Chapter 9 - The Memory ThiefElliot woke in a bedroom.
His bedroom.
Except he was twenty years older.
He stared into the mirror.
A grown man stared back.
His hair was darker.
His face was older.
There was a scar beneath his eye.
“Elliot.”
He turned.
Claire stood behind him.
Older too.
Her hair was gray.
She looked terrified.
“What happened?”
She shook her head.
“We lost.”
“No.”
“You're forty years old.”
Elliot stepped backward.
“How?”
“You've been asleep for twenty years.”
“What about Dad?”
“Dead.”
“Noah?”
“Gone.”
Elliot looked at the mirror.
“Evelyn?”
Claire didn't answer.
The bedroom door opened.
A young woman entered.
She looked like Claire.
But Elliot didn't recognize her.
“Mom?”
The woman smiled.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
Elliot froze.
“You're not my mother.”
The woman tilted her head.
“No.”
She smiled wider.
“I'm your daughter.”
Elliot's blood ran cold.
“My daughter?”
She touched his face.
“You don't remember me.”
The room began changing.
The walls became older.
The furniture shifted.
Photographs appeared.
Elliot saw himself holding the woman as a baby.
Then as a child.
Then as a teenager.
Then as an adult.
He watched years disappear in seconds.
Claire cried.
“She's rewriting your life.”
“Why?”
“Because memories are the only thing keeping Evelyn from dying.”
Elliot understood.
“She wants to replace my memories.”
Claire nodded.
“She wants to become you.”
A voice whispered from behind them.
“Not become.”
Evelyn appeared in the mirror.
“Continue.”
The mirror cracked.
Elliot saw dozens of versions of himself.
A child.
A teenager.
A soldier.
A father.
A corpse.
Evelyn whispered:
“You were born connected to the machine.”
“You are the final vessel.”
Claire grabbed him.
“Don't listen.”
Evelyn smiled.
“Ask your mother why she chose you.”
Elliot looked at Claire.
“Why?”
Claire cried.
“You were never supposed to survive.”
Silence.
“What?”
“The machine needed an anchor.”
“And?”
“Noah was the subject.”
“You were the vessel.”
“I didn't know.”
“But you do now.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“I know.”
Elliot's voice broke.
“You used me.”
“I was trying to save my son.”
“And what about me?”
Claire couldn't answer.
Evelyn smiled.
“That is the part she never tells you.”
The room collapsed.
Elliot fell through darkness.
Someone grabbed him.
Noah.
But Noah was no longer a child.
He was seventeen.
He looked furious.
“You need to wake up.”
“Wake up from what?”
“This.”
Noah pointed upward.
The sky was filled with giant photographs.
Every memory Elliot had ever lived.
“She's deleting your past.”
“How do I stop her?”
Noah looked at him.
“You don't.”
Elliot stared.
“What?”
May you like
Noah whispered:
“You destroy it.”
