Chapter 8 - The Dead ManDaniel looked exactly like Elliot remembered him from photographs.
Except older.
Exhausted.
Human.
Elliot stopped.
“Dad?”
Daniel stared at him.
Then tears ran down his face.
“My son.”
Elliot ran into his arms.
Daniel held him tightly.
“I thought I'd never see you.”
Claire approached slowly.
Daniel looked at her.
Neither spoke.
Finally he whispered:
“You used the machine.”
Claire lowered her head.
“I know.”
“You brought Noah back.”
“I tried.”
“You brought something else.”
“I know.”
Daniel looked at Elliot.
“That's why she wants him.”
“What did I do?”
Daniel shook his head.
“Nothing.”
Then he looked at Noah.
“And everything.”
Elliot didn't understand.
Daniel crouched beside him.
“When Noah was transferred into the machine, the system needed a second consciousness to stabilize him.”
“Whose?”
Daniel looked at Claire.
“Yours.”
Elliot stared at his mother.
“I was a baby.”
“You were still inside me.”
Elliot's blood turned cold.
“You were pregnant with me?”
Claire nodded.
“The machine used your unborn mind as an anchor.”
Noah stepped closer.
“That is why Elliot is different.”
“How?”
Daniel answered:
“He can enter the house's memories.”
Elliot looked around.
“That's why I saw everything.”
“Yes.”
Suddenly, a loud bell rang.
Daniel's face changed.
“She knows.”
“Who?”
“Evelyn.”
The corridor trembled.
Daniel grabbed Elliot.
“We have to reach the chamber.”
They ran.
Behind them, doors opened.
People stepped out.
Dozens of them.
Every missing person.
Some looked normal.
Others were twisted shadows.
Some reached for Elliot.
Daniel shouted:
“Don't look at them!”
Elliot saw a little girl among them.
The same girl from his window.
She looked at him.
“Help us.”
Claire cried.
“Keep moving.”
They reached a massive metal door.
The key fit.
Daniel opened it.
Inside was a circular chamber.
In the center stood a glass tank.
Something floated inside.
A woman.
Elliot's grandmother.
Evelyn opened her eyes.
“Hello, Elliot.”
Daniel slammed the door.
Too late.
Evelyn smiled.
“I have waited twenty years.”
Claire whispered:
“You're not taking him.”
Evelyn laughed.
“You still don't understand.”
The glass cracked.
“I don't need to take him.”
Another crack.
“He's already mine.”
The tank exploded.
Water flooded the floor.
Evelyn stepped into the chamber.
She looked completely human.
Beautiful.
Young.
Alive.
Elliot stared.
She smiled.
“I died at forty-six.”
She touched his cheek.
“And I'm finally going to be born again.”
Her fingers tightened.
Elliot screamed.
Then Noah screamed.
May you like
Then the entire house screamed.
And every door in the facility opened at once.
