Chapter 20 - The Road to Ashcombe Was Lined With Empty GravesThe convoy divided before reaching Ashcombe.
Rafe led a decoy east. Gabriel, Lily, Elena, Mara, Tomas, and Samuel approached the sanatorium through an old forestry road. Rosa remained at Belladonna with Nico and a copy of the master ledger.
Rain began at sunset.
The woods contained no birds.
Half a mile from the building, Mara found the first grave marker.
It bore no name.
Only a brass number.
More markers appeared between the trees.
The sequence ended at 316.
“No bodies,” Mara said after checking the ground. “The soil was never disturbed.”
Samuel understood. “Memorials for identities.”
Each number represented a child whose original identity had been erased.
Near the sanatorium gate stood two empty markers.
The building’s windows glowed faintly.
Gabriel’s men entered through the lower service level. No guards challenged them.
The halls smelled of bleach and damp plaster.
Every room contained a bed, a chair, and a speaker mounted in the ceiling.
Then the speakers activated.
Elena’s voice filled the corridor.
“Lily, come upstairs.”
Elena froze.
“I did not say that.”
The recording repeated.
This time it used Gabriel’s voice.
Then Mara’s.
The First House had collected them all.
“Do not trust anything you hear,” Gabriel ordered.
A child began singing somewhere above.
The lullaby.
Lily followed despite Gabriel’s warning. The melody triggered images she had never experienced: a white crib, a silver lamp, Beatrice holding a needle.
She reached a circular room filled with mirrors.
Lillian stood in the center.
“Which one of us is real?” the child asked.
“You are,” Lily said.
“That was not the question.”
Elena entered behind Lily.
Lillian looked at her with desperate hope.
“Mother?”
Elena could not speak.
A steel door closed, separating them from Gabriel and Mara.
Gas hissed through the vents.
Lily covered Lillian’s mouth with her coat sleeve.
The mirrors lit from behind.
Each revealed a narrow observation chamber.
In one chamber sat Lucy.
In another stood Beatrice.
In the final chamber, an elderly woman rested both hands on a cane topped with a silver bell.
May you like
Bernadette Mercer smiled.
“Welcome home, Carter children.”
Related Stories
