Chapter 7
1321 Words
🖤 Chapter 7 — Her Real Name
The words echoed through the room long after the speakers went silent.
“Or should I call you by your real name?”
Elena couldn’t breathe.
The tablet nearly slipped from her trembling hands as she stared blankly at the dark screen.
The room suddenly felt too small.
Too hot.
Too real.
“What… did he mean?” she whispered.
No one answered immediately.
Xander stood a few feet away from her, silent and unreadable beneath the flashing red emergency lights.
That silence terrified her more than the voice had.
Because it meant one thing.
He knew something.
“Elena,” Xander said quietly.
“No.”
Her voice cracked sharply as she stepped backward.
“No more half-truths. No more secrets.”
Her chest rose and fell unevenly.
“You kidnapped me, dragged me into this nightmare, and now some psycho is telling me my entire life is fake?!”
Xander’s jaw tightened slightly.
“Elena—”
“STOP saying my name like you know me!”
The words exploded out of her before she could stop them.
Silence followed instantly.
Heavy.
Sharp.
Dangerous.
Even the flashing lights suddenly felt slower.
Xander stared at her for a long moment.
Then finally—
He walked toward her.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Elena’s heart pounded harder with every step he took.
“You want truth?” he asked quietly.
“Yes!”
“Truth gets people killed.”
“I’m already being hunted!”
Xander stopped directly in front of her now.
Close enough for her to feel his warmth.
Close enough to notice the exhaustion hidden beneath his cold expression.
“You were never supposed to remember,” he said.
Elena froze.
The sentence hit her strangely.
Like part of her already understood it.
“What does that mean?”
Xander didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, his eyes searched her face carefully.
Almost painfully.
Then:
“Your memories were altered.”
The room tilted slightly.
Elena laughed weakly.
A broken sound.
“That’s insane.”
“Yes,” Xander replied calmly.
“But it’s true.”
She shook her head harder.
“No. No, this is some kind of manipulation. You’re trying to confuse me.”
“If I wanted control,” Xander said quietly, “I wouldn’t be telling you this.”
Elena stared at him.
And suddenly—
A sharp pain exploded through her head.
She gasped softly, grabbing the edge of the desk for support.
Fragments flashed through her mind instantly.
Bright hospital lights.
A white room.
Voices arguing.
A woman crying.
Someone shouting:
“She remembers too much!”
Elena stumbled backward.
“No…”
Another flash.
Needles.
Documents.
Her own voice asking:
“What’s my real name?”
Her breathing broke unevenly.
Xander moved toward her immediately.
“Elena.”
“Don’t touch me!”
But her voice lacked strength now.
Fear had already taken over.
Another memory flashed violently.
A hallway.
Men in suits.
A younger version of herself standing beside someone tall.
Dark-haired.
Cold eyes.
Xander.
Elena froze completely.
Her heartbeat stopped for one terrifying second.
She had seen him before.
Long before that rainy night.
Her eyes lifted slowly toward him.
“You…”
Xander’s expression darkened immediately.
“You remember something.”
It wasn’t a question.
Elena stepped backward shakily.
“I know you.”
Silence.
Then quietly:
“Yes.”
The answer hit harder than she expected.
“When?” she whispered.
Xander remained still.
“A long time ago.”
“No…” she said weakly. “That’s impossible. I would remember you.”
“You weren’t allowed to.”
The words sent chills through her entire body.
Suddenly Elena became angry again.
Terrified people often did.
“You keep talking in riddles!” she snapped. “Who ARE you?! What am I?!”
Xander’s eyes sharpened slightly.
“You are Elena Carter.”
“Stop lying to me!”
The room fell silent again.
Then suddenly—
Xander moved.
Fast.
He grabbed her wrist before she could step farther away.
Elena gasped softly as her back hit the edge of the wall behind her.
Not violent.
But controlled.
His body stood close enough to trap her between him and the wall.
The tension instantly became unbearable.
“You think I enjoy this?” he asked quietly.
Elena’s breathing trembled.
“You’re hiding things from me.”
“Yes.”
The direct answer shocked her.
“Why?”
Xander’s gaze darkened.
“Because every truth connected to you leaves bodies behind.”
Her breath caught.
For one dangerous second neither of them moved.
The red emergency lights flickered across his face.
He looked exhausted now.
Not weak.
Just tired of carrying something too heavy alone.
Then quietly—
“You were watched from childhood.”
Elena froze.
“What?”
“Monitored. Protected. Hidden.”
Her stomach twisted painfully.
“By who?”
A pause.
Then:
“People powerful enough to erase identities.”
The room suddenly felt freezing cold.
Elena shook her head slowly.
“No…”
Xander leaned slightly closer.
“You think your life has been normal?”
His voice lowered further.
“Nothing about your existence is normal.”
Elena pushed weakly against his chest.
“I’m just a student!”
“No,” Xander said quietly.
“You became one.”
That sentence shattered something inside her.
Tears burned her eyes instantly.
“I don’t understand…”
For the first time—
Xander’s expression softened visibly.
Not fully.
But enough.
His hand lifted slowly toward her face.
Elena thought he would stop.
He didn’t.
His fingers brushed lightly beneath her eye, catching a tear before it could fall.
The touch was unexpectedly gentle.
And somehow that hurt more.
“You think I enjoy watching you fall apart?” he asked quietly.
Elena swallowed hard.
“Then stop looking at me like I belong to you.”
A dangerous silence followed.
Then Xander answered softly:
“Too late.”
Her breath caught instantly.
The intensity in his eyes made her chest tighten painfully.
Before either of them could move—
A knock sounded outside the room.
Hard.
Urgent.
Xander stepped away immediately.
The sudden distance felt colder than it should have.
One of his guards entered quickly.
“Boss.”
Xander turned sharply.
“What?”
“We recovered part of the external data transmission.”
The guard handed him another tablet.
Xander’s expression changed instantly after reading it.
Elena noticed.
“What happened?”
No answer.
“Xander.”
Slowly…
He turned the screen toward her.
A photo filled the display.
Elena stopped breathing.
It was an old image.
Blurry.
Taken years ago.
And inside the picture—
Was her.
Standing beside Xander.
Younger.
Calmer.
Looking directly at him.
Not afraid.
The world around her seemed to disappear.
“That’s impossible…” she whispered.
But the worst part wasn’t the photo.
It was her expression in it.
She looked like she trusted him.
Completely.
Elena slowly looked up.
“You knew me before all this.”
Xander said nothing.
That silence became answer enough.
Her voice shook.
“How long have you known me?”
A long pause followed.
Then finally—
Xander spoke quietly.
“Before you became Elena Carter.”
The room fell silent again.
Then suddenly—
The estate lights shut off completely.
Darkness swallowed everything.
A loud system warning echoed instantly through the halls.
“SECURITY FAILURE.”
Xander cursed under his breath.
The guard immediately raised his weapon.
“Boss… someone just opened the lower level.”
Xander’s expression turned deadly.
Because only one group knew about the lower level.
The people from Elena’s past.
Elena’s chest tightened immediately.
“What lower level?”
Xander looked at her slowly.
And for the first time since meeting him—
He looked genuinely worried.
Then he said quietly:
“The place where they made you forget.”
- Writer
