What Was Left Behind

Chapter 15: Shattered Pieces

The world around Maia felt distant, like she was underwater, floating somewhere between reality and the storm of memories that had ripped through her mind. Her body was numb, her chest rising and falling in shallow, uneven breaths as she stared blankly at the ceiling. The room seemed to tilt, the edges of her vision blurred and shifting.

The truth was unbearable.

Levi knelt beside her, his hands gripping her shoulders gently, his voice a distant echo. "Maia... Maia, can you hear me?"

She blinked slowly, her eyes focusing on his face. There was fear in his eyes, but beneath that, something else—concern. Real, genuine concern. Maia tried to speak, but her throat felt raw, like she had been screaming for hours. She swallowed hard, forcing the words out.

"I... I remember."

Levi's eyes widened, his grip tightening. "What do you remember?"

Maia closed her eyes, the weight of the memories pressing down on her like an anchor. Her father's voice, cold and calculating. The facility, the experiments. Camilla. The flashes of her best friend's final warnings, the fear in her eyes as she tried to protect Maia from the very thing she couldn't see.

"My father," Maia whispered, her voice barely audible. "He erased everything... to protect his experiments. He erased Camilla from me."

Levi's face darkened. "He used you," he said, his voice hard with anger. "You were his test subject."

Maia nodded weakly, tears stinging her eyes. It all made sense now, every piece of the puzzle finally falling into place. Her father hadn't just been experimenting on strangers—he had used her. He had erased parts of her life, parts of her mind, to protect himself. And in the process, he had erased Camilla's warnings.

Camilla had known. She had tried to stop it. But Maia hadn't listened. Because her father had made sure she couldn't.

"I let her down," Maia whispered, her chest tightening. "Camilla... she tried to warn me. And I pushed her away."

Levi shook his head, his grip on her shoulders firm. "This wasn't your fault, Maia. You didn't know. Your father... he made sure you couldn't know."

But that didn't make it any easier to bear. The guilt gnawed at her, twisting in her gut like a knife. She had failed her best friend, and now Camilla was gone, swallowed by the very thing she had been trying to protect Maia from.

"She's dead, isn't she?" Maia asked, her voice cracking with emotion. "Camilla's gone."

Levi hesitated, his eyes filled with something unreadable. "We don't know that for sure," he said quietly. "But whatever happened to her, it's connected to your father's work. There's more to this, Maia. We're not done yet."

Maia nodded, though her heart felt like it was shattering into a thousand pieces. She had uncovered the truth, but it didn't feel like a victory. It felt like a curse—one that had stolen everything she cared about.

Camilla. Her childhood. Her very identity.

Levi helped her sit up, his hand resting on her back as she steadied herself. Her body felt weak, as if the memories had drained every ounce of energy from her. But she couldn't stop now. Not after everything she had learned. There were still too many unanswered questions, still too many shadows lurking in the corners of her mind.

Dr. Matthews stood in the corner of the room, his face impassive as he watched her. There was no sympathy in his eyes, only cold calculation. Maia felt a surge of anger rise within her as she looked at him—the man who had helped her father carry out these experiments, the man who had been complicit in everything that had happened to her.

"Why did you do it?" Maia asked, her voice raw with emotion. "Why did you help him?"

Dr. Matthews didn't flinch. "Your father was a visionary," he said simply. "He believed that unlocking the secrets of the mind could change the world. He was willing to do whatever it took to make that happen."

Maia's hands balled into fists. "Even if it meant destroying his own daughter?"

Matthews tilted his head slightly, his expression unchanging. "He believed it was necessary."

Maia stood up, her legs shaking as she took a step toward him. The anger boiled within her, bubbling over like lava threatening to spill out. "Necessary for what? To protect his twisted experiments? To keep the truth buried?"

Dr. Matthews sighed, as if explaining something to a child. "Your father wanted to protect you, Maia. He knew that if you uncovered the truth too soon, it would destroy you. So he made the choice to erase those memories."

Maia felt a wave of nausea rise in her throat. Protect her? How could erasing her memories—erasing Camilla—be protection? It was manipulation, pure and simple. And the worst part was, she had never even known.

Levi stepped forward, his voice hard. "What happened to Camilla? Was she part of this, too?"

Dr. Matthews hesitated for a moment, his eyes flickering with something Maia couldn't quite place. "Camilla was... close to the truth," he said finally. "Too close. Your father couldn't risk her exposing everything."

Maia's blood ran cold. "So he erased her, too?"

Matthews shook his head. "No. Your father didn't erase Camilla. He had her... contained."

"Contained?" Levi repeated, his eyes narrowing. "What the hell does that mean?"

Dr. Matthews looked at Maia, his gaze piercing. "Your father believed that Camilla was the key to unlocking the final stage of his experiments. He didn't erase her, Maia. He took her. She's still alive."

Maia felt the ground shift beneath her feet, her mind reeling from the revelation. Camilla was alive.

"No," Maia whispered, shaking her head. "That's not possible. I saw... I saw her disappear."

"She didn't disappear," Dr. Matthews said coldly. "She was taken to the facility. She's been kept there, waiting. Your father was going to use her to complete the trials. But after his death, the project was abandoned. Camilla has been in stasis ever since."

Maia's heart pounded in her chest, her mind spinning. Camilla was alive. Her best friend had been taken, locked away in some twisted experiment, and Maia had been living a lie for years.

"Where is she?" Maia demanded, her voice trembling with both fear and hope. "Where is she now?"

Dr. Matthews paused for a long moment, his eyes darkening. "She's at the old facility, deep in the lower levels. But I warn you, Maia... she's not the same person you knew."

Maia's heart sank. Not the same person? What had they done to her?

Levi stepped forward, his jaw tight. "We're going to get her. Now."

Dr. Matthews shook his head slowly. "It's not that simple. The facility is dangerous. There are... others there. Other subjects who were part of the trials. If you go there, you're walking into a trap."

But Maia didn't care. She couldn't care. The only thing that mattered was finding Camilla—rescuing her from the nightmare she had been trapped in for all these years. If there was even the slightest chance that she could save her best friend, she would take it.

"I don't care about the danger," Maia said, her voice firm. "We're going to the facility. And we're bringing Camilla home."

Levi nodded, his face set with determination. "Then let's go."

Dr. Matthews sighed, shaking his head. "You're making a mistake. You don't know what's waiting for you down there."

Maia turned toward the door, her hand on the handle. "I don't care what's down there. I'm not leaving Camilla behind."

Without another word, she pushed open the door and stepped out into the cold night air, Levi close behind her. The shadows stretched long and deep around them, but Maia didn't look back. Her mind was set, her heart pounding with a new purpose.

Camilla was alive.

And Maia was going to find her—no matter what it cost.