Mara woke to the sound of water dripping.

One drop.

Then another.

Then another.

She opened her eyes.

Darkness surrounded her.

Her head hurt, and for several seconds she couldn’t remember where she was.

Then she remembered the basement.

Elias.

The mirrors.

The creature wearing her face.

She tried to move.

Her wrists were tied.

Cold stone pressed against her back.

“Mara.”

She froze.

It was Elias.

His voice came from somewhere nearby.

“Are you awake?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t move.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re not alone.”

Mara slowly turned her head.

A faint light came from the other side of the room.

Elias was sitting against the wall.

His hands were tied too.

Between them stood a metal table.

On it was the silver moon bracelet.

Mara stared at it.

“Where are we?”

“The room beneath the room.”

“What does that mean?”

Elias looked toward the ceiling.

“We’re under the original basement.”

Mara remembered the drawings.

The underground chamber.

The place nobody had returned from unchanged.

“You brought me here.”

“No.”

“Then who did?”

Elias didn’t answer.

A soft laugh came from the darkness.

Mara’s blood went cold.

The creature stepped into the light.

It was wearing Mara’s face.

Her face.

Her hair.

Her clothes.

Even the tiny scar near her chin.

It looked exactly like her.

Except for the eyes.

They were black.

The creature smiled.

“Hello, Mara.”

Mara stared.

“You’re not real.”

The creature tilted its head.

“Neither are most of your memories.”

Elias struggled against the ropes.

“Don’t listen to it.”

The creature looked at him.

“You’ve been lying to her for twenty years.”

Mara looked at Elias.

“What does it mean?”

Elias closed his eyes.

“I should have told you.”

“Told me what?”

The creature laughed softly.

“Tell her, Elias.”

He remained silent.

Mara’s voice shook.

“Tell me.”

Elias looked at her.

“Your mother didn’t create the experiment.”

Mara frowned.

“Then who did?”

“The government.”

The creature laughed.

“Not exactly.”

Elias continued.

“It was a private research group. They were studying memory transfer.”

“Memory transfer?”

“They discovered that strong emotional memories could leave traces in physical spaces.”

Mara stared at him.

“You’re saying a room can remember?”

“Yes.”

“And that thing?”

“We don’t know what it is.”

The creature smiled.

“I know what I am.”

Everyone went silent.

“I am what your mother left behind.”

Mara looked at it.

“What?”

The creature stepped closer.

“Your mother discovered that memories could become independent.”

Elias shook his head.

“That’s impossible.”

“You’ve seen me.”

The creature touched its own face.

“She created a copy of herself.”

Mara felt sick.

“Why?”

“To protect you.”

The creature looked at Mara.

“Your mother knew the researchers wanted to use you.”

“Use me for what?”

“To create a perfect memory.”

Mara’s breathing stopped.

The creature continued.

“Your mind was different.”

“How?”

“You could remember things that hadn’t happened yet.”

Mara stared.

The photograph.

Tomorrow.

The room.

Her future.

“It wasn’t the house,” she whispered.

The creature smiled.

“It was you.”

Mara looked at Elias.

“Is that true?”

He nodded.

“Your mother discovered it when you were five.”

“Why didn’t she tell me?”

“Because the researchers wanted you.”

“Who?”

Elias looked toward the creature.

“One of them was your father.”

Mara stopped breathing.

“My father?”

She had always been told her father died before she was born.

The creature laughed.

“Your mother lied.”

“No.”

“She lied because she was afraid.”

Mara shook her head.

“My father died.”

“No.”

The creature moved closer.

“Your father is alive.”

Elias whispered, “Mara…”

She looked at him.

“Where?”

Before he could answer, the creature pointed toward the wall.

“He is here.”

Mara turned.

A section of the stone wall began moving.

A hidden door opened.

Behind it was a small room.

A man sat inside.

Older.

Weak.

Connected to machines.

Mara stared.

The man’s face was partly hidden by shadows.

But she recognized him.

The same face from the photographs.

The scarred man.

Elias.

Mara looked at Elias.

“That’s not possible.”

The man inside the room opened his eyes.

“Mara.”

She stopped breathing.

The voice was unfamiliar.

But the face wasn’t.

