Chapter 6: The Nursery of Lost Children
The lights went out.
For three seconds, Ethan heard nothing but Clara's breathing.
Then the crying began.
One baby.
Then another.
Then another.
The sounds echoed through the darkness from every direction.
Clara clutched Ethan's arm.
“How many children are here?”
Daniel whispered:
“I don't know.”
Ethan reached for his phone.
The flashlight came on.
The beam swept across the room.
Cribs.
Dozens of them.
Some were empty.
Some weren't.
Ethan's stomach twisted.
There were babies everywhere.
Some sleeping.
Some crying.
Some staring silently toward the ceiling.
Every crib had a number.
No names.
No family photographs.
Just numbers.
Clara looked around in horror.
“These children…”
“They're all part of the program,” Daniel said.
“What program?”
Daniel didn't answer.
Ethan walked toward the nearest crib.
A baby girl was sleeping inside.
A small electronic bracelet was attached to her ankle.
He looked at the screen.
SUBJECT 41.
His blood ran cold.
“This is human trafficking.”
Daniel shook his head.
“It's worse.”
“How?”
“They aren't selling the children.”
“Then what are they doing?”
Daniel looked toward Noah.
“They're testing them.”
Clara pulled Noah's crib closer.
“No one is taking my son again.”
A metallic click sounded behind them.
Ethan spun around.
A woman stood in the doorway.
White coat.
Dark hair.
Blood on one sleeve.
Dr. Evelyn Cross.
She slowly raised both hands.
“Don't shoot.”
Daniel pointed his gun at her.
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“You told us you were dead.”
“I had to.”
“You helped Margaret.”
Evelyn looked toward the cribs.
“I helped the children.”
Ethan stepped forward.
“Then explain this.”
He pointed at the babies.
Evelyn's face hardened.
“These children were born with genetic markers your family has been studying for decades.”
Clara stared at her.
“You experimented on babies.”
“I studied them.”
“That's what monsters call it.”
Evelyn didn't respond.
Ethan's voice rose.
“Where is my daughter?”
Evelyn looked at Clara's stomach.
“She isn't here.”
“Then where?”
“Above us.”
Daniel frowned.
“Above?”
Evelyn nodded.
“Margaret took her upstairs.”
Clara's face drained of color.
“She hasn't even been born.”
Evelyn looked at her.
“That's why Margaret is desperate.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“What does she want?”
“The child has a genetic sequence that appears in only one other person.”
Ethan immediately looked at Noah.
Evelyn shook her head.
“No.”
She pointed toward Clara.
“Her.”
Clara froze.
“What?”
“You.”
Evelyn continued.
“Your blood contains a dormant genetic sequence. Noah inherited part of it.”
“And the baby?”
“The baby inherited all of it.”
Clara's hand moved over her stomach.
“Why?”
“Because something changed eighteen months ago.”
“What changed?”
Evelyn looked at Ethan.
“You.”
Ethan frowned.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
She reached into her coat and pulled out a folder.
She handed it to him.
Inside were medical records.
His records.
Blood tests.
Brain scans.
Medication histories.
Ethan stared at one page.
MEMORY SUPPRESSION PROTOCOL.
His hands began shaking.
“You drugged me.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Margaret did.”
“How?”
“She had a specialist implant a device.”
Ethan touched the side of his head.
“What device?”
“A neural regulator.”
Daniel stared at Evelyn.
“That's impossible.”
“It was experimental.”
“What did it do?”
“It suppressed specific memories.”
Ethan's breathing became heavier.
“Can it be reversed?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“You have to see the memory again.”
Clara looked at him.
“What memory?”
Evelyn's eyes moved toward Noah.
“The night he was born.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Suddenly he saw it.
A hospital room.
White curtains.
Clara crying.
A baby screaming.
His own hands trembling.
Then another cry.
A second baby.
He opened his eyes.
“There were two.”
Clara covered her mouth.
“I told you.”
Ethan stared at the ceiling.
“I remember.”
The memory continued.
Margaret entered the room.
She was carrying a blanket.
She looked at the second baby.
Then at Ethan.
“You can't keep both.”
Ethan's heart pounded.
He remembered shouting.
“What are you talking about?”
Margaret said:
“The boy stays.”
“And the girl?”
Margaret looked at Clara.
“She leaves.”
