Is That Mom

Part 3 of Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Into the Shadows

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Part 3:

The Revelation of the Past

Ethan’s footsteps echoed as he moved through the dark, silent corridors of the facility. His flashlight cast long shadows across the walls, distorting the graffiti and peeling paint, making them appear almost alive. The faint creaking of the building, the whispers of wind slipping through cracks, added to the sense of unease gnawing at him. As he ventured deeper, he stumbled upon a door that was slightly ajar, a rusted plaque barely readable on its surface. He hesitated for a moment, then pushed it open, stepping into what appeared to be an old office.

The room was frozen in time, like a snapshot of a moment that had been locked away and forgotten. Dust blanketed the surfaces, but there was an order to the chaos—the desk in the corner, the filing cabinets against the wall, and shelves stacked with faded documents and books. Unlike the rest of the facility, which felt stripped and empty, this room was full, as if someone had left in a hurry but intended to return. Ethan’s eyes scanned the room, and he could almost imagine his mother sitting there, her hands gliding over papers, immersed in whatever work had consumed her. The thought made his chest tighten.

He approached the desk, his hands trembling slightly as he opened the top drawer. Inside, there were stacks of old files, neatly arranged, each labeled with a series of codes. Ethan rifled through them, searching for anything familiar, any name or reference that could give him a clue. And then he found it—a folder with his mother’s name printed on the tab, alongside a date from over a decade ago. His pulse quickened as he pulled it out, his fingers leaving smudges in the dust. The folder was thicker than he had expected, crammed with pages of documents, charts, and photographs. He hesitated before opening it, part of him dreading what he might find.

The first few pages were filled with dense, technical language—reports detailing experiments, charts of data that meant little to him at first glance. But as he flipped through, he began to piece together a picture, and what he saw left him cold. The documents described a series of experiments that went beyond anything he had imagined. Genetic manipulation, psychological conditioning, tests on human subjects that pushed the boundaries of ethics. And his mother’s name appeared again and again, not just as a participant, but as a lead researcher. Ethan’s hands shook as he read, the words blurring in front of him.

He found a series of photographs tucked between the pages, each one more disturbing than the last. They showed people—men, women, even children—hooked up to machines, their eyes vacant, their bodies rigid. The expressions on their faces were blank, lifeless, as if they were no longer fully human. Ethan felt a wave of nausea as he stared at the images, his mind struggling to comprehend what he was seeing. This was what his mother had been involved in? He had come here hoping to find answers, but the answers he was uncovering were like a knife twisting in his gut.

He continued to search, desperate for something that could explain this, something that could absolve her. But the more he read, the clearer it became. His mother had not just been a part of the project—she had been essential to it. Her notes were meticulous, detailing the steps of each experiment, the adjustments made, the results achieved. Ethan could see her handwriting, small and precise, in the margins of the pages, alongside technical terms he didn’t understand. But he understood enough to know that she had been at the heart of this, driving it forward.

Anger welled up inside him, hot and suffocating. He had always seen his mother as a victim, someone who had been caught up in something terrible, forced into it against her will. But this was different. This was deliberate, calculated. She hadn’t been dragged into this—she had chosen it, and that realization hit him harder than anything he had faced so far. He felt betrayed, as if everything he had believed about her had been a lie. The image he had carried of her in his mind, the loving, protective figure who had always been there for him, was unraveling, replaced by a stranger he could barely recognize.

Ethan sank into the chair behind the desk, his head in his hands. He tried to process the flood of emotions that threatened to overwhelm him, but it was impossible. He felt anger, confusion, betrayal, but beneath it all, there was still a trace of that same desperate need to understand. Why? That single question echoed in his mind, louder than anything else. Why had she done this? What had driven her to become part of something so monstrous? He wanted to hate her, to condemn her for what she had done, but he couldn’t—not yet. There had to be more to it, a reason he hadn’t found.

As he continued to sift through the papers, he found a handwritten note buried at the bottom of the folder. It was short, barely a paragraph, scrawled on a piece of yellowed paper. The handwriting was his mother’s, but it was hurried, as if she had written it in a rush. Ethan’s heart pounded as he read it, each word searing into his mind.

“I had no choice. They were going to proceed with or without me, and I had to be there to make sure it didn’t go too far. I did what I could to protect them, but I couldn’t stop it. Please, if you ever find this, know that I tried. I tried so hard, but it wasn’t enough.”

The note left Ethan reeling. He read it over and over, trying to make sense of it, but it only deepened his confusion. It was clear she felt remorse, that she hadn’t been entirely complicit. But what did it mean? Was she trying to justify her actions, to absolve herself of guilt? Or had she truly believed she was doing the right thing, even as she crossed lines that could never be uncrossed? Ethan didn’t know, and that uncertainty made it even harder to bear. The note was like a crack in a dam, letting through just enough to show there was more beneath the surface, but not enough to explain it.

He searched the rest of the room, hoping to find something, anything, that could provide clarity. There were more files, more reports, but they only added to the horror. The experiments had continued for years, and his mother had been involved the whole time. The documents didn’t reveal who had initiated the project, but they made it clear that there was a purpose behind it, something bigger than any of the individuals involved. Ethan felt a chill as he read the descriptions of the subjects, of how they had been altered, their minds reshaped, their bodies changed. It was as if they had been trying to create something new, something that was neither entirely human nor entirely machine.

Ethan’s hands clenched around the edge of the desk, his knuckles white. He could barely contain the rage that boiled within him, but there was a deeper, more painful emotion lurking beneath it—grief. He had lost his mother once, when she had disappeared, but now it felt like he was losing her all over again, in a way that was even more final. The woman he thought he knew was gone, replaced by a stranger who had been capable of terrible things. And yet, there was a part of him that still wanted to understand, to find some way to reconcile the two versions of her, to believe that she had been the person he remembered, even if only in part.

He sat there for what felt like hours, the room around him fading into the background. The weight of everything he had learned pressed down on him, suffocating. He wanted to get up, to leave, but he couldn’t move. There was still a part of him that was waiting, hoping that something would happen, that a missing piece would fall into place and make it all make sense. But there were no more answers, just the cold, empty silence of the facility, and the knowledge that the woman he had loved and trusted had been a part of something terrible.

Ethan knew he couldn’t stay there forever. He had to keep going, to push forward, even if he was afraid of what he might find. He still didn’t have the full picture, and he needed to understand. For his own sake, and for hers. He had to know why she had done it, why she had been willing to cross those lines. The thought of walking away without that knowledge was unbearable. It would be like letting her disappear all over again, like letting her memory fade into nothingness. And so, with a heavy heart and shaking hands, he gathered up the files, the photographs, and the note, and prepared to leave the office. There was still more to uncover, and he wasn’t ready to give up, not yet.

As he stepped out of the office, the darkness of the facility seemed even more oppressive than before. The shadows stretched out around him, long and deep, as if trying to swallow him whole. But he didn’t care. He had found what he had been looking for, and it had changed everything. The truth was out there, somewhere, buried beneath layers of secrets and lies, and he was going to find it. Even if it meant confronting the darkest parts of his past, even if it meant facing the reality of who his mother really was. He had to know.