Chapter 5 - The Glass Jar
Julian scrambled out of the mattress bin on his hands and knees, choking as the caustic fumes spilled down the vent behind him. The chemical hissed as it hit the wet cotton of the old bedding, instantly melting the fabric into a smoking black sludge.
He dragged himself across the basement floor, his left arm hanging limp at his side. He didn't run for the main exit—Sterling had the keys to the heavy outer gates, and Miller was likely in on it.
He ran toward the old pharmacy vault in the back corner of the basement—a windowless concrete bunker built into the bedrock in the 1950s.
He ducked inside, slamming the heavy iron fire door behind him, and threw the manual deadbolt into place.
The room was pitch black. The smell of old formalin, rubbing alcohol, and dried lavender was thick enough to taste.
Julian pulled his flashlight from his pocket with his good hand and clicked it on. The narrow beam cut through the dust, illuminating rows of floor-to-ceiling wooden shelves stacked with dusty specimen jars and old cardboard patient files.
He slumped against the iron door, his chest heaving, his heart beating a frantic rhythm against his collarbone.
He was trapped. The vault had no second door. No windows. No vents larger than a sewer pipe.
His flashlight beam flickered, settling on a heavy wooden desk in the center of the room. On top of the desk sat a blue plastic cassette recorder from the early 1990s, its red recording light blinking steadily in the dark.
And next to the recorder sat a glass specimen jar filled with yellowed liquid.
Floating inside the jar was a small, plastic-encased USB drive, wrapped in a laminated strip of hospital ID bracelet.
Julian took three slow steps toward the desk, his boots heavy on the grit. He reached out, his trembling fingers pulling the laminated strip out of the alcohol solution.
The name printed on the band wasn't a patient's.
It read: CLARA MERCER - ADMISSION DATE: 08/01/26.
August 1st. Three days ago.
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The day Dr. Sterling had told Julian that Clara was at a summer boarding school in Vermont.
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