Chapter 13 - THE MEMORY THEY TOOK FROM ME
I backed away from Eli.
He didn’t follow.
“Tell me she’s confused.”
He said nothing.
“Tell me.”
“I carried you.”
My mother made a sound like she wanted to spit at him.
I felt sick.
“How old were you?”
“Seventeen.”
Noah frowned.
“You never told me that.”
“I never told anyone.”
Mom grabbed my hand.
“The Circle used the temple basement before Mercy had offices. Your father found out. He took you with him one night because he thought the building was empty.”
“What did I see?”
“A man begging for his life.”
My head began to hurt.
Not a normal headache.
A sharp pressure behind my eyes.
A bell.
Cold stone.
A white circle painted on the floor.
A man on his knees.
I gasped.
Images flashed.
A woman’s shoes.
Red heels.
A young Eli standing beside a door.
My father shouting my name.
Then a needle.
I grabbed the bedrail.
“No.”
Eli took one step forward.
I raised my hand.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“I was recruited as a kid,” he said. “Ward ran a youth program. Scholarships, housing, food. She found kids nobody would miss.”
“And turned you into what?”
“Whatever she needed.”
Mom whispered, “He brought you back to us.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“He took you out after the treatment. Left you at our door.”
Eli’s jaw tightened.
“I couldn’t undo what they did. I could only get you out.”
Noah stared at him.
“That’s why you watched Maya later.”
“Yes.”
I laughed bitterly.
“So everybody has been watching me since I was eight.”
Mom shook her head.
“No, sweetheart. They were waiting.”
“For what?”
She touched my locket.
“For you to remember.”
An alarm sounded in the hallway.
Noah looked toward the door.
“They found us.”
We moved fast.
Mom could barely walk, so Eli lifted her.
She resisted at first.
Then she looked at his face and stopped.
“Still trying to pay for it?” she asked.
“Every day.”
We made it to the stairwell before two security guards appeared.
Noah hit the first with a fire extinguisher.
I kicked the second in the knee and slammed the door into his face.
“Television?” Eli asked.
“Anger.”
We escaped through the kitchen and reached the maintenance truck.
As Noah drove, Mom clutched my locket.
“There was something in the stained glass,” she said.
“What?”
“Your father designed the south panel after he discovered the Circle. The pattern wasn’t religious.”
“What was it?”
“A map.”
Eli turned in his seat.
“To what?”
Mom looked at me.
“The real archive.”
Noah swore.
“The ledger is only an index.”
Mom nodded.
“And the key opens more than Box 317.”
I thought about the shattered stained glass scattered across the temple steps.
Then Mom said, “If Ward broke that window, she wasn’t trying to kill you.”
I stared at her.
“She was trying to make sure you saw what was hidden behind it.”
May you like
--- If you enjoyed the story, bookmark my site: https://vibe.treeiq.biz New stories are posted daily, so check back for updates.
