CHAPTER 3 THE ORIGINAL
1349 Words
“Nora Vale.”
“Come home.”
And we'll keep the revelations controlled—introducing Dr. Mara Vale, the Continuum, and the Original Nora without explaining the entire mystery at once.
Chapter Three — The Original
The voice came through the speakers again.
“Nora Vale.”
She stood completely still.
The laboratory doors remained locked.
Beside her, Elias had gone pale.
“Who is that?” Nora asked.
He didn't answer.
She turned toward him.
“Elias.”
“Dr. Mara Vale.”
Nora's stomach tightened.
“The woman from the recording?”
He nodded.
“But that recording was eighteen years old.”
“Yes.”
“And you said she was still alive.”
“I said nothing.”
“You didn't have to.”
Another knock sounded against the sealed doors.
“Nora,” the voice said, softer this time. “I know you're frightened.”
Nora stepped closer to the speaker.
“Then tell me who I am.”
Silence.
Then Mara answered.
“That is exactly why you need to come home.”
Nora laughed bitterly.
“You built a laboratory under a city that doesn't exist yet, locked me inside it, and now you're asking me to come home?”
“We didn't lock you in.”
“Then who did?”
Mara didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
Elias moved toward the central console.
“We have to leave.”
Nora blocked his path.
“No.”
“Nora—”
“You've been lying to me since the beginning.”
“I've been trying to keep you alive.”
“Those aren't the same thing.”
Something crashed against the laboratory doors.
Elias looked toward them.
“They're here.”
“Who?”
“The Continuum.”
The word meant nothing to Nora.
“Who are they?”
“People who believe your existence is a mistake.”
Nora stared at him.
“A mistake?”
Elias looked at the screens.
“That's what they call you.”
A line of text appeared across the nearest monitor.
SUBJECT NORA VALE — CONTAINMENT REQUIRED.
Nora's jaw tightened.
“I am not a subject.”
Elias looked at her.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“Then stop treating me like one.”
For a moment, he said nothing.
Then he opened a panel beneath the central machine.
“There is another way out.”
A section of the floor slid open.
A narrow staircase disappeared into darkness.
Nora stared at it.
“Where does that lead?”
“A lower research level.”
“That's your escape plan?”
“Unless you'd prefer to wait for the people outside.”
Nora looked at the doors.
Something struck them again.
She stepped onto the staircase.
“Lead the way.”
They descended.
The deeper they went, the colder it became.
Unlike the laboratory above, this level looked abandoned.
Dust covered the floor.
Old cables hung from the ceiling.
But the screens were still working.
Nora slowed.
Images appeared as they passed.
Buildings.
Dates.
Maps.
Different versions of the same city.
Then she saw herself.
She stopped.
A photograph filled an entire screen.
Nora was standing inside a white room.
She looked younger.
Maybe eleven.
Beside her stood Dr. Mara Vale.
Nora touched the screen.
“I know her.”
Elias watched her carefully.
“Who?”
“My mother.”
His expression changed.
“You remember her?”
“I think so.”
Nora stared at the photograph.
“My memories of her are... incomplete.”
Elias said nothing.
She turned.
“You know why.”
He looked away.
“Elias.”
“I don't know everything.”
“But you know enough.”
Before he could answer, another screen activated.
A file appeared.
NORA VALE — ORIGINAL
Nora stopped breathing.
“What does that mean?”
Elias didn't respond.
She walked toward the screen.
“Open it.”
“Nora.”
“Open it.”
He hesitated.
Then pressed the screen.
A photograph appeared.
A girl stared back at them.
Same eyes.
Same face.
Same scar near her eyebrow.
Nora took a step backward.
“That isn't possible.”
Elias's voice was quiet.
“She was the first.”
“The first what?”
“Nora.”
She looked at him.
“Say it.”
“You.”
Her stomach dropped.
The screen changed.
A recording began.
Mara appeared.
She looked younger than the woman from the previous recording.
“If you're watching this,” she said, “then the experiment succeeded.”
Nora's hands went cold.
Mara continued.
“We were never supposed to create another Nora.”
Another screen flickered.
Images of machines appeared.
“Temporal displacement was supposed to move information through time. Not people. But when the first timeline collapsed, we had one choice.”
Mara looked directly into the camera.
“We recreated her.”
Nora's voice barely came out.
“Why?”
The recording answered.
“Because the original Nora was dying.”
The screen went black.
Nora stared at it.
“What happened to her?”
Elias remained silent.
“What happened to the original?”
“She discovered what the Continuum was planning.”
“What were they planning?”
“To control the timeline.”
Nora frowned.
“For what?”
“Power.”
The answer was simple.
Too simple.
“What did she do?”
“She stopped them.”
“And died?”
Elias nodded.
Nora looked at the photograph again.
“Then who am I?”
His silence lasted too long.
She already knew she wouldn't like the answer.
“You're a reconstruction.”
The word hit harder than it should have.
“A copy.”
“No.”
“A replacement.”
“Nora—”
“You just said I was reconstructed.”
“I said you were created from her.”
“That sounds like a copy to me.”
Elias stepped closer.
“You aren't her.”
Nora looked at him.
“Then why do I have her memories?”
“You don't.”
A headache suddenly struck her.
Nora grabbed the edge of the desk.
A flash.
A white room.
A little girl crying.
Mara holding her hand.
A red door.
And a voice whispering:
Never open it.
Nora gasped.
Elias caught her before she fell.
“What did you see?”
She pushed him away.
“My mother.”
“What did she say?”
Nora looked toward the end of the corridor.
“Something about a red door.”
Elias went completely still.
“You remember that?”
“Yes.”
His expression frightened her more than the memory.
“What?”
“You shouldn't be able to remember that.”
“Why?”
“Because that memory was erased.”
Nora stared at him.
“By who?”
He didn't answer.
The lights suddenly turned red.
Every screen changed at once.
ORIGINAL CONSCIOUSNESS DETECTED.
Nora's blood ran cold.
Elias whispered:
“No.”
“What?”
Another message appeared.
STATUS: ACTIVE.
Nora stared at the words.
“But you said she was dead.”
“She was.”
“Then what's active?”
Elias looked at her.
“I don't know.”
A final message appeared.
SHE IS AWAKE.
The laboratory fell silent.
Then Mara's voice came through the speakers.
“Nora, listen carefully.”
Nora stepped toward the speaker.
“I'm listening.”
“Find the red door.”
“Why?”
Mara's voice trembled.
“Because she knows what you are.”
“Who?”
The answer came almost as a whisper.
“The original Nora.”
The speakers went dead.
Footsteps sounded somewhere beyond the corridor.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Coming closer.
Nora looked at Elias.
“Is she here?”
He didn't answer.
The footsteps stopped.
A shadow appeared beneath the door.
Then someone spoke from the other side.
A girl's voice.
Nora's voice.
“Elias?”
His face lost all color.
The voice continued.
“Why did you bring her back?”
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