CHAPTER 7 : THE GIRL WHO CAME BACK WRONG
1877 Words
“She came back wrong.”
Victor’s voice echoed through my mind long after the memory disappeared.
I stared at the dark television screen across the room, my breathing uneven.
The burned woman was gone now.
But the fear remained.
Cold.
Heavy.
Real.
Damian noticed the change in my face immediately.
“What happened?”
I swallowed hard.
“I saw someone.”
His expression sharpened instantly.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
That wasn’t completely true.
Deep down, I already knew exactly who I saw.
Me.
Or at least… something that used to be me.
Another tremor moved through my hands.
Damian stepped closer carefully, like approaching a wounded animal.
“Elena.”
“I remember the morgue.”
His entire body went still.
“And Victor saying I came back wrong.”
Silence filled the room.
Outside, sirens echoed through the city now. Police maybe. Ambulances. Or people much worse.
But inside the room, nothing mattered except the look on Damian’s face.
Not surprise.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
“You knew,” I whispered.
He looked away briefly.
That tiny movement shattered something inside me.
“You knew.”
“It’s complicated.”
“No.” My voice cracked sharply. “No more complicated answers.”
The pressure building in my chest finally exploded.
“What the hell happened to me?!”
The words echoed through the hospital room.
Damian didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, he walked toward the door and listened for movement outside.
Always alert.
Always prepared.
Like danger followed him everywhere.
Maybe it did.
Finally he turned back toward me.
“When Lazarus restarted your heart,” he said quietly, “something changed.”
A chill spread slowly through my body.
“What changed?”
“You started remembering things that never happened yet.”
I crossed my arms tightly.
“You already told me that.”
“No,” he replied softly. “Before the experiment, your visions were rare.”
Visions.
The word itself sounded wrong.
“After Lazarus…”
He stopped speaking.
“After Lazarus what?”
His eyes met mine again.
“You started seeing deaths.”
My stomach twisted instantly.
Another flash—
A child crying in a subway station.
A bomb beneath a bench.
Blood on white tiles.
I grabbed the edge of the hospital bed hard enough to hurt.
“It wasn’t random,” Damian continued carefully. “Every vision came true.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I was.”
My breathing became uneven again.
“People died because of what you saw?”
His silence answered enough.
“And Victor?” I asked shakily. “What was he to me?”
Something dark moved through Damian’s expression.
“A mistake.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“He worked with Lazarus.”
The name made my head hurt instantly again.
Project Lazarus.
I could almost see the underground facility now.
Cold metal walls.
Security doors.
Scientists whispering while watching me through glass.
Like I wasn’t human anymore.
“Did I work there willingly?”
Damian hesitated.
And that hesitation terrified me.
“At first,” he admitted quietly.
The room spun slightly.
“No…”
“You believed they could help people.”
Another flash exploded through my head—
Me standing in front of a room full of investors.
A presentation screen behind me reading:
Lazarus Neurological Restoration Program.
My own voice saying proudly:
“We’re about to change death forever.”
I gasped sharply.
The memory vanished.
But horror remained.
“Oh my God.”
Damian stepped closer.
“Elena—”
“I created it.”
He didn’t answer.
Which meant yes.
My knees nearly gave out beneath me.
I sat heavily on the edge of the bed.
“No…”
“You didn’t know what it would become.”
“But I started it.”
His silence felt like punishment.
I pressed trembling fingers against my forehead.
All this time, I thought I was some innocent victim trapped in a nightmare.
But what if I helped build the nightmare?
“What did Lazarus actually do?” I whispered.
Damian looked exhausted now.
Like he had spent years carrying truths too heavy for one person.
“It began as memory preservation.”
“And ended?”
His jaw tightened.
“With human experimentation.”
The room felt colder instantly.
“How many people?”
Another hesitation.
Too long.
“How many, Damian?”
“Thirty-seven.”
The number hit like a punch.
Thirty-seven people.
Thirty-seven lives.
Another flash—
Patients restrained to beds.
One screaming while blood poured from his nose.
Another convulsing violently.
Doctors shouting:
“Subject failure!”
I squeezed my eyes shut instantly.
“I remember them.”
My voice broke.
“I remember all of them.”
Damian moved toward me again carefully.
But this time I didn’t pull away.
Because suddenly I felt more terrified of myself than him.
“You tried to stop it,” he said quietly.
“When?”
“After the visions started.”
I looked up slowly.
“What visions?”
His face darkened.
“You saw what Lazarus would become.”
Another memory flickered.
Me screaming at Victor in a parking garage.
“They’re going to weaponize it!”
Victor grabbing my arm hard.
“You’re unstable.”
Then another—
Damian saying:
“We leave tonight.”
My heart tightened painfully.
“We tried to run.”
“Yes.”
“Did we?”
His silence answered before he did.
“No.”
The air suddenly felt impossible to breathe.
“That’s what the fire was, wasn’t it?”
Damian looked away again.
“The laboratory explosion.”
I stared at him.
