CHAPTER 10: IF YOU REMEMBER ME, RUN
1639 Words
Adrian didn’t move after I said it.
“You should have let me go the first time.”
The words stayed between us like something alive.
Painful. Heavy. Impossible to take back.
Outside, rain crashed against the windows hard enough to shake the glass, but inside the apartment the silence felt louder than the storm.
Adrian was still holding me carefully, like he was scared I would disappear if he let go too quickly.
Then slowly…
his arms loosened.
I looked up at him.
And for the first time since all of this started, Adrian looked tired in a way that had nothing to do with sleep.
This was deeper.
The exhaustion of someone who had spent too long fighting a losing battle.
“You think I don’t know that?” he whispered.
His voice nearly broke at the end.
That hurt more than anger ever could.
Because suddenly I understood something terrifying.
Adrian had blamed himself for my death every single day since the accident.
Not just the first version.
All of them.
The room suddenly felt too emotional to breathe inside.
I stepped back slowly.
“I don’t even know who I am anymore.”
The confession came out quietly.
Not dramatic.
Just honest.
Adrian’s eyes softened instantly.
“You’re still you.”
I laughed bitterly.
“How would you know?”
His expression changed immediately.
Like I had hit something fragile inside him.
“Because no matter what they changed…” His voice lowered slightly. “You still look at me the same way.”
My chest tightened painfully.
Before I could answer—
My phone vibrated again.
The sound cut through the room sharply.
Both of us froze.
Unknown Number.
Another message.
This one was shorter than the others.
More dangerous somehow.
They found you.
Adrian’s entire posture changed the second he read it.
Every emotion disappeared from his face instantly.
The softness. The sadness. The vulnerability.
Gone.
What replaced it looked colder.
Focused.
Survival mode.
“Get your coat,” he said immediately.
Fear crawled slowly into my stomach.
“What?”
“Now.”
Something in his voice made me move before my brain caught up.
I grabbed my jacket from the chair while Adrian walked quickly toward a drawer near the kitchen.
He pulled it open.
And removed a g*n.
My entire body froze.
The sight of it made reality hit differently.
This wasn’t paranoia anymore.
This wasn’t confusion or memory experiments or emotional manipulation.
People were actually coming for us.
For me.
“Adrian…”
He checked the weapon quickly with calm movements.
Too calm.
Like this wasn’t new for him.
That thought terrified me more than the g*n itself.
“How many times have you done this?” I asked quietly.
He looked up briefly.
“Too many.”
The answer sat heavily in the room.
Then—
A loud sound echoed from outside the apartment building.
A door slamming somewhere downstairs.
Both of us went still.
Adrian immediately turned off the lights.
Darkness swallowed the apartment.
Only the storm outside gave brief flashes of white light through the windows.
My heartbeat became painfully loud.
I could hear footsteps now.
Slow.
Controlled.
Coming closer.
Adrian moved toward me quickly and lowered his voice.
“Stay behind me.”
Fear twisted hard inside my chest.
“Who are they?”
He stayed silent for a second too long.
Then finally:
“The people who funded the project.”
Project.
God.
I hated that word.
Everything about my life sounded less human every time he explained it.
Another flash exploded inside my head suddenly.
A laboratory.
Bright white walls.
Voices behind glass.
A man saying:
“Version Three shows emotional retention.”
Another voice answered:
“Then remove the emotional trigger.”
The memory vanished instantly.
I grabbed the wall beside me to steady myself.
Adrian noticed immediately.
“What did you see?”
“They wanted to erase emotions.”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
The pain in his eyes answered before his voice did.
“Because emotions made you impossible to control.”
Silence.
I stared at him in disbelief.
“You mean love.”
He didn’t answer.
That silence confirmed everything.
The organization wasn’t scared of memories.
They were scared of attachment.
Scared that even after death… even after reconstruction… even after erasing identities…
I still kept finding my way back to Adrian.
Three knocks suddenly echoed through the apartment.
Slow.
Deliberate.
My entire body went cold.
Adrian’s hand tightened around the g*n immediately.
Another knock followed.
Then a man’s voice spoke calmly from outside the door.
“Adrian. Open the door.”
The fear in Adrian’s expression lasted less than a second.
But I saw it.
Recognition.
He knew that voice.
The man outside continued:
“You already know running won’t change the outcome.”
Silence.
Rain crashed against the windows.
Nobody moved.
