Then the thin man took her behind the shop, to a rear door leading down to a basement flooded with old books. On a wooden wall hung an old photograph: a group of men and women at a medical conference. One of them had been circled in red pen. The young man said, "That's him. Ryan. He was the smartest of them all. But he started acting strangely after he met Miriam Fallon. Then they disappeared together."
I asked him, "Do you know where he lived?"
He said, "A small stone cabin, on the northern side of town. Near the old lake. No one goes there now. They say it's abandoned. Some claim they hear children crying there… at night."
She didn't wait a moment. She went there immediately. She crossed the town until she reached its outskirts. The lake was covered in a light mist, and the cabin looked like the remnant of a bad dream: broken windows, a door torn from its hinges, and air heavy with the smell of dampness and the past.
Inside the cabin, she found torn papers, partially burned photographs, and a small file labeled: "Case: Lilia F."
She opened the file.
There were medical reports, most of them encoded in symbols, but the few intelligible words stunned her:
"The child shows advanced signs of abnormal early memory. She can distinguish sounds before the age of ten months. She responded to the 'closed door' experiment as if she fully understood the psychological concept. Theoretically… impossible. But that is precisely what makes her dangerous."
"M. Fallon is determined to publish the story. They will not allow it. I need to hide the child."
The final line, in Ryan's handwriting: "They're coming. She has the key. The truth is hidden in her mind."
At that moment, Selene stepped out of the cabin, her face pale. Suddenly, without warning, a barrage of raindrops began to fall. She looked up at the sky, then whispered, "Lilia… everything is in your mind? You're the… key?"
Abruptly, her phone rang. It was an unknown number. She hesitated for a moment, then answered. She heard a calm male voice:
"You've gotten closer than you should, Selene. But don't worry… your sister is fine. For now."
Selene froze in place, gripping the phone with a trembling hand. The voice on the other end was calm, confident, devoid of emotion, as if its owner felt no need for explicit threats… because he knew fear was already burning on its own.
She said hoarsely, "Who are you? And what do you want from Lilia?"
The reply came with terrifying simplicity: "We want her to remember. No more… and no less."
She said, "I won't let you touch her. I'll find her. I swear."
The man gave a light laugh, then whispered, "Then hurry. Because we've begun the countdown."
The call ended.
Her heart was pounding against her chest, and her mind was racing against time. "They want her to remember"… what? And when? And why do they believe she's dangerous if she remembers? Could what lies in Lilia's mind expose them? Destroy them? And is that what finally made Marx give in and decide to get rid of her?
To be continued...