Chapter 5 - The Memory Ethan Should Not Have
Ethan woke shortly after midnight.
Richard sat beside him while Lucy slept curled in a chair near the window. A hospital blanket covered her patched jeans. She still wore the purple backpack across her chest.
“Dad,” Ethan whispered.
“I’m here.”
“What happened to the man?”
“He escaped.”
“The one with the silver ring?”
Richard nodded.
Ethan stared at the ceiling.
“I’ve seen that ring before.”
“At the institute?”
“No. In dreams.”
Richard leaned closer.
“What dreams?”
Ethan described a white corridor beneath flickering lights. Children stood in numbered hospital gowns. A woman sang behind a glass wall. Somewhere, a girl cried and repeated the same sentence.
Do not let them take Daniel’s name.
Lucy sat upright.
She had not been asleep.
“Who is Daniel?” Richard asked.
Lucy pressed her back against the wall.
“Nobody.”
Ethan turned his head toward her.
“You knew him.”
“No.”
“I remember you holding his hand.”
Lucy covered her ears.
“Stop.”
Ethan continued softly, not understanding her panic.
“You were both under a table. There was smoke. Daniel told you to run.”
“Stop saying his name!”
Lucy knocked the chair over as she stood.
A nurse opened the door, but Richard signaled for her to remain outside.
Lucy’s entire body shook.
Richard approached carefully.
“Was Daniel the boy who taught you CPR?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“He was my brother.”
“What happened to him?”
“They used him in the transfer.”
Ethan touched the scar near his neck.
“Into me?”
Lucy looked at him with grief far older than seven years.
“You started remembering three months ago, didn’t you?”
Ethan nodded.
Richard felt a chill.
Ethan had experienced nightmares, headaches, and brief periods of confusion. Margaret had blamed stress from school and recommended a private neurologist employed by the foundation.
“What do you remember?” Lucy asked.
“A room with yellow stars painted on the ceiling.”
Lucy’s face crumpled.
“That was our room.”
“A woman brought you a purple backpack.”
“Our mother.”
“You told her not to leave.”
Lucy began crying without sound.
Ethan removed the oxygen tube from beneath his nose and struggled to sit up.
“I’m sorry.”
“Those aren’t your memories,” Lucy said.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t. You get to wake up in your house. You get a father. You get food whenever you want. You get to keep the pieces they took from us.”
Richard moved toward her, but Lucy raised a hand.
“Don’t.”
“Lucy, Ethan didn’t choose this.”
“Neither did Daniel.”
She grabbed her backpack and headed for the door.
Two federal agents waited outside.
Richard blocked her path.
“You cannot leave alone.”
“I was alone before the airport.”
“And someone nearly killed Ethan to stop him from being near you.”
“That is exactly why I need to go.”
Richard crouched.
“Someone wants both of you separated. That means staying together may be the only thing they fear.”
Lucy looked at Ethan.
He held out his hand.
“I can help you find Daniel.”
“He’s dead.”
“Then I can help you find what happened.”
Lucy’s anger weakened.
Before she could answer, every monitor in Ethan’s room emitted the same sharp tone.
His heart-rate display vanished.
In its place appeared a video.
The footage showed Victoria Harrison standing in a laboratory four years earlier.
Richard had not seen his wife alive since the fire.
She looked directly into the camera.
“If Richard is watching this, Project Nightingale has failed.”
The recording flickered.
Victoria continued.
“Ethan was never meant to be a subject. I tried to remove him, but Margaret had already approved the final transfer.”
Richard gripped the bedrail.
Lucy moved closer to the screen.
Victoria held up a photograph.
It showed Lucy, Daniel, and six other children.
“The children in this picture are not orphans,” Victoria said. “Their families were paid, threatened, or erased. Richard, find Subject Seven. She carries the memory key.”
Lucy stepped back.
The photograph zoomed in on her face.
May you like
Victoria’s next words shattered the remaining certainty in the room.
“Subject Seven is our biological daughter.”
