CHAPTER 4 — THE BROTHER THEY ERASED
CHAPTER 4 — THE BROTHER THEY ERASED
The gunshot echoed through the fourth basement.
For one terrifying second, I couldn't see anything.
I heard Marcus shout.
Then a body hit the floor.
Daniel screamed.
Another gunshot tore through the darkness.
“DOWN!”
Marcus grabbed my shoulder and forced me behind the metal desk.
A bullet struck the wall above us.
Concrete exploded across my hair.
I covered Daniel with my body.
“Stay down!”
“I can't see!”
“Neither can I!”
Then emergency lights flickered on.
Everything changed in an instant.
One of Harrison's men was lying on the floor.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Marcus had tackled him before he could fire again.
Harrison was gone.
I looked toward the doorway.
Empty.
“He ran,” Marcus said.
“No.”
I looked at the open door.
“He didn't run.”
Marcus stared at me.
“What?”
“He wanted us to think he did.”
Daniel was trembling.
I grabbed his hand.
“Can you walk?”
He nodded.
“Then we're leaving.”
We ran.
The corridor outside the room was empty.
But the lights were blinking.
Red.
Every few seconds.
Like a warning.
Marcus led us toward the staircase.
Daniel kept looking behind him.
“What's wrong?”
“He'll come back.”
“Who?”
“Harrison.”
“Why?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Because he doesn't want me alive.”
I stopped.
“Why?”
Daniel looked at me.
“Because I remember.”
“Remember what?”
“What happened to Dad.”
My heart tightened.
“You saw him?”
Daniel nodded.
“I was there.”
The words hit me harder than the gunshot.
“You saw my father die?”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
He looked toward the darkness behind us.
“I saw him survive.”
I couldn't understand.
“Then tell me.”
Daniel's breathing became faster.
“Not here.”
We kept moving.
We reached the third basement.
Marcus locked the security door behind us.
Then another.
Then another.
Only after we reached the second basement did Daniel finally stop.
He leaned against the wall.
His hands were shaking.
I crouched beside him.
“Daniel.”
He looked at me.
“You said Dad survived.”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Three years.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
“In this house?”
Daniel nodded.
“Victor kept him underground.”
I felt sick.
“Why?”
“Because Dad knew about the program.”
“What program?”
Daniel looked at me.
“The children.”
I stared at him.
“What children?”
“All of us.”
He closed his eyes.
“Victor didn't just study us.”
He whispered:
“He created us.”
We found an abandoned office on the second basement level.
Marcus checked the room before allowing us inside.
There were old filing cabinets.
A broken desk.
A dead computer.
I locked the door.
Then I turned toward Daniel.
“Start from the beginning.”
Daniel sat down.
He looked exhausted.
“I don't remember my mother.”
I sat across from him.
“I only remember Dad.”
“Alexander?”
“Yes.”
“He used to come at night.”
“How old were you?”
“Five.”
My throat tightened.
“Five?”
Daniel nodded.
“He would bring food.”
“Toys?”
“Sometimes.”
“Books?”
“One book.”
“What book?”
Daniel smiled faintly.
“A children's book about a boy who lived in a lighthouse.”
I remembered it.
My father had read the same story to me.
Every night.
I hadn't thought about it in years.
Daniel continued.
“Dad told me there was a girl outside.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“That she was my sister.”
Tears filled his eyes.
“He said you were brave.”
I looked away.
My father had never told me I had a brother.
Not once.
Daniel continued.
“He said if I ever got out, I should find you.”
“Why didn't you?”
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
“They caught me.”
My fists tightened.
“Who?”
“The Blackwood doctors.”
I looked at Marcus.
His expression was grim.
“What did they do to you?”
Daniel pulled down the collar of his shirt.
There was a thin scar beneath his ear.
Then another along his shoulder.
And several small marks across his ribs.
“They tested me.”
“For what?”
“Everything.”
His voice became quieter.
“Blood.”
“Memory.”
“Fear.”
“Pain.”
