Hello, Sister
1571 Words
"Hello, sister.”
I couldn't breathe.
For a few seconds, I just stood there staring at her.
The woman from the tunnel.
The woman who had been following us.
The woman whose face had just appeared on the screen.
My sister.
“No,” I whispered.
She smiled sadly. “Yeah. I know. It's a lot.”
Damien stepped in front of me. “Don't come any closer.”
She raised both hands. “Relax. I'm not here to hurt her.”
“How do we know that?” Damien asked.
“You don't.”
Her answer was so calm that it made everything worse.
I looked at Richard. “You knew?”
He didn't speak.
“Richard.”
He finally looked at me.
“I suspected.”
“Suspected?”
“I thought she was dead.”
My eyes burned. “You all keep saying that like it makes everything okay.”
“It doesn't,” he said quietly.
My sister looked at him. “At least you're admitting it now.”
I turned back to her.
“What's your name?”
She hesitated.
“Amara.”
The name felt strangely familiar.
“Amara.”
She nodded.
“I haven't heard that name in years.”
“Then why did everyone call you A08?”
“Because that was all I was to them. A number.”
I looked at the computer.
“So you really are my sister.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
She frowned. “How what?”
“How can I believe you?”
She walked closer, but Damien immediately blocked her.
“I have proof.”
“Then show me.”
She looked at me for a moment.
“When you were little, you had this stupid blue blanket.”
My heart skipped.
I said nothing.
“You refused to sleep without it. Mum called it Moon because you wouldn't stop saying the moon was hiding inside it.”
I swallowed.
Nobody knew that.
At least, nobody I had ever told.
“You used to cry whenever Mum washed it,” Amara continued. “You'd sit beside the washing machine and wait for it to finish.”
A tear slipped down my cheek.
I remembered.
Not clearly.
Just pieces.
A blue blanket.
My mother's voice.
A little girl sitting beside me.
My fingers wrapped around hers.
“You were there,” I whispered.
“Yes.”
“Why can't I remember you?”
“Because they took the memories.”
My face went cold.
“What?”
“They didn't just experiment on our bodies, Ariana. They experimented on our minds.”
Damien looked at Richard.
“Is that true?”
Richard's silence answered for him.
I turned toward him.
“You knew they could do that.”
“I knew they were trying.”
“And you still let me grow up without knowing?”
“I had no choice.”
“You always have a choice.”
Richard looked down.
Amara stepped closer.
“He's right about one thing.”
I looked at her.
“He was trying to keep you alive.”
“That doesn't excuse it.”
“No.”
She paused.
“It doesn't.”
For some reason, that answer hurt less than another excuse would have.
I wiped my face.
“What happened to you?”
Amara's expression changed.
“They took me first.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
She pointed toward the laboratory.
“I was six.”
“What did they do?”
“Started with blood tests. Then injections. Then they started putting me in that machine.”
“What machine?”
She glanced at the equipment behind us.
“That one.”
I stared at it.
My stomach turned.
“What was it supposed to do?”
“They wanted to understand why my body rejected certain treatments.”
“Rejected?”
“My body kept healing.”
Damien frowned.
“Healing from what?”
“Everything.”
She looked at me.
“Cuts. Infections. Certain drugs. Even some of the damage they caused.”
I felt a strange chill move through me.
“And that's why they wanted me?”
“They wanted to know if you had the same ability.”
“But I don't.”
Amara's eyes softened.
“You don't know what you can do.”
I shook my head.
“No. Don't say things like that.”
“I'm not trying to scare you.”
“Then stop making me feel like I'm some kind of experiment.”
“You were.”
The words landed hard.
“And so was I.”
Silence followed.
I looked at the computer again.
A01.
A08.
Eight subjects.
“So what happened to the others?”
Amara looked away.
“They didn't survive.”
I swallowed.
“And you?”
“I escaped.”
“How?”
“My mother helped me.”
I stared at her.
“Mum?”
“Yes.”
“She was here?”
“She came whenever she could.”
“Then why didn't she take you home?”
“Because she couldn't.”
“Why?”
Amara's jaw tightened.
“They threatened you.”
My heart stopped.
“Me?”
“They told her if she tried to take me, they would take you too.”
I shook my head.
“So she left you here?”
“She left me alive.”
Her voice cracked slightly.
“She thought that was better than losing both of us.”
I looked down.
I wanted to be angry at my mother.
I wanted to blame her.
But suddenly I understood why her eyes had always looked sad in the few photographs I had left.
“She loved you,” Amara said.
I looked up.
“How do you know?”
“Because she came back.”
“When?”
“The last time I saw her.”
My chest tightened.
“What happened?”
Amara looked at Richard.
He immediately looked away.
“She found out they were planning to use you again.”
“Again?”
“You were four when they first experimented on you.”
I froze.
“What?”
Amara nodded.
“You weren't supposed to remember.”
“I don't.”
“They made sure of that.”
Damien stepped closer.
“Why would they use a four-year-old?”
Amara looked at him.
“Because I survived.”
“And they wanted to repeat it.”
“Yes.”
I felt sick.
“So my mother took me away?”
“She tried.”
“What happened?”
“They caught her.”
My breath caught.
“Did they kill her?”
Amara didn't answer immediately.
That silence terrified me more than anything.
“I don't know.”
I stared at her.
“You don't know?”
“No.”
“But you said you saw her.”
“The last time I saw her, she was being taken away.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“Then how did you know she made the recording?”
“Because she told me she had hidden something for you.”
“What?”
“A file.”
I looked toward the computer.
“Where?”
Amara walked to the main terminal.
She entered a code.
The screen flickered.
A new folder appeared.
MOTHER.
My heart started racing.
Damien moved beside me.
“Don't open it yet.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“We don't know what's in there.”
“I've been waiting my whole life for this.”
“I know.”
“Then let me.”
He stared at me for a moment before stepping aside.
I clicked the folder.
Three files appeared.
The first was a video.
The second was a photograph.
The third was labelled FINAL MESSAGE.
My hands shook.
I clicked the video.
My mother's face appeared.
She looked tired.
Older than the first recording.
But alive.
“Ariana,” she said.
I stopped breathing.
“If you're watching this, then Amara found you.”
I looked at my sister.
She had tears in her eyes.
My mother's voice continued.
“I know you have questions. I know you're angry. You have every right to be.”
She paused.
“But there is something you need to understand.”
The screen flickered.
“Your father didn't start the project.”
Richard suddenly looked up.
My mother continued.
“He was working for someone else.”
The video stopped.
I stared at the screen.
“What?”
Amara looked at Richard.
“You knew.”
Richard shook his head.
“I didn't know that.”
“Then who was he working for?” Damien asked.
Before Richard could answer, every light in the facility went out.
The room fell completely dark.
Then we heard the sound of a door opening somewhere behind us.
Amara whispered,
“They found us.”
Damien grabbed my hand.
“Run.”
A red emergency light came on.
At the end of the corridor, shadows began moving toward us.
Amara looked at me.
“Whatever happens, don't let them take you.”
I tightened my grip on her hand.
“I won't.”
For the first time, I wasn't running from the truth.
I was running toward it.
And somewhere in the darkness, someone was waiting for me.
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