Ananya stepped up beside her, silent for a long moment. "I've seen this before," she said quietly.
Ava turned to her, startled. "What?"
Ananya's voice trembled. "Not the words. The process. When I was taken… during those days I hardly remember… there was another girl. I could hear her, screaming through the walls. I think… they were doing this to her. Leaving messages. Writing them in places where no one would find them. As if they wanted her to remember what everyone else forgot."
A soft, gruesome voice from behind them, "Subject One.".
Ayesha stood a few feet away, her eyes aglow dimly in dappled woodlight. She looked almost. distant. Dreamy.
Ananya turned white. "Yes. That was what they called her."
Ava's heart pounded now. "But Subject One. that file was erased. Redacted completely. Even my uncle never found out anything more than a code."
"She wasn't erased," Ayesha whispered. "Just hidden. Buried."
Malik stepped forward. "You think she's the one who wrote this message?"
Ayesha didn't respond directly. She glanced toward the forest, as if she could see something that they couldn't. "She remembered Ava. Even when they made her forget everything else."
The punch in the stomach hit Ava.
"Why would she remember me?"
Again, no response.
A crashing sound suddenly made everyone freeze. Zayan emerged from between the trees, gasping.
"We've got a problem," he said. "There are signs of surveillance near the ridge. No tech—manual. Old-school tracking. Whoever was here wanted to be seen."
"Seen?" Malik echoed.
Zayan handed him a scorched piece of paper. Ava leaned in as Malik unfolded it.
Three words, hastily scribbled:
"It isn't her."
Ava's eyes narrowed. "Isn't who?"
Zayan looked around warily. "I think… Prisha."
.........
Ananya winced. "But everyone was saying she was the one behind it all. The experiments. Project ECHOES."
Malik's face screwed up. "Which is to say, someone's trying to tell us she's a decoy."
Ava stared at the note. "Then… who is it?"
Malik hesitated. His response was cautious, his tone measured. "Remember, Ava. Anyone?"
Ava pulled back.
Malik watched her closely. "And your father?"
She shook her head. "Gone. I. I don't know if he's even alive. But my mother was alive. She was there. I left her. with Anish."
Rohit grasped hold of Ava's arm. "You think your father could be—
"No!" Ava cried out. "I suspect my father. He...he was cold, on our last meetup , almost scary. But...why would he do that?"
Ayesha shook her head. "Father wasn't like this."
Ava turned around. "How do you know that?"
Ananya looked down, "I just have a feeling."
"If I was there. At the labotary, then...then why they did leave me Why didn't search for me."
Ananya breathed softly, "Perhaps that's why they let you go. Perhaps they believed if you stayed, you'd remember everything."
Ava's head swirled. "What if that's what they're all afraid of? That I'll remember something I wasn't meant to?"
Malik crossed his arms. "Then that makes you a danger."
"And a target," Zayan added.
Ava moved back from the tree. The message. The burned plea.
It was not from her uncle. It was not from the labs. It was not from the enemy she knew.
It was from someone like her. Another girl. Another subject.
Perhaps even the first.
Suddenly, Ayesha moved back, wide eyes.
"What is it?" Ananya caught her.
Ayesha was shaking. "She's here."
Ava was frozen. "Who?"
Ayesha's gleaming eyes met hers.
"Subject One."
All of them were silent. The forest around them altered. Wind rushed through leaves like fingers.
Then—a faraway hum.
Ava turned around.
From deeper in the woods, there was someone approaching.
It wasn't Prisha.
It was a man. Bony. Waxy. In a black coat. There was a scar over his face like a lightning bolt. And in his hand—an antique memory driver.
"You shouldn't have been tracking the marks," he said flatly.
Malik raised the gun. "Who are you?"
The man looked at Ava.
"I helped with the erasure protocol. And you… you were supposed to stay buried."
Ananya's grip on Ava's arm grew tighter. "Is he a lab freak?"
The man didn't notice. "But you kept coming back. And now, thanks to you… she's awake."
Ava edged forward, voice steady despite her racing heart. "Who?"
The man smiled narrowly. "Subject One. The subject they locked away because she remembered your name."
Thunder rumbled in the distance. Leaves whirled through the air like feathers.
Ava whispered, "Why me?"
But before he could answer, a voice hailed from within the trees.
Everyone froze.
There was a sound behind the tree line—slow, deliberate footsteps against the earth of the forest.
A figure emerged.
It was Prisha.
Her coat was dirty. Her eyes, sharp and unfathomable, traversed each of them like a warning and a question at the same time. She wasn't scared. Not even surprised.
"Ava," she said softly, too softly.
"How did you find us?" Rohit asked, stepping in front of Ava.
Prisha didn't budge. "You were never concealed well."
Malik's hand inched toward the gun on his hip. "Why are you here?"
She smiled faintly, strangely. "Just… watching. Like always."
Ava's heart thudded in her chest. "What do you want?"
Prisha tilted her head slightly.
"Isn't it strange," she said, "how things keep on repeating? How some individuals are never who they claim to be?"
A cold silence stretched between them.
Before anyone could move, Prisha backed into the trees. She didn't threaten. She didn't run. She simply disappeared.
When they gave chase after her—there was nothing.
Just the gentle hum of the forest.
And at the base of the tree where she'd been standing…
STAY AWAKE.
Burned into the bark.
Ava stared at it, her hands trembling.
Malik growled, "This isn't over."
No one disagreed.
.............................