Chapter 21 - The Room Beneath Us
The floor moved beneath my feet.
Not enough to knock me down.
Just enough to make me understand that whatever had powered on beneath us was bigger than a machine.
Emily screamed.
I grabbed her and pulled her against my chest.
“Stay with me.”
David reached for her at the same time.
I slapped his hand away.
“Don’t.”
He froze.
The darkness around us hummed.
Then something clicked beneath the floor.
Once.
Twice.
A seam appeared across the concrete.
Reyes raised his weapon and stepped backward.
“Everyone away from the center.”
Victoria didn't move.
She was staring at the seam like she had seen it before.
“Victoria.”
She looked at me.
“That shouldn't be here.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means your father was lying.”
The floor split open.
A platform rose silently from beneath us.
No smoke.
No sparks.
Just a black metal lift emerging from a chamber that should not have existed beneath the building.
The screen on the wall flickered.
A single word appeared.
MIRROR ZERO.
Under it:
PRIMARY ACCESS ACCEPTED.
Then another line.
BLOODLINE AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED.
Emily's hand tightened around mine.
“Mom.”
“I see it.”
“No,” Victoria whispered.
She stepped closer.
The screen changed.
ELENA HART.
ACCESS DENIED.
VICTORIA HART.
ACCESS DENIED.
SARAH HART.
ACCESS DENIED.
THOMAS HART.
ACCESS GRANTED.
David whispered, “How?”
The lift doors opened.
A narrow corridor waited below.
Reyes looked at me.
“We don't go down there.”
My father appeared on the wall again.
Thomas.
Alive.
Tired.
Still smiling.
“You're already standing inside it.”
I stared at him.
“Dad, where are you?”
His eyes shifted toward the camera.
“Closer than you think.”
Victoria stared at the screen.
“My father.”
Thomas looked at her.
“Yes.”
“Why did you leave me?”
He paused.
“I didn't.”
Victoria's face twisted.
“You let them take me.”
“I let them believe they had.”
“You let me live twenty-eight years thinking Elena's mother abandoned me.”
“I needed you to hate me.”
“For what?”
“To keep you alive.”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“You call that alive?”
Thomas lowered his eyes.
“No.”
The word was so quiet that it hurt.
Emily suddenly pointed at the screen.
“Who's that?”
A second figure had appeared behind Thomas.
A man.
Blond.
Thin.
Wearing a gray jacket.
I knew that face.
My lungs stopped working.
I couldn't speak.
David saw it too.
He looked at me.
“Don't.”
I couldn't take my eyes off the monitor.
Michael.
My husband.
The man I'd buried.
The man whose death certificate I had kept in the back of a locked drawer.
The man I'd watched disappear inside the hospital fire.
He stood behind my father as if twelve years had never passed.
Emily whispered, “Mom?”
I couldn't answer.
Michael looked directly into the camera.
Then he smiled.
Not the smile I remembered.
A colder one.
A careful one.
Thomas turned toward him.
“What are you doing here?”
Michael's expression didn't change.
“Watching.”
My knees almost buckled.
Victoria stared at me.
“That’s him.”
David's jaw tightened.
“You knew.”
I looked at him.
“You knew Michael was alive?”
He didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
My voice came out broken.
“How long?”
David swallowed.
“Three years.”
Three years.
Three years of mourning.
Three years of visiting a grave.
Three years of telling Emily that sometimes the people we love leave us without saying goodbye.
And he had been alive.
Watching.
Michael stepped closer to the camera.
“Hello, Elena.”
I could barely breathe.
“Why?”
His eyes softened for the first time.
“Because if I had come back, they would have found you.”
“Who?”
He glanced at Victoria.
Then at Emily.
Then at the people behind us.
“Everyone.”
The screen went black.
Emily started crying.
I turned toward David.
“You knew my husband was alive.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me grieve him.”
“I protected you.”
“You let me think he was dead.”
“He was supposed to stay dead.”
I stepped toward him.
“Supposed to?”
David's expression hardened.
“You don't understand what Michael became.”
Victoria cut in.
“He became Mirror Zero's operator.”
David shook his head.
“No.”
“Then what?”
David looked toward the opening lift.
“He became its prisoner.”
The corridor below us began filling with white light.
A voice came through the speakers.
Michael's voice.
“Come downstairs, Elena.”
I stared into the darkness.
“Why?”
A pause.
Then:
“Because the person you've been trying to save is not Emily.”
Emily looked up at me.
Michael continued.
“It’s you.”
May you like
The lift began to descend.
And before I could decide whether to enter it, the doors closed.