Ethan remembered stepping toward her.
“No.”
Then someone injected him.
The room spun.
The last thing he remembered was Clara screaming.
“ETHAN!”
He opened his eyes.
Tears were running down his face.
“They took her.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Margaret took your daughter.”
“How old was she?”
“Minutes old.”
Clara began sobbing.
“What did she do with her?”
Evelyn looked toward the ceiling.
“She gave her to someone.”
“Who?”
Evelyn didn't answer.
Ethan grabbed her arm.
“Who?”
“A woman.”
“What woman?”
“She called herself Anna.”
Clara suddenly stopped crying.
Her face changed.
“Anna…”
Ethan looked at her.
“You know that name?”
Clara shook her head.
“No.”
But something in her expression said otherwise.
Daniel noticed too.
“Clara.”
She stared at him.
“I've heard it.”
“When?”
“In my dreams.”
Ethan's heart tightened.
“What kind of dreams?”
“A little girl.”
Clara closed her eyes.
“She was always standing beside a window.”
“How old?”
“About six.”
Ethan frowned.
“That doesn't make sense.”
“I know.”
Clara opened her eyes.
“She would always ask me the same question.”
“What question?”
Clara whispered:
“Why did you leave me?”
The room went silent.
Ethan stared at her.
“Six years old?”
Clara nodded.
“She looked exactly like me.”
Evelyn's face became pale.
“That isn't a dream.”
“What?”
Evelyn took a step backward.
“That's a memory.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Whose memory?”
Evelyn didn't answer.
A sudden alarm began ringing.
Red lights flashed across the nursery.
Evelyn looked at the monitor.
Her face changed.
“What happened?”
“Margaret activated the protocol.”
“What protocol?”
Evelyn whispered:
“Extraction.”
Clara screamed.
“No!”
She grabbed her stomach.
The pain returned.
Stronger than before.
Ethan caught her.
“She can't have the baby here.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“It's too late.”
The doors of the nursery slammed shut.
Metal locks engaged.
One by one.
Ethan looked around.
“We're trapped.”
Evelyn rushed toward the control panel.
“There's another exit.”
“Where?”
“Behind the nursery.”
She opened a hidden compartment.
Inside was a narrow elevator.
Ethan lifted Clara.
“Let's go.”
Daniel grabbed Noah.
They rushed inside.
The doors closed.
The elevator began descending.
Ethan looked at the display.
Level -1.
Then -2.
Then -3.
He frowned.
“How deep does this place go?”
Evelyn stared at the numbers.
“Seven levels.”
Ethan's stomach dropped.
“What happens on level seven?”
Evelyn said nothing.
The elevator continued.
-4.
-5.
-6.
Then stopped.
The doors opened.
A dark corridor waited ahead.
At the end stood a single glass room.
Inside was a chair.
A table.
And hundreds of photographs.
Ethan walked closer.
His flashlight swept across them.
Every photograph showed Clara.
Pregnant.
Sleeping.
Crying.
Walking.
But then he saw something that made his blood freeze.
A photograph of Clara standing beside a little girl.
The girl was six years old.
Dark hair.
Clara's eyes.
The same small birthmark beneath her left ear.
Ethan turned toward Clara.
She was staring at the photograph.
Her lips trembled.
“I know her.”
Ethan looked at her.
“Who is she?”
Clara whispered:
“My daughter.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“That girl is not six.”
Clara stared at her.
“What?”
Evelyn pointed at the photograph.
“The photograph was taken yesterday.”
Everyone froze.
Daniel slowly looked at Ethan.
“That means…”
A speaker crackled.
Margaret's voice filled the corridor.
“Congratulations.”
A pause.
“You've finally found her.”
Ethan stepped toward the speaker.
“Where is my daughter?”
Margaret laughed.
“She's been waiting for her mother.”
Clara began crying.
“Where?”
Margaret answered:
“Level seven.”
The elevator behind them suddenly locked.
The display changed.
LEVEL 7.
Ethan stared.
“But we're on level six.”
The floor beneath them began moving.
The entire corridor descended.
Clara screamed.
Ethan grabbed her.
The lights flickered.
Then the speaker came alive one final time.
Margaret whispered:
“Just remember, Ethan…”
“You've already met your daughter.”
The lights went black.
May you like
And somewhere in the darkness…
a little girl began laughing.