Then the voice said something that made my stomach twist violently.
“Bring us the girl.”
The girl.
Not Lena. Not Alina.
Just girl.
Like I wasn’t a person at all.
Something angry woke up inside me hearing that.
Adrian stepped slightly in front of me instinctively.
“You’re not taking her.”
The voice outside laughed softly.
Coldly.
“You said the same thing after the second death.”
The room suddenly felt smaller.
My breathing became uneven again.
Second death.
The words echoed painfully inside my head.
Another memory slammed into me immediately.
A hospital room.
Machines screaming loudly.
Doctors rushing around me.
Adrian grabbing someone by the collar and shouting:
“Do something!”
A calm voice answering:
“The transfer is failing.”
Then—
My own weak voice whispering:
“I’m tired…”
The memory shattered apart violently.
I gasped for air.
Adrian looked back at me instantly.
“Stay with me.”
But I barely heard him.
Because suddenly I understood something horrifying.
The earlier versions of me remembered too.
And every time I remembered too much—
I died.
Another bang hit the apartment door harder this time.
Wood cracked slightly.
The men outside were getting impatient.
Adrian moved closer quickly.
His free hand touched my face carefully.
The gentleness of it nearly broke me.
“Listen to me,” he whispered.
I looked at him.
And suddenly the fear in his eyes became obvious.
Not fear of the organization.
Fear of losing me again.
“If they take you,” he said quietly, “they’ll erase everything that makes you yourself.”
Another flash hit me.
A rooftop at night.
Cold wind.
Me crying while Adrian held me tightly.
And my own voice saying:
“Promise me something.”
“What?”
“If I become one of their copies… don’t let me live like that.”
The memory disappeared slowly this time.
Not violently.
Like my mind wanted me to finally understand it.
Tears filled my eyes instantly.
“I asked you to let me go.”
Adrian’s expression collapsed quietly.
“Yes.”
The sound of metal breaking echoed outside the apartment.
The lock was starting to give in.
Time was running out.
Adrian reached into his pocket suddenly and pulled out a small silver key.
He pressed it into my hand quickly.
“There’s a train station two blocks from here,” he said.
I stared down at the key.
“Locker 117.”
“What’s inside?”
His eyes met mine.
And suddenly they looked terrified.
“Your real memories.”
My heart nearly stopped.
Not transfers. Not reconstructed versions.
The original me.
I looked back at him slowly.
“You kept them?”
“They were going to destroy everything.”
The emotion in his voice made my chest ache.
“So I stole them first.”
Outside, another violent hit shook the door open slightly.
Voices flooded through the c***k.
Adrian raised the g*n immediately.
Then looked back at me.
“You need to leave now.”
“No.”
“Lena—”
“I’m not leaving you here.”
His expression broke hearing that.
God.
He looked so tired.
So human.
Not cold anymore. Not distant.
Just a man who had spent years trying to save someone he loved from death itself.
And suddenly I remembered one more thing.
Not an experiment.
Not pain.
A quiet moment.
Me laughing while Adrian cooked badly in some tiny apartment kitchen.
Music playing softly.
His arms wrapping around my waist while he whispered:
“Even in another life, I’d still choose you.”
The memory hit harder than all the others.
Because it felt real.
Not tragic.
Not broken.
Just love.
Pure love.
Tears slipped down my face silently.
Adrian noticed immediately.
“What did you remember?”
I looked at him carefully.
“Our real life.”
Something inside him shattered quietly after hearing that.
Before either of us could speak—
The apartment door burst open.
Men flooded inside.
Black clothes. Weapons. Cold expressions.
The organization.
Everything happened too fast after that.
Adrian pushed me behind him instantly.
“RUN!”
Gunshots exploded through the apartment.
I screamed instinctively.
Glass shattered beside us.
The room turned chaotic immediately.
Adrian fired back while grabbing my wrist with his free hand.
“Go!”
“No!”
Another shot hit the wall inches away from me.
Adrian shoved the silver key into my palm harder.
“Listen to me for once!”
The desperation in his voice terrified me.
One of the men moved toward us.
Adrian fired again immediately.
Then suddenly—
A memory returned completely.
Rain. The accident. Blood everywhere.
Adrian holding me while crying.
And his voice breaking as he whispered the final thing I ever heard before darkness took me:
“If you remember me one day… run.”
chapter 11 coming soon.........
- Writer
