CHAPTER 22: THE WOMAN BELOW
Ava ran toward the staircase.
Ethan caught her before she reached the first step.
“Mommy!”
The singing stopped.
A woman whispered from below.
“Ava?”
Ethan’s entire body went cold.
Claire had used that exact tone when waking their daughter in the morning.
“Claire?” he called.
Footsteps approached.
A figure appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
She wore a gray hospital coat. Her dark hair had grown past her shoulders. A pale scar crossed the side of her face.
But it was Claire.
Ava pulled away from Ethan and ran down the steps.
Claire dropped to her knees.
They collided in the middle of the staircase.
Ava cried against her mother’s chest.
“You came back.”
Claire held her so tightly that her hands shook.
“I never stopped trying.”
Ethan descended slowly.
Four years of grief, anger, and unanswered questions stood between them.
“You were alive.”
Claire looked at him through tears.
“I was trapped.”
“With my father?”
“Samuel saved me after the staged crash. Then Eleanor found us.”
The timer above them continued.
11:59.
Samuel’s voice came through the speakers.
“Close the upper door.”
Ethan looked toward Claire.
“Where is he?”
“Deeper inside.”
Ava touched her mother’s face.
“Why didn’t you call us?”
“They told me Ava would die if I contacted you.”
Eleanor appeared on the scoreboard again.
“You should have stayed in your room, Claire.”
Claire stood and pulled Ava behind her.
“You cannot control us anymore.”
Eleanor pressed one of the red switches.
The stadium shook.
A section of the upper seats collapsed.
Concrete crashed onto the field.
“Thirty seconds,” Eleanor said. “Then the river takes everything.”
Claire looked at Ethan.
“Locker 927 is not a locker.”
“What is it?”
“The numbers are coordinates for the Northstar chamber.”
She took the brass key.
“There is an emergency tunnel, but Samuel cannot open it alone.”
“Why?”
“He is connected to the system.”
The final ten seconds appeared on the scoreboard.
Claire pushed the key into a hidden lock along the staircase wall.
Nothing happened.
Ava touched her necklace against it.
The door opened.
The timer reached zero.
But the stadium did not explode.
Instead, a different message appeared:
REMOTE DETONATION OVERRIDDEN BY SUBJECT N-01.
Ward stared at the code.
“N-01 was the first Northstar child.”
Claire looked deeper into the tunnel.
“No.”
May you like
A shadow stood behind the glass wall below.
It belonged to Samuel Mercer.
