The Girl In The Second Default
1895 Words
The first drop of blood hit the concrete with a soft tap.
Then another.
Ethan barely noticed.
His entire world had narrowed to the woman lying in his arms.
"Maya..."
Her skin had turned frighteningly pale, and each breath came slower than the last. The warmth was fading from her hand.
"No," Ethan whispered, tightening his grip. "Stay with me."
A few feet away, the fingerprint scanner beneath the cracked platform glowed an eerie blue.
One touch.
One answer.
One step closer to the truth Jonathan Cole had died protecting.
But if Ethan reached for the scanner...
He might lose Maya forever.
"Her pulse is dropping."
Professor Helen Mercer was already on her knees beside them. She pressed two fingers against Maya's neck, her calm voice unable to hide the urgency beneath it.
"We're running out of time."
Ross dropped his backpack to the ground and unzipped it in one swift motion.
"Pressure bandage."
Mercer caught the medical pack without looking.
"Gauze."
He handed it over.
"Saline."
She reached again.
Their movements were practiced, almost wordless. Years of experience had turned panic into precision.
Mercer pressed fresh bandages against Maya's wound.
The fabric darkened almost immediately.
Too much blood.
"She needs surgery," Mercer said grimly. "Now."
"We'll get her out," Ross replied.
"No."
The single word echoed through the station.
Everyone turned.
Nathan stood near the broken tracks, his face unreadable.
"If she leaves this station..."
He looked directly at Ethan.
"...she'll be dead before the ambulance reaches the city."
Ross's expression hardened.
"What are you talking about?"
Nathan didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he looked into the darkness beyond the abandoned platform, as though expecting someone to emerge from it.
"It wasn't the sniper who came for her."
His voice was almost emotionless.
"It was the people who sent the sniper."
Silence settled over the station.
Even the distant dripping of water seemed to stop.
The woman leading Janus folded her gloved hands behind her back.
For the first time, there was something almost like regret in her expression.
"I admired Jonathan Cole," she said quietly.
Ethan's eyes snapped toward her.
"He was one of the few men who understood what Project Origin could become."
She paused.
"He was also foolish enough to believe the truth should belong to everyone."
Her gaze drifted to Maya.
"And now..."
"...another innocent life is paying for his decision."
Something inside Ethan finally broke.
"Innocent?"
His voice echoed across the platform.
"You call her innocent while your people are pointing rifles at us?"
He slowly stood, placing himself between Maya and every weapon in the station.
"If that's your definition of mercy..."
"I'd rather see your cruelty."
For the first time since arriving...
The woman from Janus had no answer.
Instead...
She looked at Nathan.
"You still haven't told him."
Nathan closed his eyes.
His shoulders rose and fell with one slow breath.
Ethan felt his stomach tighten.
"Told me what?"
Nathan looked at Maya first.
Then at Ethan.
When he finally spoke...
His voice carried the weight of a secret he had been burying for months.
"She didn't find your father's message first."
A pause.
"She found me."
The station seemed to grow colder.
Ethan stared at him.
"What... did you just say?"
Nathan didn't look away.
"We met eight months ago."
Ethan felt the ground shift beneath his feet.
"That's impossible."
"I was still in prison."
"I know."
"Then why didn't she tell me?"
Nathan's answer came almost as a whisper.
"Because I asked her not to."
Ross stepped forward, eyes narrowing.
"Start talking."
Nathan lowered his head.
"I escaped."
"For seventy-two hours."
"I thought I'd disappeared."
"I was wrong".
He looked towards Maya, unconscious in Ethan's arms.
"She walked into a small café where I was hiding."
A faint, bitter sweet smile touched his lips.
"She looked at me..."
"...and smiled."
He swallowed.
"She thought I was you."
Silence swallowed the station.
No gunfire.
No alarms.
Only the distant drip of water echoing through the abandoned tunnels.
Ethan stared at Nathan as though he were looking at a stranger.
"...She thought you were me?"
Nathan nodded.
"I almost corrected her."
A bitter laugh escaped him.
"But after hearing my own name spoken with kindness for the first time in years..."
He lowered his eyes.
"...I couldn't."
Ethan's jaw tightened.
"So you lied."
"I stayed silent."
"That's the same thing."
Nathan accepted the accusation without arguing.
"Maybe."
His voice was calm.
"But I wasn't pretending to be you."
"I was trying to remember what it felt like to be human."
The words landed harder than Ethan expected.
For a moment, he imagined his brother—not as the man standing before him, but as a frightened child stolen from his family, raised by strangers, taught to survive instead of live.
Then the image vanished.
Because Maya had suffered for it.
"What happened after that?" Ross asked quietly.
Nathan's eyes drifted toward Maya.
"She bought me coffee."
A faint smile touched his face.
"She complained that I looked exhausted."
Professor Mercer frowned.
"And?"
"I asked her why she was being kind to a stranger."
Nathan's smile disappeared.
"She said..."
"Because someone once waited for me when everyone else walked away."
Ethan's chest tightened.
Nathan continued.
"She spent almost an hour talking about you."
Every word seemed to steal the air from Ethan's lungs.
"She told me you weren't perfect."
"You were stubborn."
"You argued too much."
"You forgot birthdays."
A weak chuckle escaped Nathan.
"But every time someone called you a murderer..."
"...she defended you."
Nathan looked Ethan in the eyes.
"I've interrogated spies."
"I've broken trained operatives."
"I've watched men lie without blinking."
"But I've never seen anyone believe in another person the way Maya believed in you."
Ethan couldn't speak.
