CHAPTER 11:A Voice from the Past
952 Words
The words echoed through the tunnel.
"My darling... It's Mom."
Elena's world stopped.
Her breathing became shallow.
The pendant slipped from her trembling fingers and hit the floor with a soft metallic clang.
"No..."
She whispered.
"This can't be happening."
Grace stood frozen, tears filling her eyes.
Samuel, however, didn't move.
His pistol remained aimed at the steel door.
"No one touches that lock," he ordered.
Elena turned to him in disbelief.
"Didn't you hear her?"
"I did."
"That's my mother!"
Samuel slowly shook his head.
"Or someone who wants you to believe that."
Silence swallowed the room.
The woman's voice came again.
Gentle.
Almost pleading.
"Elena..."
"I know you're frightened."
"But please..."
"I don't have much time."
A tear rolled down Elena's cheek.
The voice sounded exactly as she had imagined it throughout her childhood.
Warm.
Kind.
Familiar.
Yet...
She had no real memory of it.
Grace stepped toward the door.
"Samuel..."
"What if it really is Sophia?"
Samuel's expression remained hard.
"If Sophia were alive..."
"...why would she wait eighteen years to come back?"
No one answered.
Because no one had an answer.
---
Outside the door...
A heavy object struck the ground.
Then Adrian's exhausted voice echoed through the tunnel.
"Samuel..."
"I've been shot."
"If you don't open this door..."
"I'm going to bleed to death."
Samuel clenched his jaw.
He wanted to believe him.
But he had survived this long by trusting evidence—not emotions.
He walked to a small metal panel beside the entrance.
Hidden inside was an old security camera connected to the outside corridor.
He switched it on.
The grainy black-and-white image flickered to life.
Everyone crowded around the monitor.
There...
Leaning against the stone wall...
Was Adrian.
Blood soaked the left side of his shirt.
His face was pale.
His breathing was labored.
And beside him...
Stood a woman.
She wore a dark hooded coat.
Her face was partially hidden by the shadows.
She kept looking over her shoulder as if expecting someone to appear.
Then...
She slowly lowered her hood.
Elena gasped.
The room fell completely silent.
The woman looked exactly like the photographs.
Long chestnut-brown hair.
Emerald-green eyes.
The same gentle smile.
Sophia Carter.
Elena's mother.
Grace covered her mouth with both hands.
"Oh, my God..."
Samuel stared at the screen.
"I don't believe this..."
The woman suddenly looked directly into the hidden camera.
Almost as if she knew it was there.
Then she spoke.
"Samuel..."
"It's really me."
"You still hide the spare key inside the broken lantern."
Samuel's eyes widened.
Only three people had ever known that.
Thomas.
Grace.
And Sophia.
He slowly lowered his gun.
"It... can't be."
---
Without another word, Samuel unlocked the steel door.
The heavy bolts slid back one by one.
With a loud groan...
The door opened.
Adrian nearly collapsed inside.
Elena rushed forward and caught him before he hit the floor.
His shirt was soaked with blood.
The wound on his shoulder was deep.
"Adrian!"
"I'm okay," he muttered weakly.
"You are definitely not okay."
He managed a faint smile.
"I've been better."
Elena helped him sit against the wall.
Only then did she turn.
The woman stood just inside the doorway.
For several long seconds...
Neither of them moved.
Elena searched the woman's face.
Every feature matched the photographs.
Every detail.
Even the tiny beauty mark beneath her right eye.
The woman slowly stepped forward.
Her own eyes were already filled with tears.
"You've grown so much."
Her voice broke.
"I've dreamed about this moment every single day."
Elena wanted to speak.
Instead...
She simply stared.
The woman reached into her pocket.
She removed a faded music box.
Small.
Wooden.
Its paint had nearly disappeared with age.
She wound the tiny key.
A familiar lullaby filled the room.
The melody struck Elena like lightning.
Suddenly—
A memory exploded inside her mind.
She was five years old.
Curled beneath a blanket.
The same lullaby playing softly.
A woman kissed her forehead.
"I love you more than the stars," the woman whispered.
Little Elena smiled.
"I love you more than the moon."
The memory vanished.
Elena burst into tears.
Without thinking...
She ran forward.
The woman embraced her tightly.
For the first time in eighteen years...
Mother and daughter held each other again.
Neither of them could stop crying.
Around them, the room fell silent.
Even Samuel quietly wiped away a tear.
Grace smiled through her own tears.
For one brief moment...
It seemed as though the nightmare was finally ending.
Then—
Bang!
A single gunshot echoed through the tunnel.
The woman gasped.
Her eyes widened.
A crimson stain spread across her chest.
Elena froze.
"Mom?"
Sophia collapsed into her arms.
At the end of the tunnel, hidden in the darkness beyond the open door, stood a lone sniper holding a suppressed rifle.
Before anyone could react, the sniper lowered the weapon and disappeared into the night.
Adrian struggled to his feet despite his injury.
"Close the door!" he shouted.
Samuel slammed the heavy steel door shut.
The lock engaged with a thunderous clang.
But it was too late.
Sophia lay in Elena's arms, blood soaking through her coat.
With trembling lips, she looked into her daughter's eyes.
"I... found you..."
She coughed, blood staining her lips.
"And... now..."
She reached weakly into her pocket and pressed a small silver key into Elena's hand.
"They... never found..."
"...the second vault."
Her hand fell limp.
The room was filled with stunned silence.
Elena looked down at the key.
It wasn't the bank key.
It was engraved with a different number.
Vault 731.
Somewhere, hidden in Ashridge, there was another vault.
And whatever it contained...
People were still willing to kill for it.
- Writer