I couldn't speak.
Daniel continued.
“They wanted to know how long a child could survive without seeing sunlight.”
My stomach turned.
“Why?”
“Because Victor wanted to know if people could be controlled.”
I closed my eyes.
This wasn't a family scandal.
It wasn't an inheritance dispute.
It was something far worse.
Victor Blackwood had built a system around human beings.
Children.
And my father had discovered it.
Daniel looked at me.
“Dad tried to destroy everything.”
“How?”
“He copied the files.”
“Where are they?”
Daniel hesitated.
“He gave them to someone.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“Daniel.”
“I really don't know.”
He looked terrified.
“Dad said if anything happened to him, I had to remember one name.”
“What name?”
Daniel stared directly at me.
“Alexander said the name was yours.”
My heart stopped.
“My name?”
“He said everything would eventually come back to you.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel looked at him.
“I don't know.”
Then suddenly the lights flickered.
Everyone froze.
A sound came from the hallway.
Footsteps.
Marcus raised his weapon.
“Someone's coming.”
Daniel's face changed.
“That's him.”
I whispered:
“Harrison?”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
“Then who?”
He looked at the door.
“The first one.”
“What first one?”
“The first Blackwood.”
The door opened.
A man stood in the hallway.
Tall.
Gray-haired.
Dressed in a dark coat.
His face was calm.
Almost emotionless.
He looked at me.
Then at Daniel.
Then at Marcus.
“You found him.”
I raised my weapon.
“Who are you?”
The man smiled faintly.
“My name is Jonathan.”
Damian's older brother.
The name from the files.
The man supposedly dead for twenty-five years.
I stared at him.
“You're Jonathan Blackwood.”
“Yes.”
“You're alive.”
He nodded.
“Barely.”
Marcus kept his gun trained on him.
“Stay where you are.”
Jonathan didn't move.
“I didn't come to hurt you.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To finish what your father started.”
“My father?”
Jonathan looked at me.
“Alexander was my friend.”
I lowered my weapon slightly.
“You knew him?”
“For seventeen years.”
“Then tell me what happened.”
Jonathan looked toward Daniel.
“He deserves to know.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Why didn't you save me?”
Jonathan's expression cracked.
For the first time, I saw pain.
“I tried.”
“You left me.”
“I was captured.”
“You left me.”
Jonathan closed his eyes.
“I was beaten almost to death.”
Daniel turned away.
“You should have come back.”
“I did.”
“When?”
“Every year.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Why didn't I see you?”
“Because Victor made sure you wouldn't.”
Jonathan stepped inside.
“He told you I was dead.”
Daniel's eyes filled with tears.
“He told me everyone was dead.”
Jonathan nodded.
“That was the point.”
I looked between them.
“Why would Victor erase his own son?”
Jonathan answered immediately.
“Because I refused to become him.”
Silence.
Jonathan continued.
“I discovered the program when I was twenty-two.”
“You were involved?”
“I was born into it.”
He looked at the floor.
“My father wanted to turn the Blackwood family into something stronger than a dynasty.”
“What?”
“A bloodline.”
I felt cold.
“He believed certain genetic traits could produce people with exceptional intelligence, physical endurance, emotional resistance and obedience.”
Daniel whispered:
“He called us subjects.”
Jonathan nodded.
“Victor called you investments.”
I stared at him.
“And Damian?”
“Subject 002.”
“Me?”
“Subject 001.”
“Daniel?”
“Subject 003.”
I couldn't breathe.
Jonathan continued.
“You weren't selected randomly.”
“Why us?”
“Because of your father.”
I froze.
“Alexander?”
“Yes.”
“He had something Victor wanted.”
“What?”
Jonathan looked at me.
“Your father's blood.”
My face went numb.
“What?”
“Alexander carried a rare genetic mutation.”
Marcus frowned.
“What kind?”
Jonathan shook his head.
“The scientific details don't matter.”
“They matter to me.”
“They mattered to Victor.”
Jonathan moved closer.
