Chapter 10 — Blood Remembers
The forest had gone silent again.
The creature was gone.
So was the thing wearing Victor's face.
Only the Gate remained.
Its crimson edges pulsed slowly in the darkness.
Victor stood motionless.
Blood covered the front of his clothes.
Most of it wasn't his.
He looked down at his hands.
They were shaking.
Not from fear.
From something else.
A strange pressure moved beneath his skin.
Like something inside him had awakened—
and didn't know how to stay asleep.
"Victor."
Lyra's voice brought him back.
She stood a few meters away, one hand pressed against her injured arm.
"Are you hurt?"
Victor looked at himself.
His chest hurt where the creature had pinned him.
His ribs were sore.
But nothing felt broken.
"I'm fine."
Lyra gave him a tired look.
"Everyone says that right before they collapse."
"I'm not going to collapse."
"Good."
She looked toward the soldiers.
"Then help."
Victor turned.
Two soldiers were injured.
One was sitting against a tree, clutching his shoulder.
Another lay unconscious.
Ward was kneeling beside him.
"He's breathing," Ward said.
He checked the soldier's pulse.
"Get the medical team."
One of the remaining soldiers activated his radio.
"Command, we have multiple casualties. One unconscious, two injured. Unknown hostile has retreated through the Gate."
Static answered.
Then:
"Repeat. Did the hostile enter the Gate?"
The soldier looked toward Ward.
Ward took the radio.
"Confirmed."
There was a pause.
Then the voice responded:
"Understood. Are you requesting immediate extraction?"
Ward looked toward Victor.
His eyes lingered on him for a moment.
Then returned to the radio.
"Yes."
Victor walked toward the Gate.
Ward immediately noticed.
"Stop."
Victor stopped.
The black opening was only a few meters away.
He could feel something on the other side.
Not the creature.
Something else.
Something familiar.
The System appeared.
[PRIMARY MEMORY SOURCE: PRESENT]
Victor stared.
The message was different from before.
More precise.
More dangerous.
He took another step.
Ward moved in front of him.
"I said stop."
Victor looked at him.
"I need to go through."
"No."
"That thing went inside."
"Exactly."
"It knows me."
"Which is precisely why you're staying here."
Victor's jaw tightened.
"You don't understand."
Ward's expression hardened.
"Neither do you."
Victor stared at him.
Ward pointed toward the Gate.
"We just lost three people because we didn't know what was on the other side."
Victor looked toward the unconscious soldier.
The man's blood had soaked into the dirt.
Ward continued.
"I'm not sending you in after it."
Victor's eyes remained fixed on the Gate.
"I think it was afraid of me."
Ward went still.
"What?"
Victor looked at him.
"When it smelled my blood."
Ward's expression changed.
"You didn't mention that."
"You didn't ask."
Ward stared at him.
Then:
"What exactly happened?"
Victor hesitated.
He remembered the creature recoiling.
The fear in its eyes.
The System message.
[UNKNOWN BLOODLINE RESPONSE DETECTED.]
He couldn't tell Ward.
Not yet.
"It stopped attacking."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Ward studied him.
"You're leaving something out."
Victor met his eyes.
"So are you."
Neither man spoke.
Lyra looked between them.
"Save the interrogation for somewhere without an active Gate."
Ward finally looked away.
"Agreed."
He turned toward the team.
"Prepare extraction."
The journey back was quiet.
The injured soldiers were loaded into the first vehicle.
Victor sat in the second with Lyra.
Ward sat opposite them.
Nobody spoke for several minutes.
Then Ward broke the silence.
"That creature."
Victor looked up.
"What about it?"
"It reacted to your blood."
Victor remained quiet.
Ward continued.
"Did it say anything?"
Victor remembered the whisper.
"You're still alive."
He nodded.
"Yes."
"What?"
Victor looked at the floor.
"It said I was still alive."
Ward's expression changed.
Not surprise.
Something closer to confirmation.
Victor noticed.
"You know what that means."
Ward didn't answer.
"Don't."
Ward looked at him.
"Don't what?"
"Give me another half-answer."
Ward remained silent.
Victor leaned forward.
"You've spent nine years investigating what happened to me."
"Yes."
"You found my body?"
"No."
"You found evidence?"
"Some."
"You found witnesses?"
"Yes."
Victor's voice hardened.
"And none of them told you I was dead."
Ward looked at him.
"We had no proof that you were alive."
Victor's eyes narrowed.
"That's not what I asked."
Ward sighed.
"We found blood."
Victor froze.
"Mine?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"At the Eclipse facility."
Victor's breathing slowed.
"How much?"
"Enough to conclude you were severely injured."
Victor stared at him.
"But not enough to find a body."
"No."
Victor leaned back.
"Then you knew I could have survived."
Ward shook his head.
"We knew it was possible."
Victor looked out the window.
Nine years.
They had been searching for him.
But something didn't fit.
If he had survived the incident—
where had he been?
And why didn't he remember?
The facility came into view shortly before dawn.
Victor watched the security walls approach.
This time, he noticed something he hadn't seen before.
The facility wasn't alone.
Several smaller structures surrounded it.
Barracks.
Medical buildings.
Storage facilities.
A communications tower.
A helicopter landing area.
This wasn't merely a laboratory.
It was a military installation disguised as a research center.
The convoy entered.
Victor was taken directly to the medical wing.
Doctors immediately surrounded the injured soldiers.
Lyra was ordered into another room to have her arm treated.
Victor was left standing in the corridor.
Ward remained beside him.
A doctor approached.
"Mr. Hale."
Victor looked at him.
"Yes?"
"We need to examine you."
"I'm fine."
The doctor looked toward Ward.
Ward nodded.
