The Second Call
390 Words
The phone wouldn’t stop ringing.
Mira stared at the screen.
UNKNOWN NUMBER
ANSWER ME, MIRA.
Her heartbeat thundered in her ears.
“No,” Adrian said firmly. “Whatever happens, don’t answer.”
Victor stepped forward, his voice calm.
“You have to.”
Mira looked from one man to the other.
One had protected her for years.
The other claimed to be her father.
Neither had told her the whole truth.
The phone rang again.
Then a message appeared.
If you don’t answer… Adrian dies.
Mira’s breath caught.
She looked at Adrian.
“You knew this would happen, didn’t you?”
He lowered his head.
“I hoped we’d have more time.”
Her finger hovered over the screen.
Finally…
She answered.
Silence.
A long, empty silence.
Then a little girl’s voice whispered,
“Do you remember the lighthouse?”
Mira frowned.
“What lighthouse?”
The voice giggled.
“You promised you’d never forget.”
Suddenly, another memory crashed into her.
A stormy night.
A lighthouse standing alone on a cliff.
Her mother kneeling beside her.
“If anything ever happens to me, go to the lighthouse. That’s where the truth begins.”
Mira gasped and dropped to her knees.
“I remember…”
The voice on the phone changed.
It was no longer a child.
It became deep.
Cold.
Familiar.
“Good.”
“You’ve unlocked the next memory.”
The line went dead.
At that exact moment, every light inside the Memory Vault switched off.
The room was swallowed by darkness.
A low rumble shook the floor.
Red emergency lights flickered on.
Across the chamber, a giant steel door slowly slid open.
Behind it was a narrow corridor leading deeper underground.
A weathered sign hung above the entrance.
LEVEL ECHO-0
Victor’s confident expression vanished.
“No…” he whispered.
Adrian grabbed Mira’s arm.
“We have to leave. Now.”
“What is Echo-0?” Mira asked.
Adrian didn’t answer.
Instead, Victor spoke, his voice filled with something Mira had never heard before.
Fear.
“Because that’s where we buried the first experiment.”
A chilling scream echoed from deep within the corridor.
It wasn’t human.
Then heavy footsteps began climbing toward them from the darkness.
One.
Two.
Three.
Something was coming.
And whatever had been locked beneath Project Echo for twelve years…
…had finally awakened.
- Writer