“He believed Alexander's genes could produce children with unusual resistance to certain diseases and neurological stress.”
I stared at Daniel.
“So we were created because of him?”
Jonathan nodded.
“Not exactly.”
He looked at me.
“You were created because Victor wanted Alexander's bloodline.”
I felt sick.
“My mother?”
“Was chosen.”
“Chosen?”
“Yes.”
“Was she forced?”
Jonathan didn't answer.
I already knew.
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“Your mother didn't know everything.”
I swallowed.
“Did my father know?”
“At first, no.”
“And when he found out?”
“He tried to destroy the program.”
I looked at Daniel.
“And that's when they took him?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't he take us?”
Jonathan looked at me.
“Because he could only save one child.”
I felt my chest tighten.
“Me.”
“Yes.”
Daniel looked away.
I felt tears forming.
“He chose you because Victor had already marked you for termination.”
I stared at him.
“Termination?”
Jonathan nodded.
“Your genetic profile didn't behave as Victor expected.”
“What does that mean?”
“You developed resistance to the conditioning methods.”
I remembered what the file had said.
SUBJECT 001 — NONCOMPLIANT.
Jonathan continued.
“Victor became afraid of you.”
I almost laughed.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you couldn't be controlled.”
The room fell silent.
Jonathan looked at Daniel.
“But Daniel could.”
Daniel's eyes widened.
“What?”
“They found a different trait in you.”
“What trait?”
Jonathan's expression became grim.
“Memory.”
Daniel frowned.
“I don't understand.”
“You remember things other people forget.”
Daniel stared at him.
“That's why they kept you alive.”
I looked at Daniel.
He was suddenly crying.
Jonathan continued.
“You were their living archive.”
Everything clicked.
The strange scars.
The years underground.
The endless tests.
They weren't trying to make Daniel stronger.
They were trying to make him remember.
Every conversation.
Every face.
Every order.
Every crime.
Victor had created a witness who couldn't forget.
I whispered:
“And my father knew.”
Jonathan nodded.
“He knew Daniel could expose everything.”
“So why didn't he?”
“Because Daniel was still trapped.”
My fists tightened.
“What happened to Alexander?”
Jonathan looked at me.
“He escaped once.”
“When?”
“Twelve years ago.”
“The year I was told he died.”
“Yes.”
“He escaped?”
“Yes.”
“Then what happened?”
Jonathan's voice became quieter.
“He came back for you.”
My heart shattered.
“He found me?”
“He saw you.”
“Where?”
“At your school.”
I covered my mouth.
“Why didn't he come to me?”
“Because Victor was watching.”
Jonathan continued.
“He stood across the street.”
“You saw him?”
“I was there.”
“What did he do?”
“He cried.”
I couldn't stop the tears.
“My father watched me from across the street?”
“Yes.”
“And he didn't come to me?”
“He wanted to.”
“Why didn't he?”
“Because Victor had a gun pointed at your classroom.”
I froze.
Jonathan looked at me.
“Your father chose to stay away because he believed that if he approached you, Victor would kill you.”
I closed my eyes.
All those years...
I had thought my father didn't love me.
He had been watching me.
Protecting me.
From a distance.
Jonathan reached into his coat.
He removed a small envelope.
“This was for you.”
I stared at it.
“What is it?”
“A letter.”
“From Alexander?”
“Yes.”
I took it.
My hands trembled.
The envelope had my name on it.
ELENA.
I opened it.
Inside was one page.
Only one sentence.
I read it.
And everything inside me stopped.
If you are reading this, then Daniel is alive, and the man who killed me has finally made his first mistake.
I looked up.
“Jonathan.”
“Yes?”
“Who killed my father?”
Jonathan stared at me.
Then glanced toward the door.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because the man who ordered it is still looking for Daniel.”
A sudden explosion shook the building.
The walls trembled.
The lights went out.
Daniel screamed.
Marcus grabbed his weapon.
Jonathan looked toward the ceiling.
“They found us.”
“Who?”
