Chapter 11 - The ReplacementThe gunfire stopped.
For a moment, the underground chamber was silent.
Evelyn stood beside Sarah, breathing heavily.
Sarah stared at her.
“You're my replacement?”
Evelyn nodded.
“They thought you would die.”
“Why?”
“Because you were the first successful subject.”
Sarah felt sick.
“I don't understand.”
Evelyn looked at their mother.
“She does.”
Their mother closed her eyes.
Sarah turned toward her.
“Tell me.”
Her mother finally spoke.
“Your father and I agreed to protect you.”
“But you gave me away.”
“We hid you.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because memory extraction can fail.”
Sarah frowned.
“You had my memories?”
Evelyn answered:
“Pieces of them.”
Sarah looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because I needed to become you.”
The truth was monstrous.
They had copied Sarah's memories into Evelyn.
Copied her voice.
Her mannerisms.
Her childhood.
Even her handwriting.
Sarah had spent twenty-three years living a life someone else had designed.
Evelyn had spent twenty-three years believing she was Sarah.
Then something changed.
Evelyn looked toward Richard's security cameras.
“She remembered.”
Sarah whispered:
“Who?”
“Me.”
Richard appeared on every screen.
His face was furious.
“You were never supposed to remember.”
Evelyn smiled.
“I remembered everything.”
Richard stepped closer to the camera.
“You don't know what you've awakened.”
Sarah looked at her.
“What did you awaken?”
Evelyn's expression darkened.
“Your mother.”
Sarah's eyes widened.
“What?”
Evelyn pointed upward.
“The woman everyone thought was dead.”
Sarah's mother stepped forward.
“My mother is standing here.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Not her.”
A door opened.
An elderly woman entered.
Sarah stared.
She recognized her from the photograph.
Her grandmother.
The woman who had supposedly died eighteen years ago.
Richard's voice trembled through the speakers.
“No.”
The grandmother looked up.
“You should have killed me when you had the chance.”
Richard's face went pale.
Sarah stared at her family.
Nothing made sense anymore.
The grandmother looked at Sarah.
“You have one hour.”
“For what?”
“To decide which story you believe.”
Sarah frowned.
“What story?”
The old woman smiled.
“The one your father told you.”
She pointed toward Sarah's mother.
“Or the one she has spent twenty-three years hiding.”
Sarah looked at her mother.
Her mother began to cry.
May you like
Then the grandmother said:
“Your mother was the one who designed the experiment.”
