The sound of the shot broke it all. Ava's ears were ringing, her vision blurring as the men in their suits pulled her through the narrow doorway. She struggled, trying to see Adrian on the floor, smoke curling in the air but she couldn't tell if he stirred.
Her scream tore from her throat, silenced by the gag, echoing down the tunnel as the door clanged shut behind her.
They did not stop. They drug her through a labyrinth of grey corridors, illuminated by dim fluorescent lights, their polished shoes echoing off the concrete. Every turn was the same damp concrete walls, low ceiling, no windows, no exit.
Her wrists ached where the ropes dug into her skin. She stumbled, fell, but they just kept on dragging.
When it finally stopped, one of them pulled out a keycard and opened a metal door. The sound of air hissing out signaled the seal being broken, and Ava was shoved in.
The room was lit up. Too bright.
All glass. Walls, floor, ceiling clear panels, clean white light from above. And at its center, one chair.
Ava fell to her knees, panting. The men left in silence, the door hissing shut behind them.
She was alone.
There was a long moment of nothing but the sound of her own blood beating in her head. She pulled on the ropes, but they held too tight. Panic crept up her chest. Adrian… don't be dead.
Then a voice.
"You shouldn't struggle with the restraints."
Ava bristled. The voice came from behind, out of sight, silky smooth, like silk on glass.
"Where is my brother?" she snarled, her voice rough.
There was a pause. Then the lights dimmed a notch, and a shadow moved behind one of the glass screens. A figure stood on the other side, hands clasped behind his back.
Your brother," he spoke slowly, "is where he's supposed to be. But you, Ava. you're why we did all this."
Her heart pounded. "What do you mean?"
The man leaned in toward the glass. Though his face was still hidden behind the light, she could make out the line of his smile cold, knowing.
"Because, Ava," he whispered, "you're not the person we're here to protect. You're the one we're here to prevent.".
The lights started to dim.
And as the room fell into cold half-darkness, Ava saw it a reflection in the glass. Her own face. But changed.
A tiny scar on her cheek.
And eyes not hers.
Someone else… who was her duplicate.
Ava stepped back, her heart thudding against the cage of her ribs.
Her reflection blinked out of sync.
It wasn't a trick of the glass. It wasn't her face. It was another woman imitating her every move just a fraction of a second behind.
The female behind the glass stepped forward, same height, same face. But her eyes those were not Ava's eyes. Those were harder, colder, a slate gray instead of hazel.
Ava's inhale paused. "Who are you?"
The glass woman tilted her head with a horrifying recognition. "Who do you think?" she breathed. Her voice was Ava's, right down to the hiccup of a shake. "I'm you. The one your brother never was meant to uncover."
Ava's head shook, her eyes pricking with tears. "You're lying. This is some sick joke"
The voice on the speaker the same impersonal man as before cut her short, cold and detached.
"She's lying, Ava. You and she were separated for a reason. Two halves of the same beginning… but only one of you built to hold the truth."
The second Ava smiled slightly at this, her gaze never wavering from Ava's.
"He's telling the truth. You were the one they hid. The one who forgot."
Ava's throat tightened. "Remember what?"
The lights flashed again, and suddenly the glass between them was transparent. There was no reflection anymore just two identical girls standing opposite each other, some feet apart.
The other Ava stepped forward, her voice dying away to a whisper. "The truth about our parents… and the deal that killed them."
Ava's knees weakened. Her mind raced back to the whispers of the past the night they were left alone in the penthouse, the unanswered questions, the missing files Caldwell never explained.
Her parents weren't victims.
They were part of something.
"Where are they?" Ava demanded, her voice breaking. "What happened to our parents?"
The other Ava's smile vanished. "You'll find out soon enough," she murmured. "When Adrian dies."
Ava's world went still.
Her body turned to ice.
"What did you say?"
But the lights flickered out before she could turn. The room plunged into darkness.
And the last thing she heard, before all went black was her own voice sounding back through the darkness.
"Run, Ava. Before it's too late."
The darkness enveloped her like a living presence.
Ava's breath came quickly, her palms sweating as she felt around in the dark. The glass walls were still there smooth, cold, unbreachable.
But something was different.
She could hear breathing.
