CHAPTER 4 – THE VIDEO THAT SHOULD NEVER EXIST
Ethan couldn't breathe.
The tiny flash drive lay frozen in his trembling palm.
PROPERTY OF ETHAN COLE.
The words burned into his mind.
Daniel grabbed his arm.
"We have to move."
"They'll be here in less than two minutes."
But Ethan didn't move.
His eyes remained fixed on the drive.
"I've never seen this before."
Daniel looked away.
"That's what scares me."
They escaped through an abandoned maintenance tunnel beneath the subway tracks.
Snow was falling harder now.
Daniel led them to an old cabin hidden deep inside Pine Ridge Forest.
It looked abandoned.
Broken windows.
A collapsing porch.
Dust covered every piece of furniture.
Yet beneath the floorboards...
Daniel revealed a secret room.
Generators hummed quietly.
Computers lined the walls.
Dozens of monitors displayed security camera feeds from across the city.
Some showed hospitals.
Others showed train stations.
Several showed Ethan's apartment.
One screen displayed a single live image.
The park.
The bench.
Exactly where Lily had first handed Ethan the package.
Daniel noticed Ethan staring.
"They've been watching you for years."
"For years?"
"Every birthday."
"Every anniversary."
"Every place Emily ever visited."
Ethan clenched his fists.
"I was never searching for Emily..."
Daniel nodded.
"They were studying you."
Lily slowly opened her eyes.
She looked exhausted.
"I'm sorry."
Ethan immediately knelt beside her.
"You don't have to apologize."
"I broke everything again."
Again.
That single word made Ethan pause.
"What do you mean... again?"
Lily bit her lip.
"I've done it before."
Daniel quietly closed his eyes.
Too late.
The secret was already slipping away.
"When?"
Ethan asked gently.
Lily whispered,
"When I was little."
"People got hurt."
"They called me a monster."
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
"My mommy never did."
"She always told me..."
"...I wasn't dangerous."
"Only frightened."
Daniel inserted the flash drive into one of the computers.
The screen remained black.
Then...
A loading symbol appeared.
Finally...
A video began playing.
Static filled the monitor.
The recording date appeared.
December 18.
Ten years ago.
Ethan's heart pounded.
The camera showed a laboratory.
White walls.
Steel doors.
Doctors wearing masks.
Someone was screaming.
A woman.
Emily.
She was strapped to a hospital bed.
"No!"
Ethan shouted.
Daniel grabbed his shoulder.
"Keep watching."
Emily wasn't screaming in pain.
She was screaming at someone standing behind the camera.
"You promised!"
"You said my husband would never remember!"
Ethan froze.
Never...
Remember?
The camera slowly turned.
The person holding it stepped in front of a mirror.
Ethan's blood turned to ice.
The reflection wasn't a stranger.
It was him.
He was wearing a white laboratory coat.
An ID badge hung around his neck.
DR. ETHAN COLE
"No..."
His knees gave out.
"That's fake."
"It has to be fake."
Daniel remained silent.
On the screen...
Dr. Ethan Cole calmly approached Emily.
"I'm sorry."
"This is the only way."
Emily cried harder.
"You said Project Mirror would save children!"
"It wasn't supposed to become this!"
The man who looked exactly like Ethan lowered a syringe.
"I know."
"But we're too late."
Emily screamed.
"I'll never forgive you!"
The syringe entered her arm.
Seconds later...
She lost consciousness.
The recording ended.
The cabin fell silent.
Only the sound of Ethan breathing filled the room.
"No..."
"I've never been a scientist."
"I've never worked in any laboratory."
Daniel finally spoke.
"Because the Ethan in that video..."
"...isn't you."
Ethan looked up slowly.
"It's your identical twin."
The room froze.
"I don't have a twin."
"You did."
"The government erased every record of his existence."
Daniel opened another file.
A classified document appeared.
PROJECT MIRROR
SUBJECTS CREATED: 2
SUBJECT E-17
SUBJECT E-18
STATUS:
Separated at birth.
One child adopted by the Cole family.
The other transferred to Project Mirror.
Ethan felt sick.
"My parents..."
"They weren't my biological parents?"
Daniel nodded.
"They were told they were adopting an orphan."
"They never knew there were two boys."
The photograph attached to the document loaded.
Two newborn babies.
Sleeping side by side.
Both wore tiny bracelets.
One read:
E-17
The other...
E-18
Lily stared at the screen.
"Which one is my daddy?"
Daniel answered quietly.
"I don't know anymore."
Suddenly...
Every monitor inside the cabin turned black.
One by one.
Then a single message appeared simultaneously across every screen.
HELLO, ETHAN.
The speakers crackled.
A familiar voice filled the room.
The younger man.
The one with Ethan's face.
"I've waited ten years for this conversation."
He smiled through the screen.
"I hope you enjoyed the video."
Ethan stepped closer.
"Who are you?"
The man laughed softly.
"I've had many names."
"The project called me E-18."
"The military called me Prototype."
"But you..."
He leaned toward the camera.
"...can call me brother."
Lily suddenly grabbed Ethan's hand.
"Daddy..."
Her voice trembled.
"He's behind us."
Every light inside the cabin went out.
The front door slowly creaked open by itself.
Heavy footsteps echoed across the wooden floor.
One...
Two...
Three...
A shadow appeared in the doorway.
Then another.
Then another.
At least twenty armed figures surrounded the cabin.
Standing at the center...
Smiling calmly in the falling snow...
Was Ethan's identical twin.
He looked directly through the broken window.
Raised one hand.
And whispered just loudly enough for Ethan to hear—
May you like
"Open the door."
"I'm here to take my daughter home."
