do.”
He walked toward the mirror.
Then touched his reflection.
“I am what remained.”
The lights flickered.
His reflection didn't.
I froze.
Elias stood still.
But the reflection turned its head.
It looked directly at me.
Then smiled.
I stepped backward.
“That's not possible.”
Elias's reflection raised a hand.
It wrote something across the mirror.
M-17
Then:
TWO HOSTS.
Then:
ONE CONSCIOUSNESS.
I stared at the words.
Luka whispered,
“Emma…”
“What?”
“Don't look at the mirror.”
Too late.
The reflection changed.
I saw myself.
Pregnant.
Standing in this room.
Holding my stomach.
Elias was behind me.
But this time, Daniel was there too.
Daniel placed something against my neck.
A syringe.
I turned toward him.
“What is that?”
Daniel's face appeared in the reflection.
He looked terrified.
“I was ordered to inject you.”
“By whom?”
The reflection shifted.
My father appeared.
Then my mother.
Then Luka.
All of them.
Everyone I trusted.
Everyone who had lied.
Then one final figure appeared behind them.
A man.
His face was hidden.
I couldn't see him.
He placed his hand on my pregnant stomach.
The image stopped.
I stared.
“Who is that?”
Elias whispered,
“You already know.”
“No.”
“You've met him.”
“When?”
“Every day.”
I turned toward Luka.
He looked confused.
“What?”
Elias smiled.
“That's the problem.”
He stepped closer.
“You've spent years thinking you were remembering the past.”
My skin prickled.
“But you weren't.”
“What was I remembering?”
“Future memories.”
I laughed nervously.
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
Elias looked at Amelia.
“Your daughter isn't connected to the past.”
He pointed at my stomach.
“She is connected to the future.”
The house suddenly shook.
A deep vibration traveled through the walls.
Amelia started crying.
Then the number behind her ear began changing.
I stared at it.
“No.”
Elias looked toward the floor.
“They found us.”
Luka raised his weapon.
“Who?”
Elias's expression became serious.
“The people who built M-17.”
My mother whispered,
“They're here.”
A loud crash came from downstairs.
Then another.
Windows shattered.
Doors exploded inward.
Men in black stormed into the house.
Luka fired.
Daniel grabbed Amelia's blanket.
“Get down!”
I dropped behind the bed.
My mother screamed.
Elias disappeared.
I looked around.
“Where did he go?”
Luka shouted,
“Forget him!”
But I couldn't.
Elias had vanished.
Then I saw something.
A small door beneath my childhood bed.
I remembered it.
I hadn't opened it since I was five.
I pulled it open.
A staircase descended beneath the house.
At the bottom was a faint blue light.
And a voice came through the darkness.
My father's voice.
“Evelyn.”
I froze.
“Come home.”
Luka grabbed my arm.
“Don't go.”
The voice continued.
“Bring Amelia.”
I looked down the stairs.
“Why?”
The voice answered:
“Because she isn't your daughter.”
I stopped breathing.
Then the voice said:
“She is mine.”
A gunshot exploded upstairs.
Luka pushed me down the stairs.
“RUN!”
We descended into darkness.
Behind us, the house filled with screams.
And as the hidden door slammed shut, I heard Amelia whisper something that made my blood run cold.
“Daddy is downstairs.”
I looked at her.
“Which daddy?”
She pointed into the darkness.
“Both.”
Then the lights beneath the house turned on.
And standing at the end of the underground corridor were two men.
One was Gabriel.
The other had my face.
And between them stood a woman holding a newborn baby.
A newborn who looked exactly like Amelia.
The woman lifted her eyes toward me.
Then whispered:
“Now you finally understand.”
I couldn't move.
“Understand what?”
She smiled.
“That you didn't give birth to one child.”
She looked down at the baby in her arms.
“You gave birth to two.”
The second baby opened her eyes.
May you like
Behind her ear was the number:
17.
