The killer !

Episode 3:Return of the ghost

Thunderous loud belts rumbled overhead as clouds covered the little moon. Rain pelted over the shattered windows of the ruined building, but inside, the fire Elias lit in the old hearth hissed and glowed — a frail warmth in a place drowned in shadows.

Rose stood near the mirror again, clutching the notebook like a warface. Her blue eyes stared at the burning flames, her mind away in the sky.

“Alora” Elias said with a soft pause, walking in with a steaming mug of bitter herbs. “You are still here”

She was lost in her thoughts.

He placed the mug beside her. “If the memory comes back, there’s more where that came from. We will soon the next seal with the deal”

“Seal?” she finally asked in a low cold voice.

Elias nodded. “Your father encrypted his research across three triggers — memory anchors, buried in places tied to your childhood. The mirror was one. The others… we’ll have to find it soon.”

“And if we don’t?”

“Then the world will burn, and they will find you ”

Rose looked up at him. “Do you know anything about my father’s creation?”

Elias met her eyes. “A neural network — a kind of formula that can erase any memory and identity… even free will. In the other sense, it’s g******e without blood.”

Elsewhere… in an underground compound

A man was standing in front of a large poster . Lamps flickered — street camera turned opposite , interiors reflected.

“She’s accessing her true identity,” said a voice behind him.

He didn’t turn. “Good. Let her. The deeper she knows, the more she knows , the closer she gets to Lucas. And when she finds him…”

The screen zoomed in to see — an old photo: Lucas, no older than eleven-twelve, blue eyes bright, standing beside Alora.

“…we take them both.”

Back in the ruins

Elias led Rose into a cellar wall beneath the estate. The air was thick with mold and memory. Old boxes, sealed cabinets, steel vaults, broken dustbins lined the stone walls.

He handed her a flashlight and pried open a metal locker.

Inside, there was a rugged handkerchief, wide open, it had a map. Blood spots were encircling the borders.

“Tigmod,” he said. “It is another ruined observatory in the hills. Let’s just hope that your father hid the second part there!

Rose ran her eyes across the map.

“When should we leave ?”

“Right now, no time ”

Tigmod Hills – Two Days Later

The Jeep bounced along the unpaved road, wheels speeding over gravel and roots. Fog swallowed the trees. The air grew colder as they climbed.

They reached the observatory — a lonely dome above the clouds, its telescope long broken, its roof rusted and weeping.

“This place was evacuated during the blackout years,” Elias said. “But I know your father. He loved irony. He hid the truth in places science once ruled.”

Rose stepped inside, flashlight slicing through the dark. A staircase spiraled down beneath the main dome.

They descended.

Step by creaking step.

At the bottom: a steel door. No handle. Just a retinal scanner, dead for years… and a dusty piano in the corner.

Elias muttered, “Of course. Music it is !”

Rose stepped closer, towards the piano . Slightly out of sight , but the keys still pressed.

She sat.

Her fingers were trembling looking at the dried keys.

A soft melody whispered in her mind — faint and broken.

She began to play.

A soft hit at first.

The tune became a little louder.

And the final note echoed like thunder through the room.

CLANK.

The steel door quaked open.

Behind it , a long hidden chamber, shadows picking outside.

And on the floor, a figure.

Alive. Breathing. Chained.

“OH MY GOD—” Rose gasped. “Is that…Is that?”

Elias pushed past her. He dropped to his knees beside the figure.

The boy had grown.

But the eyes hadn’t changed.

Lucas.

Barely conscious. Lips cracked. Wrists bruised.

“Lucas,” Elias whispered. “He’s alive. They kept him here… all these years.”

Rose knelt beside him. “Lucas… it’s me. Alora”

His eyes fluttered open, confused at first… then locked with hers.

And for a moment, time collapsed.

“Alora…” he gasped. “You… remember…remember me ?”

Tears spilt out from her eyes.

“We have to get him out,” Elias snapped. “They’ll come for him.”

“No,” Lucas groaned. “They’re… already here.”

Suddenly — something crashed above the head

A drone buzzed past.

A laser blink shot down, blasting the tree outside.

A striking team in black emerged from the fog, rifles raised, eyes behind night-vision goggles.

One of them spoke into a mic:

“Target located. Alora and Subject-09 both present. Permission to engage?”

A voice replied coldly:

“Do it fast . Kill that bastard, Elias. Bring the girl and the boy. Alive.”

Back inside

Elias hurriedly grabbed a concealed rifle from the wall.

“Here Lucas, Go through the chamber at the tunnel back , It leads to the cliffside.”

“What about you?” Rose asked.

He looked at her. “ Here’s to you , sacrifice for you , this one time won’t kill me.”

Rose shook her head. “No, Elias—”

But he was already gone.

Gunfire erupted above.

The roof cracked, walls fell.

Dust rained.

Rose pulled Lucas onto her shoulder and half-dragged, half-carried him through the dark tunnel as the sound of war echoed behind them.