“You destroyed it.”
“We destroyed it.”
Thunder cracked outside the hospital windows.
Rain hammered against the glass.
And suddenly I remembered flames.
Not flashes anymore.
A real memory.
Complete.
The laboratory burning around us.
Scientists screaming.
Sprinklers failing.
Victor shouting somewhere behind us.
And Damian dragging me toward an exit while alarms screamed overhead.
Then—
Gunshots.
Pain exploding through my chest.
I stopped breathing.
“I was shot.”
Damian’s expression tightened instantly.
“You remember that?”
I looked down at myself instinctively.
Even through the hospital gown, I could suddenly imagine exactly where the bullet entered.
“It wasn’t an accident.”
“No.”
“Who shot me?”
A long silence followed.
Then quietly—
“Victor.”
The room went completely still.
I stared at him.
“No.”
“He thought killing you would stop the visions.”
Another memory crashed into me instantly—
Victor holding a g*n with shaking hands.
Tears in his eyes.
My own voice whispering:
“If I stay alive, millions die.”
Then the gunshot.
I gasped sharply and covered my mouth.
Damian noticed instantly.
“What did you see?”
“He cried.”
The words escaped before I could stop them.
Confusion crossed Damian’s face briefly.
“Victor cried.”
That seemed to unsettle him.
Because apparently Victor crying was something rare enough to be disturbing.
“He didn’t want to shoot me,” I whispered.
“No,” Damian agreed quietly. “But he did.”
A heavy silence settled between us.
Then suddenly—
A loud crash echoed somewhere down the hallway outside.
Both of us froze instantly.
Voices followed.
Men shouting.
Closer than before.
Damian pulled out the g*n immediately.
“They found this floor.”
Fear crawled through me again.
“We can’t stay here.”
“I know.”
He moved toward the hospital room window and looked outside carefully.
Ten floors down, police cars surrounded the building now.
Flashing lights reflected against the rain.
But something felt wrong immediately.
Too many black SUVs.
Too organized.
“That’s not police,” Damian muttered.
“What?”
“They’re Lazarus security.”
My pulse spiked instantly.
“You’re telling me the project still exists?”
Damian looked at me grimly.
“Elena… Lazarus never ended.”
The words settled into my chest like ice.
No.
We destroyed it.
I remembered the fire.
The explosions.
The collapsing laboratory.
Didn’t I?
Another terrible realization suddenly hit me.
“What if that’s why they wanted me alive?”
Damian slowly turned toward me.
“That’s exactly why.”
Cold panic spread through my body.
“They’re hunting me.”
“Yes.”
“Because of the visions?”
“No.”
His expression became unreadable.
“Because you’re the only successful Lazarus subject.”
A ringing sound filled my ears.
Successful.
Not survivor.
Subject.
Another flash—
Doctors standing over me.
One whispering:
“Brain activity remains after death.”
Another answering:
“She’s still conscious.”
I stumbled backward hard enough to hit the wall.
“No…”
Damian caught my arm before I fell again.
“You need to stay calm.”
“Don’t tell me to stay calm!”
My voice cracked violently.
“They turned me into some kind of experiment!”
“You were dying.”
“And now?”
He didn’t answer.
That silence terrified me more than anything else tonight.
Because suddenly…
I realized something horrifying.
He still wasn’t telling me everything.
“What changed after they brought me back?” I whispered.
His eyes met mine slowly.
“Elena—”
“What changed?”
Pain crossed his face.
Real pain.
Then quietly—
“You stopped aging.”
The room went silent.
My heartbeat slowed strangely.
“What?”
“The Lazarus procedure altered your cellular decay.”
I stared at him blankly.
“No.”
“You were twenty-six when you died.”
My chest tightened painfully.
“And now?”
His voice dropped lower.
“You’re still twenty-six.”
Thunder shook the hospital windows.
I backed away from him slowly.
“That’s impossible.”
“Yes.”
“You’re insane.”
“Maybe.”
Another memory hit me hard enough to make me dizzy—
Me standing in front of a mirror crying while Damian held me.
“Why do I still look the same?”
The memory disappeared instantly.
But now I knew.
This wasn’t a hallucination.
It was real.
Every horrifying part of it.
I looked at Damian like I was seeing him for the first time again.
“How long have you known?”
“Since the morgue.”
“And you still stayed with me?”
Something inside his expression broke slightly.
“There was never anywhere else I would go.”
The raw honesty in his voice hurt more than lies ever could.
Before I could answer—
The hospital room door handle slowly started turning.
Both of us froze instantly.
No shouting this time.
No running footsteps.
Just silence.
Then a soft knock.
Three times.
My stomach dropped immediately.
Because somehow…
I already knew who it was.
Victor’s voice came softly through the door.
“Elena,” he said quietly, “they’re here for you now.”
Damian raised the g*n instantly.
But Victor’s next words made both of us stop breathing.
“And this time,” he whispered, “they brought the woman from the morgue with them.”
- Writer
