Feriha didn't think.
She ran.
Her legs moved before her mind could catch up, adrenaline burning through her veins like fire. Ravi grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the narrow passage at the back of the archive room.
The Echo moved fast;too fast. 🔥
"Go!" Ravi barked, shoving her ahead.
Boxes toppled as they raced through the dim corridor, dust rising in choking clouds. The underground floor sloped forward, the air growing colder, damper. Feriha's lungs burned, but she didn't stop.
Behind them, The Echo's footsteps echoed like a countdown.
Steady.
Unrushed.
Confident.
He wasn't chasing to catch them.
He was herding them.
"Ravi—where does this lead?" she gasped.
"Out," he said. 🖼
"Out where?"
He didn't answer.
They reached an old metal door. Ravi slammed his shoulder into it, forcing it open. They spilled into a narrow maintenance tunnel that stretched into darkness.
Feriha stumbled but Ravi caught her.
"Keep going," he said.
But Feriha stopped. 🔴
Her heartbeat thundered, her mind spinning.
That blue ribbon.
Why had she remembered it?
Why did it feel like part of her;something buried deep, something she wasn't supposed to recall?
"Ravi," she whispered, "what if I knew the missing child?"
Ravi pulled her along. "Now's not the time—" 🤐
"No, listen!" she cried. "I remember someone holding my hand. Someone smaller than me. Someone crying."
Ravi's grip tightened around her wrist.
"How old was I when you found me?" she asked.
"You were around seven," he said without turning around. 🤔
"So the missing child was younger," she said breathlessly. "Maybe five? Or four?"
"Possibly." 🙂
"Then what if…" Her breath trembled. "What if that child wasn't just another victim? What if that child was someone I was trying to protect?"
Ravi finally stopped and turned to look at her.
His expression wasn't surprise.
It was something else.
Pain.
"Feriha—"
But before he could continue, The Echo's voice drifted through the tunnel behind them, calm and taunting. 😏
"You're remembering in the wrong order," he said. "As expected."
Feriha spun around.
The Echo stood at the entrance of the tunnel, his silhouette sharp against the faint light behind him. 🔦
He lowered the ribbon and held it delicately, like a fragile piece of the past.
"You think you protected the child," he said softly. "But the truth is far more interesting."
His boots tapped the ground lightly as he stepped forward.
Ravi raised the gun. 🔫
"Stay back!" he warned.
The Echo ignored him.
He spoke to Feriha as though they were alone.
"You weren't protecting the missing child, Feriha."
He tilted his head.
"You were escaping because of her."
Feriha stiffened.
"Because of her?" she repeated. "What do you mean? She was a victim—"
"No," The Echo said simply.
"She wasn't."
The tunnel seemed to shrink.
Feriha felt her knees weaken. "What… what are you trying to say?" 😢
The Echo took one more step.
"The missing child wasn't innocent," he said.
"She was the reason the facility existed."
He smiled slightly.
"And you knew her better than anyone." 😅
Ravi grabbed Feriha's arm, trying to pull her back.
But The Echo's next words froze her in place. 😖
"The missing child," he said, "was your sister."
The world blurred.
Sister? 😲
She felt her stomach twist, her head spinning.
"I… I don't have a sister," she whispered.
"You did," The Echo replied. "And you watched her die." 👀
She staggered backward, her breath collapsing into broken gasps.
"No. That can't be true. I—I would remember—" 😵
"That's the problem," he said, voice softening almost sympathetically.
"You remembered everything—until someone erased it."
Ravi stepped in front of her.
"Enough," he snapped. "You're lying."
The Echo tilted his head, amused.
"Am I? Then why didn't you ever tell her the full story, Detective Sen?" 😉
Ravi's jaw clenched.
Feriha stared at him, heart pounding harder than ever.
"Ravi?" she whispered. "What is he talking about?"
The Echo's shadow grew closer.
"Tell her, detective," he whispered. "Tell her what you found in that room. Tell her who the second girl was. Tell her why she never came out." 😏
Ravi didn't speak.
His silence was the sharpest answer of all.
Feriha took a step back, her voice trembling.
"Ravi… was she really my sister?"
A beat of heavy silence.
Then, quietly, painfully, Ravi said:
"Yes." 🙌