"Do it."
Victor sighed.
"Fine."
Twenty minutes later, Victor sat on an examination bed.
The doctor examined his ribs.
"No fractures."
"Good."
"There should be."
Victor looked at him.
The doctor frowned.
"You took a direct impact from a creature that tore through military-grade armor."
Victor looked at his chest.
"So?"
"So you're healing."
Victor didn't respond.
The doctor checked his pupils.
Then his pulse.
Then his blood pressure.
Everything was normal.
Too normal.
He looked at the chart.
"Have you ever had abnormal healing before?"
Victor thought.
"I don't remember."
The doctor stopped.
Right.
Nobody knew what Victor remembered.
He finished the examination.
"Nothing appears to be seriously wrong."
Victor stood.
"Then I'm done."
"Not yet."
The doctor hesitated.
"We found something unusual in your blood."
Victor froze.
"What?"
The doctor looked at the test results.
"Your blood contains a protein marker we've never seen before."
Victor's stomach tightened.
"What kind of marker?"
"I don't know."
Ward immediately stepped forward.
"How unusual?"
The doctor looked uncomfortable.
"Unusual enough that I want another sample."
Victor looked at Ward.
Ward nodded.
"Let them."
Victor extended his arm.
The needle entered his vein.
A vial filled with dark red blood.
The doctor removed the needle.
Then stared at the vial.
Victor noticed his expression.
"What?"
The doctor didn't answer.
He held the vial beneath the light.
The blood looked normal.
Then—
a tiny black thread moved through it.
The doctor froze.
Victor stared.
The thread disappeared.
"What was that?"
The doctor looked at him.
"I didn't see anything."
"You did."
The doctor looked at Ward.
"I need the laboratory."
Ward took the vial.
"We'll handle it."
Victor watched him walk away.
Something was very wrong.
Later that morning, Victor returned to his room.
He closed the door.
Locked it.
Then stood in the center of the room.
"System."
The panel appeared.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION: 0.06%]
Victor stared.
It had increased again.
He hadn't entered the Gate.
Yet his memory had progressed.
Maybe the Gate wasn't the only way.
Maybe proximity was enough.
He looked at the status.
Name: Victor Hale
Level: 1
Race: Human
Condition: Stable
Memory: 0.06%
Power: Locked
Skills: None
Gate Affinity: Unknown
Bloodline: Locked
Victor stared at the final line.
"Unlock bloodline."
Nothing.
"Show bloodline."
Nothing.
"Why is it locked?"
[REQUIREMENT NOT MET.]
Victor frowned.
"What requirement?"
Silence.
He tried again.
"Is it related to my blood?"
The panel flickered.
[PARTIAL MATCH.]
Victor's eyes narrowed.
"What's the other requirement?"
No response.
He leaned against the desk.
"Fine."
The panel changed.
[MEMORY FRAGMENT AVAILABLE.]
Victor straightened.
A new window opened.
[FRAGMENT #002]
[RECOVERY COST: UNKNOWN]
Victor stared.
"Cost?"
The word appeared again.
[MEMORY RECOVERY IS NOT FREE.]
Victor's expression darkened.
"What does it cost?"
The System answered:
[MEMORY.]
Victor frowned.
"That doesn't make sense."
Another line appeared.
[TO RECOVER ONE MEMORY, ANOTHER MUST BE SACRIFICED.]
Victor stared at the message.
His blood went cold.
"So I have to lose something to remember something else?"
[CONFIRMED.]
Victor sat down slowly.
For the first time, he was afraid of his own memories.
Not because of what they contained.
Because of what remembering them might cost.
He stared at the panel.
"Can I choose?"
The System remained silent.
Victor understood the answer.
He looked toward the ceiling.
"Then don't show me anything yet."
The panel disappeared.
Victor remained alone.
For several minutes, he sat quietly.
Then—
his phone rang.
Victor looked at it.
He didn't have a phone.
It was coming from outside the room.
Someone was calling.
He opened the door.
A technician stood in the corridor holding a ringing phone.
"Mr. Hale?"
Victor frowned.
"That's mine?"
The technician nodded.
"Your old number."
Victor took it.
The screen showed a single incoming call.
No name.
No number.
Just:
UNKNOWN
Victor stared.
The phone continued ringing.
Ward's voice came from behind him.
"Don't answer that."
Victor looked back.
Ward was standing at the end of the corridor.
"Why?"
Ward's face was pale.
"Because that number has been disconnected for nine years."
The phone kept ringing.
Victor looked at the screen.
Then at Ward.
The call stopped.
A message appeared.
ONE NEW VOICEMAIL.
Victor opened it.
Static filled the speaker.
Then a woman's voice.
Weak.
Terrified.
But unmistakably familiar.
"Victor..."
His entire body froze.
Elena.
Her voice.
Impossible.
She whispered:
"If you're hearing this..."
Static.
A breath.
Then:
"...don't trust the people who brought you home."
The recording ended.
Victor stared at the phone.
Ward looked equally stunned.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Then Victor asked the only question that mattered.
"She's alive?"
Ward's expression was unreadable.
"I don't know."
Victor looked at the phone.
The System appeared.
[MEMORY RESONANCE DETECTED.]
[SOURCE: ELENA]
[MEMORY RECOVERY AVAILABLE.]
Victor's heart began pounding.
Then a final message appeared.
[WARNING: RECOVERY COST — SIGNIFICANT.]
Victor stared at it.
Somewhere outside the facility, an alarm suddenly began to sound.
And far away—
behind layers of concrete and steel—
one of the contained creatures began screaming.
Not roaring.
Not attacking.
Screaming.
As if it had just seen something it feared.
Something that had arrived.
Something Victor had forgotten.