Elias looked toward the man.

“Don’t.”

The man smiled.

“I’m sorry.”

Mara stared at him.

“Who are you?”

The man slowly removed a mask from his face.

The scar across his cheek was fake.

Underneath it was another face.

Older.

But familiar.

Mara had seen that face in photographs.

Her mother’s wedding photograph.

A picture she had kept hidden in an old box.

Her father.

Mara whispered:

“Dad?”

The man nodded.

Tears filled his eyes.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

Mara couldn’t speak.

Twenty years of questions suddenly became one unbearable truth.

Her father was alive.

And he had been beneath the house all this time.

“Why?” she finally asked.

He looked at Elias.

“Because we failed.”

“Who?”

“Your mother. Me. Elias.”

Mara looked between them.

“What did you fail to do?”

Her father took a slow breath.

“Destroy the door.”

Mara looked at the creature.

“That door?”

“No.”

He pointed downward.

“Something deeper.”

A terrible sound shook the room.

The floor trembled.

Dust fell from the ceiling.

Mara’s father looked frightened.

“It knows you’re here.”

“What knows?”

“The original.”

Mara stared.

“The original what?”

Her father whispered:

“The first memory.”

The creature suddenly screamed.

Its face began changing.

Mara saw her own face disappear.

Then her mother’s.

Then her father’s.

Then dozens of other faces.

The creature collapsed onto the floor.

Elias shouted:

“Get away from it!”

Mara crawled backward.

The creature’s body twisted.

Then it stood.

But this time it had no face.

Only smooth pale skin.

It spoke without moving its mouth.

“You should have stayed forgotten.”

The basement door exploded open.

A wave of cold air rushed through the room.

Mara’s father shouted:

“Run!”

Mara followed Elias toward the passage.

But before she reached the door, she heard her mother’s voice.

“Mara.”

She stopped.

The voice came from beneath the floor.

Not the creature.

Not the recording.

Not a memory.

Her mother.

“Don’t leave me.”

Mara looked down.

A small crack had appeared in the stone floor.

A warm golden light shone through it.

Her mother’s voice came again.

“I’m beneath you.”

Mara knelt.

She touched the crack.

A hand touched hers from the other side.

A real hand.

Warm.

Alive.

Mara began crying.

“Mom?”

The hand squeezed hers.

Then her mother whispered:

“I need you to open the final door.”

Elias shouted:

“No!”

Mara looked at him.

“Why?”

His face was filled with fear.

“Because once that door opens, there is no way back.”

Mara stared at the crack.

Her mother was alive.

After twenty years.

And she was asking Mara to free her.

Mara slowly reached for the silver moon bracelet.

The moment she touched it, the entire basement shook.

A hidden symbol appeared on the floor.

A circle.

A crescent moon.

And beneath it, a single sentence:

ONLY THE ONE WHO REMEMBERS CAN OPEN THE DOOR.

Mara understood.

The memories hadn’t been erased.

They had been locked away.

Inside her.

She closed her eyes.

And remembered everything.

The night her mother disappeared.

The experiment.

The creature.

Her father.

Elias.

The hidden rooms.

The first door.

And the final truth.

Her mother hadn’t been trying to escape the creature.

She had been keeping it trapped.

Mara opened her eyes.

She looked at Elias.

“You’ve been protecting the wrong door.”

Elias stared.

“What?”

Mara smiled through her tears.

“The creature isn’t beneath the house.”

She pointed toward the floor.

“It’s inside the walls.”

The house suddenly became silent.

Then every wall in the basement began whispering.

Hundreds of voices.

All saying the same thing.

Mara.

The floor split open.

A staircase appeared beneath them.

At the bottom stood a final door.

A silver moon was carved into it.

And beside the door stood Mara’s mother.

Alive.

Waiting.

But behind her was something enormous.

Something with hundreds of eyes.

Her mother looked at Mara.

“Don’t open the door.”

Mara froze.

“But you told me to.”

Her mother’s face filled with terror.

“I wasn’t the one who told you.”

The lights went out.

The creature laughed.

And Mara realized the voice beneath the floor had never belonged to her mother.

It had belonged to the thing behind the final door.

End of Chapter 5