At the end — light.

The tunnel opened to a narrow ledge above a roaring waterfall.

Rose looked down.

No time.

No choice.

She wrapped her arms around Lucas.

And jumped.

SPLASH.

The world blurred into cold.

Rose hit the water hard pretty hard , her arms locked around Lucas. For a second, she couldn’t feel if it was the waterfall or her own scream roaring in her ears. The current dragged them beneath, swallowing them whole in its icy, furious grip.

She fought to the surface, gasping, holding Lucas’s barely-conscious body above water. Trees blurred past as they were swept downriver, limbs crashing against hidden rocks.

Just when her strength began to give, a branch arched low over the river.

She reached.

Caught it.

With the last breath of will, she pulled them to the bank, collapsing onto the muddy ground, water entirely filling her lungs.

Lucas stirred, lips trembling. “Alora…”

“Yes, Here we are!,” she whispered, brushing his wet hair back. “You are safe now !”

Meanwhile… at the Observatory

Smoke rose from the ruins.

The strike team moved in, sweeping the area with infrared scopes.

“Target Elias—confirmed down.”

But in the shadows of the lower dome, a heartbeat is still pumping.

Elias lay in blood , motionless… until his little twitched.

He opened his eyes — barely — and whispered, “Still breathing, you bastards…”

He reached inside his jacket. A half burnt photograph. Young Alora. Young Lucas.

He smirked faintly, and blacked out the next second.

Later That Night – In the Woods

Rose had built a fire in a makeshift shelter, using the flint Elias taught her to carry. Lucas lay wrapped in a thermal sheet from her pack.

She stared at him — the boy who haunted her memories was now a man. Pale. Silent. Eyes heavy with ghosts.

“Lucas,” she said softly. “Do you remember me ? Who am I?”

He tried to look at her with all his strength.

“Alora”

Her breath caught. “Yes.”

“I thought, you are no more”

“I thought I was too.”

Silence stretched, broken only by the cracking fire.

“I don’t remember much,” he admitted. “After they dragged me , there were just injections. Sufferings. Questions. Pain. Then nothing. Just darkness.”

Rose opened the old notebook, her fingers trembling.

“There’s something in here,” she said. “My father — our father — left a message. And I think you’re the key to the main door .”

Lucas blinked. “Cipher?”

She nodded. “A neural code hidden in memory. My father split it into three triggers — three anchors. One in me. One in you. One is still missing.”

Lucas sat up slowly. “And what happens when they’re joined?”

Rose hesitated. “It… awakens something. Something that is buried inside us.”

She showed him a page marked in faded red ink. A drawing of a double helix, interlocked with musical notes and strange words written in Latin.

Lucas started.

His head throbbed.

Then— FLASH.

A vision.

He and Alora— children — in a glass dome. A man showing them symbols, playing a melody. “You should remember this. This will save both of you.”

He gasped, clutching his head.

“Are you okay?” Rose cried, rushing to him.

Lucas nodded through gritted teeth. “It’s starting. I saw him. Father. He said we had to remember…”

Elsewhere – The Compound

The man in charge slammed his tight fist on the table.

“How the hell did they escape?”

The trench-coated agent stood silently. “All of a sudden, they jumped over the falls. No sign of bodies… but there are higher chances of their survival.”

The man turned, his face emerging from the shadows for the first time.

Tall. Weathered. One blue eye. One mechanical.

“I want them found, anyhow. Every agent, every tracker, every camera. Activate Protocol M.”

A scientist stepped forward nervously. “Sir… Protocol M was never tested.”

“Test it now. The cipher cannot awaken. Not in their hands.”

The Next Morning – Deep in the Forest

Rose and Lucas made their way through the fog, moving cautiously with their makeshift broken compass and rugged map.

“We need to find the third anchor,” she said. “Elias mentioned something once — the Sea Vault. A place beneath the cliffs of Avenlock. Somewhere no one’s supposed to go.”

Lucas nodded slowly. “It’s where they kept the dead body … our father… before they killed him.”

She froze. “You remember that?”

His eyes went cold. “I remember screaming. Fire. Men in white. And a voice saying, ‘Erase him..Erase him.’”

A long silence passed.

Then—

A c***k of twigs.

They turned.

A figure stepped out from the mist.

A young woman , no older than them. Leather jacket, dark black eyes, a gun hanging at her thigh.

“I thought I’d never find you two,” she said coolly. “Name’s Vira. I work with Elias. We work for the truth”

Rose stepped back. “Prove it.”

Vira held up a coin. Strange, metallic, etched with their father’s initials and a symbol — the helix with music.

Lucas blinked. “It’s correct. He gave us matching coins as kids.”

Vira nodded. “You’re not safe. The Cipher is waking. And they’ve already activated the Protocol. Once it spreads… no memory is safe.”

“Then help us. We want to stop the storm,” Rose said.

