Chapter 14

When I pulled myself up through the trapdoor and emerged into the room, I was panting heavily, but Farah pointed at the opening in the ground I’d just come from.

“We need to cover it again.”

I stared at her, not being able to process her words, and just stood there as she repeated herself. She frowned.

“Yuna…”

She stepped over and put her hand on my shoulder.

“Help me, we are almost there."

She took the torch from my clenched fist, and I didn’t dare to resist as she pulled it from me.

“It’s okay, let's cover it and go from here."

She put her arm around me, and I stiffened. Why did she care? I... I wasn’t real. I’d seen those faces, they looked like me…almost... Like the sister I never had. Instinctively, my hand went to my face to trace my jawline. Was it really mine? Had it always been so soft and round?

“Yuna, no one can decide if you are real except yourself.”

Her hand stroked my back.

"B-but…"

I shivered and leaned into her.

“You are real to me,” she said softly, ruffling my hair. “It will be okay. We will go back, rest, and everything will be fine."

She looked away, but I wanted so badly to believe her words that I accepted them even if I knew they were a lie.

We covered the trapdoor, and she took our hands and led us to the window we had used to enter. I sighed with relief, seeing the clear sky on the other side. 'It will be okay, it will be okay,' I repeated to myself as we walked back to the mansion.

“If anyone asks, tell them we were stargazing,” she said.

“What, what if they already know…?”

She shook her head.

“I don’t think they do. They could easily have taken us down there if they knew. There are students in the mansion and other people. We will be safe there.”

She halted and turned to us.

“It will be okay. We will get inside and go to your room as if nothing happened, okay?"

“How did you know…?", Xiaolian whispered, looking down at her feet.

Farah looked away.

“I will tell you when we are inside…"

Tell us what…? What did she know? Why did her eyes look like that…? Why was my aunt…? Why had those bodies looked like family I’d never had…?

"Yuna… You are real to me, both of you are. I shouldn’t have taken you there. I’m sorry, I screwed up. I didn’t know what else I could do. We don't have much time, I just tried to protect you.”

She took our hands and gently pulled us towards the mansion.

“Come…”

We entered through the back door, and I was almost blinded by the light inside. I blinked, and when my vision adjusted, I saw Farah watching us. Her face was dirty, and I was sure we didn’t look any better. What if someone saw us like this? What if Madam Faber…?

I shivered at the thought and tried to wipe my face with the sleeve of my jacket, and Farah and Xiaolian did the same. We brushed off our clothes and then headed down the empty hallway. It was late, so we might be lucky and go unnoticed, I tried to tell myself.

‘We’d been stargazing… We’d been stargazing’, I repeated in my mind, dreading that my mind would go blank if someone suddenly asked me where we had been. We had almost reached the hall without meeting anyone, and I could see the staircase at the other end of it. Almost there… Almost there.

Suddenly, Madame Faber walked out from the hallway leading to the cafeteria, holding her phone. I froze as her cold blue eyes carefully scanned us, but then she smiled and walked over.

“It is such a lovely night, but you should be more careful.”

She paused and looked at us, and I shivered. Did she know …? Was this a warning? Or… My mind flooded me with countless possibilities as my heart pounded in my chest, and I gasped for air.

“The nights are chilly here… Yuna…”

She turned to look at me before reaching out and putting her hand on my forehead, and I froze under her touch. It felt so familiar, even if I couldn’t explain why.

“You have a fever, please be careful. The semester will start soon, and it would be so unfortunate if you were to fall ill and miss your classes."

My body bowed at her words, following a habit that was so ingrained in me that I wasn’t even aware of it.

"I...I’m sorry,” I managed to whisper, hoping she would turn her gaze away.

“Go and rest. I know you are still young, but you need to take care of yourself…”

She glanced at her phone before turning to Farah and Xiaolian.

“The same advice goes to you, too, my ladies."

I heard their voices respond in unison, and she gave us one last look before wishing us good night and continuing in the opposite direction. She hadn’t noticed… She hadn’t noticed anything…right?

We looked at each other, and once Madame Faber was out of sight, we rushed up the staircase, and only when we stood in front of the door to our room did I dare to take a breath. We quickly went inside, closing the heavy wooden door behind us, and sat down on the floor, as none of us dared to sit on the bed with our dirty clothes.

I looked at Farah.

“Tell us,” I whispered.

She sighed and looked at us.

“You saw it, right…?”

I shivered as the memories flooded my mind.

“What... What are they doing?”

Why was my aunt there…? How did Farah know about it…? Who...who was I...?

“I… I don’t know. Not exactly…”, Farah murmured, looking away.

Xiaolian forced a smile on her face and reached out to touch her cheek.

“You are bad at lying, you know."

Or was it really Xiaolian who did it? Or someone else…? The gesture felt so familiar, and I was sure I had done it countless times before, even if I knew it wasn’t true. Yet those memories felt so real that I couldn’t distinguish between them and my own. What if I was disappearing…? What if I became one of them…? Was that why?

I glanced at Farah.

“Why did you tell me to stay away from her?”

She sighed.

“They... They harvest people’s memories, or maybe souls, in this case. When someone is about to die, then, in rare cases, the soul wakes up, or enters Alpha, as they call it, and it’s able to alter reality. You must have heard about those miraculous stories when someone survives when they shouldn’t have…”

She shivered and looked down.

“They want to get control of that power and use it to create a perfect world."

Suddenly, all those conversations with my aunt flashed through my mind: curing illness, upgrading humankind, achieving immortality, and the full potential of humankind.

What had she done to me…? To us… I reached out and took Xiaolian’s hand, and she leaned closer, filling the air with the soft scent of roses. Farah shuffled closer to the wall, turning her gaze away.

“They looked for a soul on the brink of entering alpha, and when they found Yuna, they cut away your soul from your physical body. They sliced it into two, transferring the bigger part back to you, while the other…”

She glanced at Xiaolian.

“...they placed into a body created from your essence.”

She shivered before continuing,

“But the other body couldn't survive with such a small amount of soul, and they…filled it with the remains from other souls.”

Xiaolian gasped and let go of my hand, frantically patting her body as if trying to locate all those pieces as Farah continued,

“They brought you together, hoping you would get to know each other, and when the bond is strong enough, the two pieces of the soul will merge, entering the alpha state.”

She hesitated.

“The bodies in those tanks are also created from your essence, and because of that, they believe they will be able to transfer your soul to them, letting them keep containers of the alpha stage that they can use to alter reality at will.”

We froze as the silence filled the room. Farah looked at us, and her body stiffened as she got up.

“You should probably leave this place,” she said with a frown and walked to the door.