Nathan reached into his coat.
Ross's pistol came up instantly.
"Slowly."
Nathan nodded and pulled out a worn paper napkin, folded into a small square.
"I've carried this ever since."
He handed it to Ethan.
Ethan unfolded it carefully.
The faded ink was barely visible.
A phone number.
And beneath it, written in Maya's handwriting:
If you're ever tired of running, call me. Nobody deserves to be alone forever.
Ethan stared at the words.
His vision blurred.
She hadn't known she was speaking to Nathan.
She had believed she was comforting him.
Yet somehow...
She had reached his brother too.
Nathan smiled sadly.
"I never called."
"Why?" Ethan whispered.
Nathan looked toward the darkness beyond the tracks.
"Because by the time I gathered the courage..."
"...they had already found me."
Professor Mercer suddenly stiffened.
"Ross..."
Her voice was barely audible.
"Come here."
Ross crossed the platform.
Mercer was staring at Maya's exposed wrist.
"There."
Just beneath the dried blood...
A faint blue symbol shimmered under the emergency lights.
Three intersecting lines.
A circle.
Almost invisible.
Ross froze.
His expression changed so quickly that Ethan felt a chill crawl down his spine.
"You know it," Ethan said.
Ross didn't answer.
He slowly reached out, brushing his thumb across the symbol.
"It isn't a tattoo."
His voice sounded distant.
"It isn't a scar."
Professor Mercer looked at him.
"Then what is it?"
Ross swallowed.
"It's a release mark."
Nobody moved.
Nathan's face went pale.
Ross looked directly at Ethan.
"I've only seen it on people who were never supposed to come back."
The station fell silent once more.
Then Maya's fingers twitched.
Her lips parted.
Barely above a whisper, she spoke five words that turned every face toward her.
"They knew you'd find me."
"They knew you'd find me."
Maya's whisper barely rose above the silence.
Yet every person on the platform heard it.
Ethan dropped to his knees beside her.
"Maya... who knew?"
Her breathing was shallow.
Her eyelids fluttered as though she were fighting to stay awake.
"They..." she murmured. "They never wanted me to escape."
A chill swept through the station.
Ross slowly stood.
"So she wasn't rescued."
Nathan closed his eyes.
"No."
The single word carried years of regret.
"They released her."
Ethan looked from Nathan to Maya.
"No..."
"They used her."
Nathan nodded.
"She was never the target."
"You were."
Those four words hit Ethan harder than any bullet.
Every clue.
Every message.
Every narrow escape.
Had someone been guiding him all along?
Across the platform, the woman leading Janus smiled faintly.
"You finally understand."
She stepped forward, her boots echoing against the concrete.
"People believe the strongest prison is made of steel."
She shook her head.
"It isn't."
"It's hope."
Her eyes settled on Ethan.
"We knew you would chase anyone you loved."
"We simply gave you someone worth chasing."
Rage exploded inside him.
"You destroyed her life just to reach me?"
"We observed her."
"We protected her."
"We let destiny do the rest."
Ethan's fists clenched.
"You call that protection?"
"No."
The woman's expression remained cold.
"I call it efficiency."
Before Ethan could move, the old man struck his cane against the floor.
"Enough."
The sharp crack echoed through the tunnel.
"You've heard enough lies for one night."
Every eye turned toward him.
He looked at Maya with unmistakable sadness.
"Jonathan warned me this day would come."
He reached into the inside pocket of his weathered coat.
Ross instinctively raised his pistol.
The old man ignored him.
He slowly removed a small brass key attached to a faded blue ribbon.
Ethan recognized the ribbon immediately.
His mother used to tie ribbons exactly like it around birthday presents.
His heartbeat quickened.
"What is that?"
The old man held the key toward Ethan.
"Your father gave me this the night before he disappeared."
"He said..."
'If my son survives long enough to ask the right questions... give him the last key.'
Nathan stared at it.
"There are more vaults."
The old man nodded.
"Three."
"The first held proof."
"The second protects a life."
He looked directly at Ethan.
"The third..."
"...holds the name of the man who created Project Origin."
Silence.
Even the Janus operatives shifted uneasily.
For the first time, their leader's calm expression cracked.
"Don't."
It wasn't an order.
It sounded like fear.
The old man smiled sadly.
"So..."
"You do remember him."
A warning siren suddenly screamed through the station.
Every light turned crimson.
Ross looked toward the fingerprint scanner.
"It's activated."
The display had changed.
A single message flashed across the screen.
SECOND VAULT BREACHED
Then another line appeared.
LOCKDOWN INITIATED
Steel doors began sliding shut throughout the underground station.
The exits.
The tunnels.
The maintenance passages.
Everything.
Professor Mercer looked around in alarm.
"We're trapped."
Nathan's expression hardened.
"No."
He stared at the flashing terminal.
"They're trapping someone else..."
Ethan followed his gaze.
The scanner flickered one final time before displaying a live security feed.
A little girl—no older than seven—stood alone inside a brightly lit underground room.
Around her neck hung a familiar gold pendant.
The twin of Ethan's.
The twin of Nathan's.
The room fell deathly silent.
The old man's walking cane slipped from his hand and clattered onto the floor.
His face drained of color.
"No..."
Professor Mercer whispered, "Who is she?"
No one answered.
Because no one knew.
Then Jonathan Cole's recorded voice crackled through the station one last time.
Calm.
Steady.
Filled with sorrow.
"If you are seeing her..."
A pause.
"...then you were wrong."
Another pause.
His final words echoed through the darkness.
"There were never only two."
- Writer