Vira smirked. “That’s why I’m here. Pack your things, kids.”

She turned, tossing them each a black encrypted phone.

“We’re going to Avenlock.”

The rain looked everlasting.

Dark black clouds painted the sky as the three figures made their way along a ragged cliff path. Far below, the sea slammed against juggling rocks, howling like an ancient beast waking from slumber.

Rose clutched her jacket tighter around her, her eyes flicking like a fairy. Lucas walked ahead, silent and ominous . Vira led, unfazed, her movements like a soldier who'd been here before.

“Are you sure about the direction?” Rose asked in disgrace, raising her voice above the storm.

Vira didn’t look back. “The vault’s entrance was buried after the breach. But there’s a side route, through the tunnels. I particularly know about the place to dig”

They stopped at a sheer rock face, mossy and cold.

“This is it,” Vira said, dropping her pack. She retrieved a small laser cutter. “Start clearing. We’re not alone out here.”

Miles Away – At the Control Center

Rows of monitors lit up the dark room. Surveillance footage flickered: cliffs, woods, roads.

“They’ve reached the edge of Avenlock,” said a woman in a lab coat.

The man with one mechanical eye leaned forward. “And the Vault?”

“Still sealed. But they won’t stay out for long.”

He smirked. “Then it’s time to send her.”

The woman stiffened. “You mean…send whom ,clear?”

He turned slowly. “Yes. She knows them better than anyone. Especially Lucas.”

Back at the Cliff – Hours Later

Stone fell away with a muffled thud.

Lucas cleared the last of the broken debris and stepped aside as a narrow iron door came into view — corroded but intact. Strange symbols carved across its surface glowed faintly in the dark.

Rose stepped closer. “They match the real ones from the notebook.”

Lucas placed his hand over one of the symbols.

A low hum filled the air.

The door clicked… and slowly creaked open.

Cold air rushed out. A stairwell plunged downward into pitch black.

“Are you sure we want to do this?” Vira muttered, checking her weapon.

“No,” Lucas said. “But we have to.”

They descended.

The Sea Vault

The inside felt impossibly vast. The walls were lined with steel and glass. Long-dead machines blinked to life with their presence. Lights flickered on, revealing rows of old lab equipment, memory scanners, and cryo-pods.

Rose’s voice trembled. “What was this place?”

Vira stepped forward. “Where they built the Cipher Project. Where they trained children like you and Lucas.”

Lucas froze in front of a broken cryo-chamber, his hands trembling.

“I… I remember this.”

Suddenly, one of the consoles beeped. A file unlocked.

Onscreen: a video. Dated 14 years ago.

Their father appeared — disheveled, eyes full of grief.

“If you’re watching this,” he said, “then everything I feared has come true.”

Rose gasped.

“I split the Cipher in three — memory anchors hidden in my children, and one in her.”

Lucas tensed. “Her?”

Their father continued, “She was our third. Taken from us before the fire. Altered. Weaponized.”

The screen glitched.

“Her name was Lyra.”

Outside – On the Cliffs

Boots hit the ground silently.

A sleek black suit, long red braid, silver blade on her back.

Lyra.

She opened a tablet showing infrared signatures. Three heat points. Moving.

She whispered to herself.

“Elira… Lucas…”

And then she moved, faster than sound, toward the Vault.

Below – In the Vault’s Core

The trio entered the central chamber.

A vast wall of data servers surrounded a glowing pillar, suspended in magnetic field — a memory core.

“This is it,” Vira said, eyes wide. “The Cipher Source.”

Before anyone could respond—

BANG!

The sound of something slicing through metal echoed through the chamber.

Lyra dropped from above like a specter, landing between them and the core.

Her eyes were silver. Her movements are flawless.

“Lucas,” she said softly. “I’ve missed you.”

Lucas stumbled back, stunned.

Rose stepped forward. “Who are you?”

Lyra smiled faintly. “Your sister.”

No one spoke.

“Half of me remembers you,” Lyra said, locking eyes with Lucas. “The other half wants to kill you.”

Vira raised her gun.

Too slow.

In a blink, Lyra kicked the weapon away and threw Vira into a console with terrifying precision.

Rose rushed forward, fists clenched.

Lyra hesitated — just for a breath — as if something in her resisted.

“You’re not my enemy,” Rose whispered. “They made you forget.”

Lyra winced… as if the words struck deep.

Then — alarms.

The vault began to rumble.

“They found us!” Vira shouted, bleeding from her forehead.

Rose turned to Lyra. “Help us. Please.”

Lyra looked toward the memory core, her eyes conflicted.

Then—

She pulled her blade.

“I’ll control them here. You run fast. Now,No time!”

Rose hesitated. “We can’t leave you—”

“GO!”

With all strength, Lucas held Rose and suddenly dragged her towards the back chamber, Vira limping behind.

As the steel doors closed behind them, Lyra turned to face the incoming shadows.

For the first time in years… she chose her blood over her programming.