Chapter 64 —
Lyra's POV
I didn't tell Rael I was leaving.
Because if I had, he would've stopped me.
Or worse—
He would've come with me.
And right now, I needed answers more than protection.
The black Mercedes remained three cars ahead.
Aren Blackwood drove like a man who expected to be followed.
Calm.
Measured.
Almost deliberately slow.
Which meant one thing.
Either he had no idea I was behind him.
Or—
He wanted me to be.
Neither possibility comforted me.
The city disappeared gradually.
Steel towers gave way to empty roads.
Then forests.
Then silence.
By the time Aren turned onto an unmarked road hidden between dense trees, I already knew this wasn't a coincidence.
No one came here accidentally.
I parked several hundred meters away.
The air was cold.
Too cold for early autumn.
Or maybe the unease inside me simply refused to let me feel anything else.
Ahead stood a massive structure.
Abandoned.
Forgotten.
Its iron gates hung crooked.
Windows shattered.
Nature had begun reclaiming the building.
But not fast enough.
Because beneath the decay—
I recognized something.
Fear.
My pulse stumbled.
I had never been here.
I was certain of it.
So why did it feel like coming home?
I hated that thought instantly.
Aren stepped out of his car.
For several seconds, he simply stood there staring at the building.
His expression wasn't cold.
It wasn't arrogant.
It was grief.
Pure grief.
Then he walked inside.
I waited exactly sixty seconds before following.
The entrance doors creaked open.
Dust filled the air.
The smell hit first.
Antiseptic.
Old.
Faded.
But unmistakable.
Hospital.
Laboratory.
Experimentation.
My stomach turned.
The hallway stretched endlessly.
White walls.
White floors.
White doors.
White.
White.
White.
My vision blurred.
A sharp pain exploded behind my eyes.
Children screaming.
Needles.
A little girl crying.
"Please don't take my sister..."
I staggered.
No.
No.
No.
I forced myself forward.
At the end of the corridor, light spilled from an open room.
Voices.
I approached silently.
Aren stood inside.
Alone.
Facing a wall.
I couldn't see his expression.
But I heard him.
"Why did it have to be her?"
Silence.
Then—
"You promised she'd never remember."
My heart stopped.
Her.
Me.
Suddenly, Aren turned.
Instinctively, I stepped back into the shadows.
His footsteps approached.
Closer.
Closer.
Then stopped.
For one terrible second, I thought he'd found me.
But instead—
He whispered quietly into the empty hallway.
"If you're watching, this ends soon."
Then he left.
I waited until his footsteps disappeared.
Only then did I enter the room.
And froze.
Files covered every surface.
Medical charts.
Photographs.
Research reports.
My photographs.
Hundreds of them.
Childhood.
Teenage years.
Present day.
Photos taken from impossible angles.
Some had dates.
Others had notes.
Subject 07.
Memory instability increasing.
Emotional attachment to Subject K progressing faster than expected.
My blood turned ice-cold.
Subject K.
Kieller.
I grabbed another file.
Inside was a list.
My breathing stopped.
PROJECT ECHO
Subject 01 — Deceased
Subject 02 — Missing
Subject 03 — Terminated
Subject 04 — Deceased
Subject 05 — Unstable
Subject 06 — Unknown
Subject 07 — LYRA VALE
Status: ACTIVE
Below it—
Another name.
Partially burned.
Only one word remained visible.
ALLY
The folder slipped from my hands.
My sister.
She had been here.
She had been part of this.
Suddenly—
A loud click echoed behind me.
I spun.
A projector had switched on by itself.
Static filled the wall.
Then—
A video began.
A little girl appeared on the screen.
Dark hair.
Wide frightened eyes.
Me.
I couldn't have been older than six.
The child looked directly into the camera.
And spoke.
"Mom said if I forget everything, it means the monsters won."
My knees nearly gave out.
The child continued.
"If you're watching this..."
Tears filled her eyes.
"...please find Ally."
The screen abruptly turned black.
A single sentence appeared.
THE QUEEN REMEMBERS.
And somewhere inside the building—
A door slammed shut.
I wasn't alone anymore.