Chapter 8 - THE MEMORY THAT WASN'T HISEli remembered the room.
Not all of it.
Only fragments.
A white ceiling.
A bright lamp.
A woman crying.
Lily beside him.
And Adrian Cross.
He had been young then.
Not old.
Not famous.
But his voice had been the same.
Calm.
Patient.
“Lily is sick,” Cross had told him.
Eli had been four.
He had not understood.
“She needs something from you.”
“What?”
“A memory.”
Eli had laughed.
Because he thought memories were toys.
Cross had shown him a picture.
A little girl standing beside a red door.
“Do you remember this?”
Eli had shaken his head.
Cross had shown it to Lily.
Lily had begun crying.
“I know that place.”
Eli had stared.
They had never been there.
But Lily knew it.
Cross smiled.
“Exactly.”
The experiment had begun.
Eli had been connected to Lily.
Machines had monitored their brains.
Images had been shown.
Sounds had been played.
Memories had been transferred.
But the experiment had failed.
Lily became sick.
Eli survived.
Years later, Lily died.
But something remained.
A memory.
Not Lily's.
Not Eli's.
A memory of another child.
A child who had never existed in their lives.
A baby.
A boy.
Oliver.
Eli opened his eyes.
James was sitting beside him.
“Are you okay?”
Eli nodded.
“I remember.”
“What?”
“Oliver.”
James went still.
“What about him?”
“I saw him before.”
“When?”
“Before he was born.”
Dr. Vell looked at James.
“How?”
Eli touched his head.
“I don't know.”
Then he said:
“He was crying.”
James felt cold.
“What else?”
Eli looked at him.
“There was a woman.”
“What woman?”
“I don't know.”
“Can you describe her?”
Eli shook his head.
“She had your eyes.”
James froze.
His eyes?
The woman in Eli's memory had looked like James.
But James had no sister.
No relative who matched the description.
Then Anna entered the room.
Eli looked at her.
And suddenly his face changed.
“That woman.”
Anna stopped.
“What?”
“You were there.”
Anna stared.
“Where?”
“In the room.”
James looked at his wife.
Anna's face became pale.
“I have never been there.”
Eli shook his head.
“You were holding the baby.”
Oliver.
James looked at Anna.
She was crying.
“I don't remember.”
Dr. Vell said quietly:
“Maybe you were there.”
Anna shook her head.
“No.”
But deep inside—
something had begun to return.
A memory.
A white room.
A baby crying.
A man named Adrian Cross.
May you like
And a sentence she had forgotten.
Your son will save the other one.
Related Stories
