What Was Left Behind

Chapter 10: The Ticking Clock

Timeline: Present Day

The streets of Hillstone seemed unnaturally quiet as Levi's car sped through the foggy night. Maia sat in the passenger seat, her hands still trembling, her breath ragged as she replayed the events of the last hour in her mind. Camilla. That thing that looked like her. That thing that had chased her. It was real—it had to be. And yet, every part of her still resisted the idea.

Beside her, Levi kept his focus on the road, though his knuckles were white from how tightly he gripped the steering wheel. He hadn't pressed her for more details, but Maia could feel the tension radiating off him. He was waiting for her to say something, anything, to make sense of the madness she'd just been through.

But how could she explain something that didn't make sense?

"You okay?" Levi finally broke the silence, his voice low but steady.

Maia nodded, though the truth was, she felt like she was unraveling from the inside out. "I don't know what's happening," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "Camilla... I think she's alive. But she's not... not herself."

Levi's eyes flicked to her, a flash of disbelief crossing his face. "Camilla? Are you sure it was her?"

Maia bit her lip, her hands tightening in her lap. "It was her, but it wasn't... it was like she was there, but she wasn't. Her eyes... something about them. And that thing—it came after me. It wasn't human, Levi."

The words felt absurd even as they left her mouth, but they were the only way she could describe what had happened at Black Creek. Levi didn't say anything for a long moment, just pressed harder on the gas, the car slicing through the fog as they drove deeper into the night.

"Whatever's going on," Levi finally said, his voice hard, "it's connected to your father's work. That's the only explanation."

Maia nodded, the pieces starting to align in her mind, even though she wished they didn't. The memory manipulation trials, the missing girls, the twisted figure of Camilla... it all pointed back to one thing—the experiments. Her father had been involved in something far darker than she'd ever imagined, and now, whatever they had started, it was still happening. Still spreading.

"I have to figure out what my father was doing," Maia said, her voice gaining strength. "If I can understand what he was involved in, I can stop this. There has to be something in the files, something I missed."

Levi glanced at her, nodding in agreement. "We'll start with what we know. Camilla was investigating your father's work before she disappeared. She must have found something—something dangerous. We need to figure out what she uncovered before it's too late."

The words hung in the air between them. Before it's too late.

Maia knew that time was running out. Whatever had happened to Camilla, whatever dark force was pulling the strings, it was getting closer. And now, it was coming for her.

They arrived at Maia's apartment a few minutes later, the tension in the air still thick and heavy. Maia wasted no time, leading Levi inside and heading straight for the kitchen table where the scattered files and patient notes lay in disarray. Her mind buzzed with nervous energy as she rifled through the papers, searching for any clue she had missed.

Levi watched from the doorway, his arms crossed as he scanned the room. "What are we looking for, exactly?" he asked.

"Anything that connects my father's experiments to Camilla or the other missing girls," Maia replied, flipping through a stack of patient records. "There's something we're not seeing. Something buried in these files."

Levi moved closer, picking up a few pages and scanning them. "What about this Patient #57 you mentioned earlier? You said the files were vague."

Maia froze, her fingers pausing on a faded document with the number 57 printed at the top. Patient #57. The name had caught her attention earlier, but she hadn't been able to make sense of it. The records were cryptic, the details sparse. But now, something gnawed at her gut. Something about this patient seemed important—too important to ignore.

She spread the pages out on the table, her eyes darting across the fragmented notes. No name, no background. Only references to memory erasure and identity manipulation, two key pieces of her father's experiments.

But as she looked closer, something else jumped out at her. A date.

March 5th. The date of Camilla's disappearance.

Maia's heart stopped. "Levi... look at this."

Levi leaned over her shoulder, his eyes narrowing as he read the notes. "March 5th. That's the day Camilla disappeared."

Maia nodded, her pulse quickening. "Patient #57 was being treated the same day Camilla went missing. This can't be a coincidence."

Levi looked at her, his expression dark. "You think Camilla was Patient #57?"

Maia shook her head. "No. Camilla was investigating my father's work... but what if she wasn't just investigating from the outside? What if she was part of it? What if she was close to Patient #57, or worse—what if she found them before she vanished?"

The thought made Maia's stomach churn. If Camilla had uncovered something, or someone, connected to her father's experiments, then it made sense why she had been targeted. Whoever—or whatever—was behind these disappearances had wanted to stop her.

"We need to find this patient," Levi said, his voice firm. "If Patient #57 is still out there, they could be the key to everything."

"But how?" Maia asked, frustration bubbling up inside her. "There's nothing in these files—no names, no addresses. Just numbers and dates."

Levi's jaw clenched as he thought. "We need more information. We need to find out where your father kept the original records—the ones that aren't in these files."

Maia's mind raced as she tried to think of where her father could have hidden something so important. His office had been searched after his death, and she hadn't found anything there. The house had been sold. But then, her thoughts turned to one place she had been avoiding. The psychiatric facility.

"The facility," Maia whispered, the realization hitting her hard. "That's where the real records are. That's where he kept everything."

Levi's eyes locked onto hers. "Then that's where we go."