CHAPTER 4 THE RED DOOR
1562 Words
“Why did you bring her back?”
Nora stared at the sealed laboratory door.
The voice on the other side was hers.
Not similar.
Not close.
Hers.
Elias moved in front of her.
“Don't answer.”
Nora barely heard him.
“Who are you?”
A quiet laugh came from the corridor.
“You already know.”
The lights flickered.
Then the door unlocked.
Nora's hand tightened around the black device.
Elias caught her wrist.
“Wait.”
“You said she was dead.”
“I thought she was.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“No. It isn't.”
The door opened.
Nobody stood outside.
Only a long corridor stretching into darkness.
At the far end, a single red light blinked.
Nora stepped forward.
Elias followed.
They hadn't gone more than a few meters when the laboratory doors closed behind them.
Locked.
Again.
Nora looked back.
“Are we trapped?”
“Probably.”
She gave him a cold look.
“You're remarkably calm for someone who keeps getting us trapped in laboratories.”
“I'm not calm.”
“Could've fooled me.”
They continued down the corridor.
The red light grew brighter.
As they approached it, Nora noticed something carved into the wall.
A symbol.
A circle divided by three lines.
She stopped.
“I've seen that.”
Elias looked at it.
“Where?”
“In my dreams.”
He went quiet.
Nora turned toward him.
“You know what it means.”
“I know what it represents.”
“What?”
“The first timeline.”
Nora frowned.
“There was a first timeline?”
“There were several.”
“How many?”
Elias hesitated.
“Too many.”
Before she could question him further, a memory struck her.
A little girl.
A woman holding her hand.
A red door.
The same symbol.
Her mother's voice:
Never open it.
Nora pressed her fingers against her temple.
“You remember?” Elias asked.
“Pieces.”
“Don't force them.”
“Why?”
“Because memories aren't always memories.”
She looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
“Sometimes they're instructions.”
The red light went out.
A door appeared beneath it.
Red.
Exactly like the one from her memory.
Nora's stomach tightened.
“This is it.”
Elias nodded.
“We should leave.”
“No.”
“Nora—”
“This is the first real answer we've found.”
“It might be a trap.”
“Everything has been a trap.”
She reached for the handle.
Elias caught her hand.
“If you open that door, you might not be able to go back.”
Nora looked at him.
“Maybe I don't want to go back.”
For a moment, neither moved.
Then Elias released her.
Nora opened the door.
The room beyond was nothing like she expected.
It wasn't a laboratory.
It was a bedroom.
Her bedroom.
The same walls.
The same desk.
The same blue curtains.
Even the small c***k above the window was there.
Nora stepped inside.
“This is impossible.”
Elias followed.
“This room was destroyed years ago.”
Nora looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“I was there.”
She turned slowly.
“With her?”
He nodded.
“The original Nora.”
Something in his expression changed when he said her name.
Nora noticed.
She didn't know why it bothered her.
Maybe because Elias looked at the room like it belonged to someone he had loved.
Maybe because it did.
On the desk sat an old notebook.
Nora picked it up.
The cover had her name written across it.
NORA VALE.
She opened it.
The first page contained one sentence.
If you're reading this, they failed to erase me.
Nora's pulse quickened.
She turned the page.
Another sentence.
But they may have succeeded in erasing you.
She looked at Elias.
“What does this mean?”
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
“I wish I were.”
Nora continued reading.
Most of the pages were filled with dates and strange calculations.
Then she reached the final page.
Only one paragraph had been written there.
The reset isn't a reset. It's a loop. Every time the timeline collapses, they send me back. Every time I remember, they erase me again. But eventually, there will be a version of me that remembers enough to break it.
Nora's hands trembled.
“She's been repeating this.”
Elias nodded.
“For how long?”
“I don't know.”
“Years?”
“Possibly.”
Nora looked at the photograph lying beside the notebook.
It showed Elias and the original Nora.
They were standing outside the same laboratory.
On the back was a date.
2044.
Nora turned it over.
A second date had been written underneath.