Not hers. Slow. Controlled. Close by.
"Who is it?" she whispered, trembling.
A whispery sound answered the scrape of a shoe against glass. Then another. Closer still.
Her heart thundered. "Show yourself!"
There was a gentle click, and a narrow beam of light flickered on over her, illuminating half the room. The other half was engulfed in shadows.
And there stood the other Ava.
The duplicate Ava waited on the edge of the light, head tilted a little, face serene too serene.
"You shouldn't have sought out truth," the duplicate spoke softly. "It was better not knowing."
Ava's fear and confusion left her throat burning. "What do you want from me?"
The double took one slow step forward. "I don't want anything." Her eyes glistened in the light. "But they do."
"Who's they?"
Ava had no response before a gentle buzz filled the room the whir of hidden speakers activated.
The same suave male voice who'd spoken once before was back, sounding as level-headed as ever.
"Miss Hale," it said. "We didn't think you'd remember that so quickly."
Ava was frozen.
"Hale?"
Her chest was racing. That wasn't her last name.
Her real name the name on all the forms, all the ID cards, all the school transcripts wasn't Hale.
"What are you even talking about?" she stammered. "My name isn't"
"Not anymore," the voice interrupted. "But before the break-up… it was. You and your sister were both Hales."
Ava's gaze flickered. "My sister?"
The double smiled feebly, and at that instant the word hit her like a thunderbolt.
Sister. Not twin. Not echo.
They had been two out of three.
"You never knew about me," the other Ava said softly, stepping forward until their faces were inches from one another through the thin layer of glass that had once again developed between them. "Because you were never supposed to be."
Ava's knees all but gave way. "What—what are you talking about?
The lights began to pulse again, interlacing white and red sparks. The machines whirred louder, on the verge of being deafening.
The double approached nearer, her whisper now barely more than a hint of a sound. "You were the experiment that succeeded."
And the ground beneath Ava trembled and began to move.
The glass capsule was falling, easing downward into the darkness below.
The other Ava rose to watch, hand pressed flat against the glass as Ava drifted further and further into the ground.
Tell Adrian, she breathed softly, her voice fading as the floor dropped, "that saving him takes him himself."
Ava's last glimpse, before the darkness closed around her, was of her twin's smile not hard, but heart-wrenchingly sad.
And she was gone.
The air grew cold as the floor dropped.
Ava pressed both hands on the glass, her breath fogging the surface. She could see only the distant light above, smaller and smaller and dimmer, until it was extinguished.
Then a stillness.
The room ground to a halt with a soft hiss. A red light pulsed near the floor.
A mechanical voice whispered, "Level three.".
Ava turned, her heart thudding. The walls shifted around her. A panel creaked and slapped open with a harsh metallic sound, and a thin slit of steel lined it.
Her bare feet shook as she moved out, freezing on the cold floor. Antiseptic and old paper scented the air. Water dripped relentlessly somewhere along the corridor, echoing in the distance.
She started to walk.
Each step was heavier than the last. Her head spun with fragments the voice's summons of her name as "Hale," the other girl's face, Adrian's scream. None of it was making sense, and yet the whole of her was yelling that she was walking deeper into something her parents had tried to keep secret.
At the end of the hall, down below, she could see a faint light seeping through an open door.
She halted. Then she crept closer.
Inside was a small office a desk, an old lamp, stacks of yellowed folders. On the wall, a creased photograph.
Her breath caught.
It was her parents. Younger. Smiling.
And standing beside them… was her.
But not her. The girl in the picture had the same cheek scar as the one she'd seen before the one on her double.
Her fingers shook as she shoved the papers off the desk. Some were labeled "Project Hale Phase 1." Others had her and Adrian's birthdays only they weren't the same.
Hers was three days earlier.
Her gut twisted.
Nothing in her life had been real. Not even her birthday.
A slight creaking behind her caused her to spin around abruptly.
Someone stood in the doorway.
Tall, broad shoulders, face hidden in darkness.
For an instant, neither of them moved. Then the man advanced, into the beam of the lamp.
Ava's breath left her body.
"Dad?" she whispered.
The man smiled faintly, tiredly.
"Hello, Ava," he said softly. "It's time you knew why we left you."