Is That Mom

Part 8 of Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Into the Shadows

—

Part 8:

A New Lead from an Unexpected Source

Ethan paced the small cabin, unable to sleep despite his exhaustion. His mind was still racing, caught between the fear of being hunted and the weight of the revelations he had uncovered so far. He kept glancing out the broken windows, half-expecting to see shadows moving between the trees, but the night was still. Too still. It felt like a fragile calm before a storm, and he knew it wouldn’t last.

He needed to focus, to come up with a plan, but every time he tried, his thoughts circled back to the same questions, the same doubts. He rubbed his hands over his face, trying to shake off the fog of anxiety that clung to him. That’s when he noticed it—a slight bulge in the floorboards near the corner of the cabin. It was small, almost unnoticeable, but now that he’d seen it, he couldn’t ignore it.

Curiosity tugged at him, and he knelt down, prying the loose board up with trembling hands. Beneath it was a small, leather-bound journal, its edges worn and stained with age. Ethan hesitated for a moment, his heart pounding as he reached for it, half-expecting it to be a trick, a trap set by his pursuers. But when he opened the cover, he saw the faded handwriting, the hurried scrawl of someone desperate to get their thoughts down before it was too late.

The pages were brittle, the ink smudged in places, but as Ethan started to read, he felt a chill run down his spine. The journal belonged to someone who had worked at the facility—a scientist, by the looks of it. Their notes were a mix of technical jargon and frantic, almost incoherent scribbles, but the story they told was clear. The experiments weren’t just about genetic manipulation; they were about control. Control over the mind, over the body, over everything that made someone human.

The scientist’s words painted a grim picture, one of people being stripped of their free will, turned into something less than human, their minds twisted to serve a purpose they didn’t understand. Ethan’s stomach churned as he read about the “subjects,” about the things done to them in the name of progress. The experiments had been monstrous, far worse than anything he had imagined, and the more he read, the more he felt like he was looking into a nightmare that was still very much alive.

But it wasn’t just the experiments that caught his attention. The scientist wrote about a growing sense of fear, a realization that they had created something they couldn’t control. There were mentions of “unexpected side effects,” of subjects breaking free, of whispers about a cover-up that would bury the truth forever. Ethan’s hands shook as he turned the pages, the feeling of dread tightening around his chest.

And then, he found it—a map, sketched hastily on the back of one of the pages, leading to another facility, deeper in the forest. The scientist had written a note next to it, a warning that whatever was happening there was worse than anything they had seen before. Ethan stared at the map, a mix of fear and hope churning in his gut. It was a lead, a new path to follow, but it felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff, about to step into the unknown.

As he flipped through the final pages, he saw something else—a name. His mother’s name. The scientist had written about her, not as a victim, but as someone who had played a key role in the project. But there was something else, too, a hint of regret, of guilt. It was clear that this person hadn’t wanted to write her off as a villain, that they had seen something in her that made them believe she wasn’t all bad. Ethan clung to that, desperate for any sign that there was more to his mother’s story than he had been led to believe.

He closed the journal, his hands still shaking. The fear was still there, stronger than ever, but now, there was something else—a flicker of hope. This new lead, this map, could take him closer to the truth, closer to understanding what had happened to his mother, and why she had disappeared. It was a dangerous path, but he didn’t care. He had come this far, and he wasn’t going to stop now.

But the scientist’s words echoed in his mind, a reminder of how dangerous this all was. They had warned that the project wasn’t over, that whatever had started in that facility had only been the beginning. Ethan felt a pang of fear, realizing that his pursuit of the truth might have awakened something that was never meant to be found. The thought made him want to turn back, to abandon this twisted journey and go home, but he knew he couldn’t. Not anymore.

The journal felt heavy in his hands, like a burden he hadn’t asked for but couldn’t put down. He wondered who the scientist had been, if they were still alive, or if they had been silenced, like so many others who had tried to speak out. For a moment, he felt a connection to them, a shared sense of fear and desperation. Whoever they were, they had been trying to make sense of a nightmare, just like he was. And even though he didn’t know them, he felt a strange sense of gratitude, as if they had reached out to him from the past, offering him a lifeline.

Ethan sat back, the journal still clutched in his hands, and tried to steady his breathing. He was scared, more than he wanted to admit, but there was a new resolve growing inside him, pushing back against the fear. He thought of his mother, of the letter she had left him, of her plea to stop searching. For the first time, he felt like he understood why she had tried to warn him, why she had been so desperate to keep him away from the truth. But it didn’t matter. He had to keep going, no matter how much it hurt, no matter how dangerous it was.

He glanced at the map again, tracing the route with his finger. It led deeper into the forest, to a place he had never been, but he knew that was where he had to go. The scientist’s words, the clues, everything pointed there, and he was going to follow it, even if it led him straight into the darkness.

Ethan took a deep breath, trying to calm the storm inside him. The cabin felt smaller now, suffocating, but he knew he couldn’t stay. He had to move, to keep pushing forward, because the truth was out there, waiting for him, and he was going to find it. No matter the cost.