Chapter 8 - Beneath Black CayWe landed on a metal platform.
Hard.
Pain exploded through my shoulder.
Daniel fell beside me.
Lauren landed several feet away.
My mother disappeared.
So did Ethan.
The platform descended.
Deeper.
Deeper.
The walls were lined with old monitors.
Every screen showed the same thing.
Me.
Different ages.
Different identities.
Different lives.
Eight years old.
Fourteen.
Twenty.
Military uniform.
Business suit.
Wedding dress.
A voice spoke through the speakers.
“Subject Elena Vale demonstrates persistent resistance to identity conditioning.”
I stared at the screens.
“You recorded all of this?”
Daniel looked horrified.
“This place was never destroyed.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“It was upgraded.”
A screen changed.
My wedding day.
Ethan standing beside me.
His lips formed words.
The recording was slowed.
I watched.
He was saying:
“I'm sorry.”
I froze.
That wasn't what he'd said that day.
At the wedding, he'd told me he loved me.
But the video revealed something else.
His original words had been:
“I'm sorry. She'll remember.”
The footage cut.
Another image.
My mother.
Talking to Ethan.
“She has to believe she chose you.”
Ethan asked:
“And if she doesn't?”
My mother answered:
“Then she'll kill you.”
The screen went black.
I stared at Daniel.
“You knew.”
He shook his head.
“Not all of it.”
“Enough.”
He looked down.
“I was assigned to monitor you.”
The betrayal hurt more than I expected.
“You've been watching me?”
“For eight years.”
“Why?”
“Because people who survived Blackfall kept disappearing.”
Lauren laughed.
“They weren't disappearing.”
She looked at me.
“They were being collected.”
A door opened.
Ethan entered alone.
His shirt was torn.
Blood ran down his forehead.
He looked exhausted.
“Your mother wants you to believe she's innocent.”
I raised the metal bar.
“Stay back.”
He stopped.
“I never intended to kill you.”
“You bought a baseball bat.”
“To test you.”
“You transferred money.”
“To create the cover.”
“You married four other women.”
His expression darkened.
“I didn't kill them.”
“Then where are they?”
He looked at Lauren.
She closed her eyes.
Ethan whispered:
“They're alive.”
Silence.
“What?”
He walked to a control panel.
Pressed a button.
A wall opened.
Behind it were six women.
Alive.
Sedated.
Monitors attached to their bodies.
Lauren's knees buckled.
“Sarah…”
The women were the missing wives.
All of them.
Alive.
Then another chamber opened.
Empty.
A bed.
Straps.
Medical equipment.
A file beside it.
My name.
Ethan looked at me.
“This is what your mother built Blackfall to protect.”
I stared at the chamber.
“What happened to the others?”
His voice became quiet.
“They remembered.”
“And?”
“They started killing the people who did this.”
He looked at me.
“You are the final one.”
Then the entire facility began to shake.
My mother appeared on the main screen.
She was crying.
“Ethan.”
He looked up.
She whispered:
“It's too late.”
The doors began locking.
“She's awake.”
Ethan looked at me.
“Who?”
My mother answered.
“The first subject.”
Then every screen changed.
A woman's face appeared.
A woman I recognized.
My mother.
May you like
But this woman looked thirty years younger.
And she was smiling.