Jonathan's face turned pale.
“The Blackwood security division.”
Another explosion.
Closer.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Jonathan grabbed Daniel.
“We have less than two minutes.”
“To do what?”
“Get out.”
“Where?”
Jonathan looked at me.
“There is one tunnel beneath this building.”
“Where does it lead?”
“To the old Blackwood estate.”
I stared at him.
“The house?”
“No.”
Jonathan's voice dropped.
“The house your father bought before he disappeared.”
My heart stopped.
“My father owned another house?”
Jonathan nodded.
“And that's where he hid the evidence.”
The third explosion shook the basement.
Jonathan opened a concealed door behind the filing cabinets.
Darkness waited beyond it.
He looked at me.
“Come with me.”
I looked at Daniel.
Then Marcus.
Then the letter in my hand.
For twelve years, I had believed my father was dead.
Now I knew he had been alive.
He had watched me.
He had protected me.
And he had left behind a secret powerful enough to terrify the Blackwoods.
I stepped into the tunnel.
But before I followed Jonathan, I looked back at the laboratory.
At the files.
At the photographs.
At the evidence of everything they had done.
I knew one thing now.
I wasn't running away.
I was going back for the truth.
And I wasn't going alone.
The tunnel stretched beneath the earth.
We walked for nearly twenty minutes.
Nobody spoke.
Daniel stayed beside me.
His hand never left mine.
Then we saw light.
Jonathan pushed open a rusted metal door.
We emerged into a forest.
A large abandoned mansion stood beyond the trees.
Its windows were dark.
Its roof was damaged.
Vines covered the walls.
I stared at it.
“That's my father's house?”
Jonathan nodded.
“He bought it under another name.”
“Why?”
“To hide from Victor.”
I walked toward the front door.
A strange feeling came over me.
Like I had been here before.
I touched the handle.
The door opened.
Inside was dust.
Old furniture.
Broken paintings.
And photographs.
Hundreds of them.
My childhood.
My mother.
Daniel.
My father.
I walked deeper.
Then I saw a wall covered with photographs.
Every year of my life.
Five years old.
Six.
Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
Eleven.
Twelve.
Thirteen.
Fourteen.
Fifteen.
Sixteen.
Seventeen.
Eighteen.
Nineteen.
Twenty.
Every year.
Every birthday.
Every school ceremony.
Every moment I had believed nobody cared enough to remember.
My father had photographed them all.
I touched one picture.
My eighteenth birthday.
He had been standing across the street.
Watching.
I began to cry.
“He never left me.”
Daniel stood beside me.
“No.”
“He was there.”
“Yes.”
Then Marcus noticed something.
“There.”
He pointed toward the center of the wall.
One photograph was different.
It showed my father standing beside a man.
I stared at the man's face.
My blood went cold.
I knew him.
Everyone knew him.
The man was standing beside Senator Harold Crane.
And underneath the photograph was a handwritten note.
THE MAN WHO ORDERED THE HIT.
I stepped closer.
But before I could touch it, a phone rang somewhere inside the mansion.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Jonathan's face changed.
He whispered:
“Don't answer.”
The phone continued ringing.
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because that phone has been disconnected for twelve years.”
The ringing stopped.
Then the answering machine activated by itself.
Static filled the room.
A man's voice emerged.
Calm.
Deep.
Familiar.
“Hello, Elena.”
I froze.
It was the voice from the recording.
The voice of Victor Blackwood.
But Victor was dead.
The recording continued.
“If you've found Daniel, then you've already found the house.”
A pause.
“I knew you would.”
I looked at Jonathan.
His face was white.
Victor continued.
“But there is something your father never told you.”
Another pause.
“You were never Subject 001.”
My heart stopped.
Victor laughed softly.
“Daniel was never Subject 003.”
The room went silent.
Then came the final sentence.
“The real Subject 001 is still alive.”
The recording ended.
Daniel looked at me.
Jonathan stepped backward.
May you like
And somewhere upstairs...
a door slowly opened.
