Chapter 6
1524 Words
🖤 Chapter 6 — The Voice From Her Past
The voice echoed through the estate speakers again.
Cold.
Calm.
Familiar.
“You should have handed her over, Xander.”
Elena froze completely.
Every muscle in her body tightened as the sound crawled through her memory like something buried too deep to recognize immediately.
Beside her, Xander went still.
Not calm stillness.
Dangerous stillness.
The kind before violence.
The room remained dimly lit by emergency red lights while smoke drifted faintly through the broken doorway from the earlier attack.
Elena slowly turned toward him.
“You know that voice,” she whispered.
Xander’s jaw tightened slightly.
“That voice should be dead.”
A chill ran down her spine.
The speakers crackled again.
“You disappoint me,” the voice continued smoothly. “After all these years, I expected better judgment from you.”
Xander stepped forward slowly.
“Eliminate the audio system,” he ordered coldly.
Immediately, several guards moved.
But before they could disconnect anything—
The voice laughed softly.
“You can shut the speakers down, Xander… but it won’t change the fact that she finally remembers.”
Elena’s breath caught.
Remembers?
“What is he talking about?” she asked quickly.
No answer.
The speakers went silent.
The estate suddenly felt heavier.
Too quiet.
Too tense.
Then the emergency alarms changed tone.
A mechanical voice echoed through the halls:
“FULL LOCKDOWN ACTIVATED”
Heavy steel barriers began sliding into place somewhere deeper inside the estate.
The sound alone made Elena’s stomach twist.
Xander turned immediately toward one of his guards.
“Seal every internal access point.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Search every security room,” Xander added sharply. “Someone inside opened the perimeter.”
The guard nodded and disappeared quickly.
Elena stared at him.
“You think someone betrayed you?”
Xander finally looked at her again.
“I know they did.”
The way he said it made fear crawl deeper beneath her skin.
Not emotional.
Certain.
Controlled.
Someone inside this estate had helped armed men enter.
Which meant nowhere was truly safe.
Elena slowly stepped backward until her legs hit the edge of a desk.
She sat down weakly.
Her breathing felt wrong.
Too fast.
Too shallow.
Everything was collapsing too quickly.
The murder.
The chase.
The attacks.
The hidden files.
The voice.
And now—
Maybe even her identity.
“I don’t understand anything anymore…” she whispered quietly.
Xander remained standing across from her.
Watching.
Silent.
That silence made everything worse.
Elena laughed weakly under her breath, but there was no humor in it.
“Three days ago my biggest problem was school deadlines,” she said shakily. “Now people with guns are breaking into houses because of files I don’t even remember.”
Her hands trembled slightly.
“I don’t even know who I am anymore.”
The words hung heavily in the room.
Xander’s expression shifted almost invisibly.
Something colder softened slightly.
He walked toward her slowly.
Not threatening this time.
Measured.
Controlled.
Then he stopped directly in front of her.
“Elena.”
She looked up reluctantly.
“You are still Elena.”
Her chest tightened unexpectedly.
“How do you know that?” she whispered.
A pause.
Then Xander said quietly:
“Because I’ve been watching you.”
Her breath caught instantly.
“What?”
He held her gaze calmly.
“For longer than you realize.”
The room suddenly felt smaller.
“What does that mean?”
Xander looked away briefly, almost like he was deciding how much to reveal.
Then:
“The first time I saw your name connected to the archive was eight months ago.”
Elena frowned.
“Archive?”
“The hidden file everyone is trying to recover.”
Her stomach twisted again.
“You knew about me before tonight?”
“Yes.”
“And you still kidnapped me?”
Xander’s eyes darkened slightly.
“I saved you.”
“That’s not saving!” she snapped, standing quickly. “You dragged me into your world!”
“No,” he said calmly. “Your world was already connected to mine.”
Silence hit again.
Then suddenly—
A loud gunshot echoed somewhere nearby.
Both of them turned instantly.
Another shout followed.
“North corridor breached!”
Xander’s entire posture sharpened immediately.
He grabbed Elena’s wrist without hesitation.
“Come with me.”
Elena resisted instinctively.
“No!”
Xander stepped closer instantly.
“So you can stay here alone when traitors are inside the estate?”
That silenced her immediately.
He pulled her forward.
The hallways outside were darker now.