2026.
Her breath caught.
“That's today.”
Elias looked at it.
His expression changed.
“Nora.”
“What?”
“The photograph wasn't there before.”
She stared at him.
“What do you mean?”
“I've been inside this room.”
“When?”
“Before you.”
She looked around.
“Then why is everything different?”
Elias didn't answer.
A sound came from behind them.
A soft click.
The red door had closed.
Nora rushed toward it.
The handle wouldn't move.
“Elias.”
“I know.”
The lights went out.
A screen appeared on the opposite wall.
One line of text.
MEMORY RESTORATION: 7%
Nora stared.
“That's the device.”
“No.”
“What?”
“The device is only displaying it.”
“Then what's restoring my memories?”
Elias looked toward the floor.
“The room.”
Nora stepped backward.
“What?”
“This isn't a room.”
The walls began to shimmer.
The bedroom disappeared.
For a second, Nora saw something underneath it.
A laboratory.
Then a hospital.
Then a city.
Then the bedroom again.
Different moments occupying the same space.
Nora's head began to ache.
A voice whispered beside her.
Remember.
She closed her eyes.
A memory surfaced.
Mara Vale stood beside a machine.
Elias was there too.
But he looked older.
Much older.
Nora was standing between them.
Crying.
Mara was saying something.
Nora couldn't hear her.
Then Elias took Nora's hand.
The memory shifted.
The machine activated.
A blinding light filled the room.
Nora opened her eyes.
She was back in the bedroom.
Elias was staring at her.
“You saw it.”
She nodded.
“What happened?”
“I don't know.”
“You're remembering.”
“Not enough.”
The screen changed.
MEMORY RESTORATION: 9%
Then another line appeared.
ORIGINAL CONSCIOUSNESS: ACTIVE.
Nora's heart stopped.
“She's here.”
Elias looked around.
“No.”
A voice came from the corner of the room.
“You're looking in the wrong place.”
Nora turned.
A girl stood beside the window.
Same face.
Same eyes.
Same scar.
The original Nora.
For a moment, Nora couldn't breathe.
The girl looked at Elias first.
“You promised.”
Elias's face hardened.
“I tried.”
“You failed.”
Then she looked at Nora.
Her expression softened.
“You finally found me.”
Nora took a step toward her.
“Who are you?”
The girl smiled sadly.
“You.”
Nora shook her head.
“No. I'm Nora.”
“So am I.”
“Then which one of us is real?”
The girl's smile disappeared.
“That's the wrong question.”
“What should I ask?”
“Who is trying to make you believe you're not?”
Before Nora could respond, alarms erupted throughout the facility.
Elias looked toward the ceiling.
“They've found us.”
The original Nora stepped backward.
“There's no time.”
“For what?” Nora asked.
The girl pointed toward the wall.
A hidden door opened.
Beyond it was another corridor.
“Get to the lower chamber.”
Elias frowned.
“You said we'd never go there again.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Why?”
The original Nora looked directly at Nora.
“Because she needs to see what happened the first time.”
Nora's stomach tightened.
“What happened?”
The girl looked at Elias.
“He never told you?”
Nora turned toward him.
Elias said nothing.
The original Nora smiled bitterly.
“Of course he didn't.”
Footsteps thundered somewhere beyond the laboratory.
Closer.
The girl stepped into the corridor.
“Come on.”
Nora followed.
Elias stayed behind for half a second.
Then he followed too.
As the hidden door closed, Nora looked back.
The red room was empty again.
But on the wall, written in fresh black letters, were four words:
YOU WERE NEVER THE COPY.
Nora stopped.
Elias noticed.
“What is it?”
She pointed.
His face went pale.
For the first time since she'd met him, Elias looked genuinely afraid.
“Don't read it again.”
“Why?”
“Because if that's true…”
He didn't finish.
Nora looked at him.
“If that's true, what?”
Elias swallowed.
“Then the original Nora isn't the one we should be afraid of.”
The lights went out.
And somewhere beneath them, something began to wake.
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