Ashes of Him

Ghost Codes

Rain dropped heavily on the windshield of the stolen van Mason had hotwired near the forest edge. The storm had returned with a vengeance, fitting the mood inside the vehicle. The clone—young Ella,sat huddled beneath a wool blanket, her wide eyes darting between Ella and Mason. Ivy hadn’t made it out.

Not yet.

But Mason refused to say she was gone.Ella couldn’t handle the thump in her chesty. The sound of Ivy’s scream as the steel hatch slammed down still echoed in her ears. “She’ll find another exit,” Mason said, for the third time. “There’s always a backup tunnel in places like that.”

“She wouldn’t leave without us,” Ella whispered.

“No,” Mason said. “But she would make sure we made it out first.”

Young Ella lifted her head “Is Ivy the one with the sharp eyes?”

Ella looked at her “What do you mean?”

“I saw her once. Through the glass. She always looked like she knew everything.”

“She does,” Ella said with a tight smile.

“She said something strange when they brought me into the white room,” young Ella continued. “She said it through the window: ‘Ghost codes don’t obey mirrors.’”

Mason looked up sharply. “What?”

Ella turned to him. “What is it?”

“It’s an old protocol. Hidden code embedded in biometric simulations like backdoors in personality encoding. Ivy must’ve embedded a trigger inside her clone version’s build.”

“So you’re saying there’s a part of Ivy inside her?” Ella asked.

“In a way. Ghost codes are mental landmines. Triggers that activate under stress or certain phrases. Ivy knew they might try to overwrite her again.”

Young Ella looked down at her hands. “There’s something wrong with me.”

“No,” Ella said, reaching for her. “There’s something right. You’re not who they say you are. You’re more.”

In the distance, the crumbling remnants of an abandoned observatory loomed through the trees—Ashvale’s forgotten skywatch station.

“That’s where we’ll hide,” Mason said. “Until Ivy finds us or until we take this public.”

“You really think we can stop them?” Ella asked.

Mason’s jaw dropped. “Not alone. But with what you know now,with who you are,we might have a chance.”

Young Ella suddenly clutched her head, gasping. Her body seized and shuddered.

“Stop the van!” Ella screamed.

Mason stopped the vehicle immediately. Ella pulled the girl from her seat and laid her on the ground outside.

“She’s convulsing!”

Mason was already beside them, checking her vitals. “It’s the ghost code. It’s activating.”

The girl stilled. Her breathing evened out.

Then her eyes opened and they were not looking as before.

“Where’s Ivy?” she asked.

Ella was shocked. “What?”

“She’s not here. She said she would be. She promised.”

Mason and Ella's eye met. “You remember?”

“Not everything,” the girl said gently. “But enough. Enough to know I’m not a clone. I’m… something else.”

Ella helped her sit up. “What do you mean?”

The girl pointed at her own head. “I think she put her mind in here. Not just a trigger—her.”

Mason’s breath stopped for a while.

“She created a failsafe,” he murmured. “Ivy didn’t just want to beat them. She wanted to be there in case she didn’t make it.”

The girl,now flickering between Ella and Ivy looked at them both.

“They’re coming,” she said. “And I know where they’re going

next.”

Ella stood slowly. “Then so are we.”