Emergency lights flashed red against black marble walls while armed guards moved rapidly through the estate.
Everything looked less like a mansion now.
And more like a war bunker.
Elena stayed close to Xander without realizing it.
Every sound made her flinch.
Every shadow felt dangerous.
Suddenly—
A body slammed violently against the wall ahead of them.
Elena gasped.
One of Xander’s guards collapsed onto the floor, blood spreading beneath him.
Another man stepped out from the shadows behind the body.
One of Xander’s own men.
Elena froze.
The guard slowly raised his weapon toward them.
“Boss…” he said nervously.
Xander’s expression became terrifyingly calm.
“You betrayed me.”
The man swallowed hard.
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“Yes,” Xander said quietly.
“You did.”
The guard’s hand trembled around the gun.
“They threatened my family!”
Xander didn’t blink.
“And now you threaten mine.”
Elena felt her heart stop for one terrifying second.
Mine.
Before she could process the word—
Gunfire exploded.
The traitor fell instantly.
Elena screamed softly and stumbled backward.
Xander lowered the weapon slowly.
Emotionless.
Controlled.
But Elena noticed something now.
The rage underneath.
Cold rage.
He turned toward her immediately afterward.
“Are you hurt?”
That question shocked her more than the shooting.
“I—no…”
Xander stepped closer anyway, checking her quickly.
His hand brushed lightly against her shoulder.
Elena’s breath caught slightly.
Too close.
Again.
Dangerously close.
His fingers paused near a small cut on her skin caused by shattered glass earlier.
A tiny streak of blood remained there.
Xander stared at it briefly.
Then, without warning, he lifted his hand and wiped it away gently with his thumb.
Elena froze.
The air between them shifted instantly.
Heavy.
Warm.
Confusing.
“You keep looking at me like you’re afraid of me,” Xander said quietly.
Elena swallowed hard.
“Maybe I am.”
His eyes held hers steadily.
“Not enough.”
Her breath faltered.
The tension between them became unbearable for one dangerous second.
Then—
The lights suddenly cut out.
Darkness swallowed the corridor.
Elena gasped softly.
Immediately, Xander pulled her against him.
Protective instinct.
Strong arms.
Solid warmth.
She could hear his heartbeat now.
Steady.
Controlled.
Unlike hers.
Footsteps echoed somewhere nearby in the dark.
Xander’s grip tightened slightly around her waist.
“Stay behind me,” he whispered near her ear.
The darkness made everything feel more intimate.
Closer.
Elena hated how safe she suddenly felt inside his arms.
A flashlight beam appeared at the far end of the corridor.
Another guard approached quickly.
“Boss.”
Xander released Elena slowly but kept one hand near her waist.
“What is it?”
The guard looked tense.
“We found the source of the internal breach.”
Xander’s expression hardened instantly.
“Who?”
The guard hesitated.
Then said quietly:
“It traces back to the old archive division.”
Elena frowned in confusion.
“What does that mean?”
But the guard was already pulling out a tablet device.
“There’s more.”
He handed it to Xander.
Xander stared at the screen silently.
For the first time since Elena met him—
He looked genuinely disturbed.
Her stomach tightened immediately.
“What happened?”
Xander didn’t answer.
Elena stepped closer.
“Xander.”
Slowly…
He turned the screen toward her.
A document filled the display.
Official records.
Old classified files.
Her name.
Her photo.
But something was wrong.
Very wrong.
The name on the file was not Elena Carter.
Her blood ran cold.
“No…”
Xander watched her carefully.
The guard spoke quietly:
“Boss… these records were altered years ago.”
Elena grabbed the tablet with shaking hands.
“This has to be fake.”
But deep down—
Something felt horribly familiar.
Her pulse pounded violently as she looked lower on the screen.
A birth record.
Then another line.
SUBJECT REASSIGNED.
Elena’s breathing stopped completely.
“What does that mean?” she whispered.
No one answered immediately.
Xander stepped closer slowly.
His eyes locked onto hers.
Then he said quietly:
“Everything you know about yourself…”
A pause.
“…is a lie.”
The tablet nearly slipped from Elena’s hands.
Her knees weakened.
And suddenly—
The mysterious voice returned through the speakers one final time.
Soft.
Victorious.
“Welcome back, Elena.”
Silence.
Then the final words:
“Or should I call you by your real name?”
- Writer
