Mirror name

CHAPTER 4 — Nameless Children

It started to rain again outside the house.

Water dripping from the leaking roof.

Tick...

Tick...

Tick...

The sound was mixed with a thud from behind the red door of the basement.

DUKKK!

Alena couldn't take her eyes off the photo in Raka's hand.

His hands started to feel numb.

"That's... impossible."

But the face in the photo is clear.

Himself, Mira and several other children that he does not know. They all look around eight or nine years old.

Standing in a row wearing white clothes.

Without a smile and expression like a hospital patient and on their hands there is a numbered bracelet.

Raka flipped the photo slowly, there was a faded handwriting behind it.

SUBJECT BATCH 03

Mirror Name Program

Alena's breath immediately chased.

Mirror Name.

He had heard that word before or maybe remembered it.

Another flash of memory suddenly appeared.

The white room was cold, the sound of children crying and a man said,

"If the old identity is removed, humans can be reborn."

Alena held her head.

"No..."

"Lena?"

"I remember that voice."

"Whose voice?"

"Doctor Sena."

DUKKK!

The red door shook loudly again.

Raka turned her head quickly towards the bottom of the stairs.

"Someone's in there."

"Let's go now."

"If there is a victim..." Raka hesitated.

"If there was a normal person behind that door, he would have shouted for help!"

Alena's sentence made silence for a moment, because it was true because there was no sound asking for help, crying or even screaming there were only bangs like something wanted to come out.

DUKKK!

The flashlight flashed, Alena reflexively retreated.

"I don't like this..."

Raka walked slowly.

"RAKA!"

"We're just looking at it for a while."

"Are you serious?"

Raka turned his head.

"I can't leave this."

Alena bit her lip.

It's the dumbest idea they've ever done but Alena still follows it because there's something in this place that feels connected to her and it's much scarier.

The concrete stairs end in a narrow hallway.

The air below is much colder, the walls are covered with nail scratches.

Some parts even have brown stains like old blood.

Raka shines on one side of the wall, there are counting lines.

IIII

IIII

IIII

Day sign.

Someone was once locked up here.

Alena suddenly felt nauseous.

"Oh my God..."

Then his eyes caught something else.

Small writing is barely visible.

Evelyn likes to forget.

Alena's body immediately stiffened.

Another writing is right below it.

But Mira always remembers.

DUKKK!

The red door shook again, now louder.

Raka stood right in front of him.

The red paint is peeling off, there are many scratch marks on the bottom and in the middle of the door there is a small window covered with iron.

"Don't," Alena whispered.

Raka kept getting closer.

Slowly he passed through a small iron crack.

A few seconds of silence, then his face changed.

Pale.

"What?" Alena asked quickly.

Raka didn't answer.

He actually retreated slowly.

“There's someone inside.”

Alena's blood felt cold.

"Who?"

"A woman."

"Mira?"

"I can't see clearly."

DUKKK!

A loud crash made the door shake and suddenly a eye appeared behind the iron crack. Alena immediately held her breath.

Those eyes stared straight at him.

Red, wide and full of fear.

Then a low hoarse voice sounded from behind the door.

"Don't trust Raka."

Alena's body froze.

Raka immediately turned his head.

"What did he say?"

But before Alena answered, the flashlight turned off completely.

Darkness immediately swallowed the basement.

"RAKA!"

BRAKKK!

A loud sound sounded like a red door being slammed from the inside.

Once again.

BRAKKK!

Alena retreated in panic.

His breathing was chaotic, then something touched his hand.

He screamed and reflexively brushed away.

"HEY! HEY!"

Raka's Voice.

"It's me!"

The flashlight is back on.

The light is dim.

Raka stood in front of Alena with a quick breath but the red door was now slightly open.

The black gap gaped even though it was locked tightly.

The cold immediately covered the hallway and vaguely heard the sound of footsteps from inside the room.

Plan.

Dragging.

SRET...

SRET...

Alena retreated tremblingly.

"Someone came out..."

Raka raised the flashlight to the crack of the door.

The room behind it looked like a former laboratory.

The iron bed, the old monitor strap is broken and the wall is full of children's photos.

Some faces were crossed out, some were given a red cross, then the flashlight light stopped on a large photo in the middle of the wall.

Photo of a little girl, short hair, empty eyes.

Under the photo it is written,

SUBJECT E-17

REAL NAME: EVELYN

NEW IDENTITY: ALENA PRAMESTI

Alena's heart seemed to stop beating.

The flashlight in Raka's hand slowly went down and for the first time since they came, he looked at Alena with a scared expression.

Afraid of him.

The basement feels narrower.

The cold air mixed with the smell of iron and medicine made it difficult for Alena to breathe.

His eyes couldn't get away from the photo on the wall.

