Chapter 8 - THE DEAD ORDERSPavel returned to his childhood home that night.
His mother had died when he was seventeen.
He had kept almost nothing of hers.
A wooden box.
Three photographs.
One old medal.
He opened the box.
Inside was a document.
Official government paper.
Dated thirty-two years earlier.
At the bottom was a signature.
His mother's.
Pavel couldn't breathe.
He showed it to Lidia.
She stared at the paper.
"I knew this day would come."
"What did she do?"
"She tried to stop them."
"But she signed it."
"Under threat."
"What threat?"
Lidia looked at him.
"They had you."
Pavel stepped back.
"What?"
"You were eight."
A memory surfaced.
A locked room.
A smell of chemicals.
A man whispering.
His mother crying.
Pavel had spent his entire childhood believing it was a nightmare.
It wasn't.
He had been taken.
He had been one of the first children.
"What did they do to me?"
Lidia said:
"They showed you something."
"What?"
"The first massacre."
Pavel looked sick.
"I don't remember."
"They made sure you wouldn't."
Stefan entered.
"That's what the archive does."
Pavel turned.
"Then why can I remember now?"
Stefan looked toward the door.
"Because someone wants you to."
A phone began ringing.
An old landline.
Nobody had called that number in years.
Pavel answered.
Silence.
Then a whisper.
"Bring Lidia to the ship."
"Who are you?"
"You know me."
Pavel's face changed.
The voice belonged to Mihai.
His dead partner.
"You were killed."
"Yes."
"Then how are you calling me?"
There was a pause.
"Because I was never dead."
The line went dead.
Lidia stared at Pavel.
"He's alive."
Stefan shook his head.
"No."
"Then who was that?"
Stefan looked terrified.
"Something that knows Mihai's voice."
The phone rang again.
This time, another voice came through.
A young man's voice.
Stefan's voice.
"Mother."
Stefan stood right beside them.
His face went white.
The voice continued.
"Come home."
Lidia began shaking.
Stefan whispered:
"Don't go."
The voice repeated:
"Come home."
May you like
Then a final sentence.
"Bring the meat."
