Chapter 7 - We reached St. Michael's at dawn.The church looked abandoned.
The stained-glass windows were cracked.
The doors were chained.
Snow covered the steps.
Nothing about the building suggested a secret laboratory.
Until Caleb showed me the statue of Saint Michael.
He pressed the sword.
The statue moved.
A hidden staircase appeared behind it.
We descended.
The deeper we went, the colder it became.
Concrete replaced stone.
Stone replaced steel.
The walls were lined with old medical equipment.
Rusting incubators.
Surgical tables.
Observation rooms.
Project Mercy.
The laboratory beneath the church had been abandoned for years.
But someone had recently returned.
Power was still running.
Monitors glowed.
Security cameras moved.
And on one screen was a live feed of my children.
Theo.
Miles.
Nora.
I approached it.
The footage showed them sleeping upstairs at the estate.
Timestamped twenty minutes in the future.
I stared.
“How is that possible?”
Caleb shook his head.
“Predictive surveillance.”
“No.”
He pointed at the screen.
“Look at the crib.”
I did.
There was only one baby.
Theo.
“Miles and Nora are gone.”
I turned around.
Everyone else was staring at me.
Elena whispered:
“They took them.”
“How?”
“No one left the church.”
I looked at Sophie.
She was holding the doll.
Again, she wasn't frightened.
She walked toward a metal door.
“This way.”
The door opened before she touched it.
I followed her.
Inside was a long corridor.
Children's drawings covered the walls.
The first drawing showed seven babies.
The second showed six.
The third showed five.
The last showed one.
At the bottom was a name.
SOPHIE.
My heart tightened.
“What is this?”
Caleb stared at the drawings.
“She was the final subject.”
Sophie stopped.
“I'm not a subject.”
Caleb looked at her.
“No.”
“You're wrong.”
She opened a cabinet.
Inside were dozens of files.
She pulled out one folder.
My name was written across the front.
ADRien MORETTI.
Inside was a photograph of me as a child.
Beside it was another photograph.
A boy.
Same face.
Same eyes.
Same scar above the eyebrow.
I stared.
“Who is that?”
Caleb answered:
“Your brother.”
I felt the room disappear.
“My father said I was an only child.”
“He lied.”
“What happened to him?”
Caleb looked toward Sophie.
“He became the first successful subject.”
Sophie shook her head.
“No.”
I opened another file.
The name was blacked out.
But underneath was a handwritten note.
SUBJECT A-01.
Memory retained.
Emotional regulation failed.
Attachment response extreme.
Terminate?
Then another note.
NO.
USE AS GUARDIAN.
I looked at Caleb.
“You?”
He nodded.
“I was assigned to protect the others.”
“How many?”
“Seven.”
“Where are they?”
“Two died.”
“Three?”
“Escaped.”
“One became your brother.”
“And the remaining one?”
Caleb's eyes moved toward Sophie.
“She was never supposed to survive.”
Sophie suddenly spoke.
“I know.”
Everyone looked at her.
She hugged the doll.
“Daddy told me.”
“Caleb?”
She shook her head.
“My real daddy.”
Caleb frowned.
“Who?”
She looked at me.
“Your brother.”
I couldn't breathe.
“What?”
“Uncle Adrian.”
She pointed to the photograph.
The boy beside me.
My supposed brother.
My father's first experiment.
Alive.
Somewhere.
I stepped closer.
“What was his name?”
Sophie whispered:
“Adrian.”
Same name as mine.
I shook my head.
“That's impossible.”
Then a speaker crackled above us.
A woman began speaking.
“Hello, Adrien.”
Everyone froze.
The voice belonged to an old woman.
Calm.
Precise.
Dr. Evelyn Vale.
“You've finally reached the truth.”
I stepped toward the speaker.
“Where is my wife?”
She laughed softly.
“Still asking about Lucia.”
“What did you do to her?”
“Nothing.”
“Where is she?”
“She is exactly where she chose to be.”
“I'll kill you.”
“Perhaps.”
A monitor flickered on.
Lucia appeared.
She was alive.
She looked older.
Thinner.
But it was her.
She sat in a chair with restraints around her wrists.
Beside her stood a man.
Same face as mine.
Older.
Scarred.
My brother.
Adrian.
The camera moved closer.
He looked directly into the lens.
Then smiled.
Evelyn spoke.
“You were never the heir, Adrien.”
The screen displayed a file.
SUBJECT A-02.
“Your brother was.”
I stared at the screen.
Then Evelyn said:
“And your children were created to replace him.”
The lights went red.
Doors slammed shut.
Gas began filling the laboratory.
And Sophie whispered:
“Daddy said the same thing.”
May you like
Then she looked at me.
“But he said the truth was worse.”
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