SUBJECT E-17

REAL NAME: EVELYN

NEW IDENTITY: ALENA PRAMESTI

"It's just a sick game," he whispered.

But his voice itself sounded unconvincing. Raka is still holding a flashlight pointing at the photo.

His gaze changed, not only afraid but like someone who just realized something that he had been avoiding all this time.

"You know about this?" Alena asked slowly.

Raka is silent.

"Raka." Alena Urges.

“I've seen Evelyn's name before.”

Alena's blood felt cold.

"Where?"

Raka gulped.

"Archive of missing child cases in 2008."

"You are lying."

"I'm serious."

"If you know why didn't you say it from the beginning?" Asked Alena.

"Because I'm not sure because I thought Evelyn was dead." The answer is fast.

Silence.

The dragging steps from behind the red room could still be heard faintly but now Alena almost didn't care about it, her head felt full.

Pieces of memory began to appear faster, white room, syringes.m, the sound of children crying and someone calling,

"Evelyn."

Not Alena but Evelyn.

He took a few steps back while holding his head.

"I'm not Evelyn."

But the deepest part of him began to whisper,

If not, why does the name feel familiar?

Suddenly, a woman's voice sounded from inside the red room, sounding soft and hoarse.

"He started to remember."

Raka immediately raised the flashlight.

The light shines further inside.

A female figure standing at the end of the room.

Skinny, long messy hair, wearing shabby white clothes, her hands are full of scratches and when her face is exposed to the light, Alena freezes completely.

"Mira..."

The woman smiled slightly but that smile felt wrong, too tired and empty.

"Are you alive?" Alena whispered.

Mira didn't answer her gaze instead moved to Raka.

"You shouldn't have brought him here."

Raka stiffened.

"I don't know."

"LIE." Mira's voice suddenly turned sharp filling the room.

"You knew it from the beginning."

Alena turned her head quickly to Raka.

"What does he mean?"

Raka is silent.

And his silence was enough to make Alena's heart fall.

“You, do you know who I am?” Asked Alena.

"I only know part of it."

"WHAT PART?"

Raka's breath is hunting.

“I've been investigating Project Mirror Name for three years.”

The name is back.

"All victims of missing children have strange patterns," he continued.

"They were found alive but changed."

"How did it change?"

"They forgot their true identity."

The basement suddenly felt colder.

Mira chuckled, her voice was hoarse and broken.

"They didn't forget," he said.

"They were forced to be someone else."

Alena looked at Mira with trembling eyes.

"You know all this?"

“I was here at that time.” Answer Mira.

"What time?"

Mira slowly raised her hand.

On his left wrist there is still an old number bracelet.

E-12

"I'm one of the experimental children."

Alena's body weakened.

"No." Alena shook her head.

“We're all experimental children, Lena.”

That sentence felt like a hammer hitting the head. Mira stepped closer slowly.

His gaze is now much more human, more sad.

"I'm trying to make you remember."

"I sent those messages."

"Feural?" Asked Alena.

"Not my corpse." Answer alena briefly.

Raka immediately interrupted.

"Whose body?"

Mira's face changed and for the first time fear appeared in her eyes.

"I don't know."

Silence then Mira said softly,

"They started again."

"Who are they?"

But before Mira could answer, all the basement lights suddenly turned on by themselves.

BRIGHT WHITE.

Alena immediately closed her eyes.

The sound of electric buzzing filled the room.

The old monitors turned on one by one and from the broken speakers in the corner of the room, a familiar sound sounded soft, calm but scary.

"Good evening, Subject E-17."

Alena's body froze because she recognized that voice.

Doctor Sena.

The speaker sounded again.

"If you hear this, it means the memory recovery process has begun."

The old monitor showed a blurry video recording, a white room, a girl sitting on a chair crying and the child was Alena.

No! Evelyn

Doctor Sena appears in the video.

His face was younger, he smiled at the camera.

"The E-17 subject shows high resistance, but the personality is just starting to stabilize. Evelyn's name slowly disappeared."

The little boy in the video cried while saying,

"I want to go home."

Doctor Sena squatted in front of him and said softly,

"There is no Evelyn."

"You are Alena now."

The video stopped suddenly.

Silence fills the basement.

Alena's breathing began to become unstable, her tears fell unconsciously because something inside her had just cracked and even more terrifying, part of her began to believe that the video was real.

Mira looked at him slowly.

"I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"Because I failed to save you."

Suddenly a loud alarm sounded throughout the basement.

WEEEOOOO

The light flashed red, Raka immediately panicked.

"Someone activates the system."

Another monitor turned on.

A writing appears on the screen,

MEMORY RECOVERY: 32%

Then the next writing appeared slowly.

WARNING:

SUBJECT E-17 MAY BECOME HOSTILE

Alena stared at the screen with a trembling body.

And for some reason the word "hostile" feels very familiar.