Welome Home

The air inside the facility was unnervingly still. The hum of distant machinery vibrated through the walls, but there were no voices, no hurried footsteps, no signs of life, only the sterile scent of antiseptic and something faintly metallic. The long, dimly lit corridor stretched ahead of them, pristine white tiles beneath their feet reflecting the cold glow of the overhead lights.

Jessica took a slow breath, forcing her heartbeat to steady. The familiarity of the place clawed at the edges of her mind, stirring fragments of memories she had tried to bury. This wasn’t just another Vanguard facility. She had an overwhelming feeling that she had been here before.

As they advanced, flashes of a different time surfaced in Jessica’s mind. The same corridors, but darker. A child’s footsteps echoing. The weight of a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t be afraid.”

She blinked hard, shaking her head. No time for ghosts. Not now.

Leanna’s voice was barely above a whisper. "Are you okay?"

Jessica hesitated. "Yeah. Let’s keep moving."

They rounded a corner and stopped abruptly. Rows of reinforced glass chambers lined the walls, each one occupied. Inside the first cell was a boy no older than ten, his arms covered in faint scars, his eyes vacant as he stared at nothing. The next chamber held a woman, her body skeletal, tubes attached to her arms pumping in an unknown substance.

Olivia swallowed hard. "Oh my God."

Hannah turned away, her face pale. "They’re still experimenting."

Jessica’s hands clenched into fists. These weren’t just test subjects. They were failed experiments.

Kevin pressed his palm against the glass of another cell. Inside, a man sat motionless, his chest rising and falling in slow, mechanical precision. His skin was an unnatural shade of pale, his veins faintly glowing beneath the surface.

"They’re keeping them alive," Kevin whispered. "But for what?"

Jessica moved forward, stopping at the largest chamber at the end of the hall. The glass was darker, almost opaque, but as she stepped closer, the lights inside flickered on. A mirror image of herself stared back at her.

Jessica staggered back, her breath catching in her throat. The woman inside the chamber was not an exact duplicate, but close enough to make her blood run cold. She had the same features, the same build, but different eyes. The woman’s eyes were vacant, yet aware.

Leanna moved beside her. "Jess…"

The figure inside the chamber tilted its head, then moved closer, placing its hand against the glass. Jessica didn’t want to, but her body moved on instinct, raising her own hand until only the glass separated them.

The clone smiled. “Welcome home.”

Jessica flinched like she’d been touched. The words were there, too close, too familiar, threading straight into her skull like a fine wire. She jerked back instinctively, heart kicking hard against her ribs, eyes scanning the empty air between them. There was no sound, There was no movement. The thing hadn’t spoken. Its mouth hadn’t even moved.

Jesus Christ.

Jessica's pulse scrambled for a beat too long. She stood frozen, waiting for the echo that never came. Looking for proof that it had been real, but the silence pressed in around her, heavy and unbroken. The clone just watched her, patiently smiling. That’s when it hit her in a cold and crawling way. The voice hadn’t come from behind the glass. It had come from inside her head.

Jessica stumbled backward, clutching her temples as a searing pain lanced through her skull. Images flooded her mind, a tidal wave of forgotten memories crashing into her.

 - A child being led down these same corridors, hand in hand with a faceless scientist.
- Waking up in a glass chamber, crying, screaming for someone who never came.
 - A voice whispering, ‘You are the beginning. But you will not be the last.'
 - A different memory—a young Jason, but the details are… wrong. Was Jason ever real? Or was Jason the experiment?

A soft beep echoed through the hallway bringing Jessica back to the present. It was, followed by the metallic hiss of a door unlocking. Jessica barely had time to register the movement before armed guards stepped through, weapons raised.

A voice that was smooth and calculated cut through the air. "I was wondering when you’d find your way back to us."

Jessica turned, still dazed from the visions. A man in a lab coat, his hair streaked with silver, studied her with the curiosity of a scientist observing a specimen.

"Jessica Carter. Or should I say… Subject Zero?"

Leanna, Kevin, Olivia, and Hannah stepped in front of Jessica instinctively, but the scientist merely smiled.

"It doesn’t matter if you run," he continued. "You were never meant to escape. You were always meant to return."

Jessica’s hands trembled, but not with fear. With rage. She finally understood. Jason Carter never existed. Jason was the experiment. Jessica was the original.

"Then you don’t know me at all," she whispered.

The alarms blared. The facility was going into lockdown. Jessica clenched her fists. No more running. No more fear. This ends now. And with that, she charged.