AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dr. Kapoor looked baffled. “Don’t be absurd. Of course I’m not—no.” Outside, a car door slammed. She glanced behind her, then fixed me with that intense glare. “You should leave here. It was a mistake letting you come. I thought... But it was a mistake.”
I stepped toward her. “I need to know what happened. What’s happening here.”
“No, you do not, Ms. Novak,” Dr. Kapoor said. She knew whoI was. She’d known all along. “Trust me. Those answers aren’t worth the price that comes with them.”
“What price? What is this place? What are thosethings? The girl who looks like me, is she—”
Dr. Kapoor made a harsh, almost amused sound in the back of her throat. Her voice was pitiless. “The girl who looks like you. Or is it the other way around?”
VIDEO EVIDENCE
Recorded by Joy Novak
AUGUST 14, 2003, TIME UNKNOWN
The second Sophia stands trembling in the mist, her arms wrapped around herself. Novak makes a sound, not quite a word, a soft “ah” repeated.
HARDCASTLE: Joy, get away from that thing.
SOPHIA: Mama? Who is she?
SOPHIA [2]: Mama, who’s that girl? Why does she look like me? Mama, I’m cold.
NOVAK: Right. Okay. Okay.
She steps forward and lifts the mud-stained Sophia into her arms. She begins walking back toward the bunker, limping heavily.
BAKER: Don’t let that thing in here!
NOVAK: She’s just a child.
HARDCASTLE: That thing that attacked us looked just like Carolyn.
CARREAU: She weighs twelve kilos. I think we can defend ourselves.
HARDCASTLE: No. Joy, think about your daughter.
NOVAK: I am. I am bringing her in out of the cold, where it’s safe.
HARDCASTLE: What—
KAPOOR: She got lost, Will. None of us was with her. She could have— We don’t know which one is real.
BAKER: Oh, shit.
NOVAK: Move out of my way, Will.
BAKER: No. No way. We can’t—
Carreau shoulders past Hardcastle, opening enough of a gap for Novak to squeeze through. She walks gingerly to the other end of the hall and sets the second Sophia down near the wall.
NOVAK: Stay there, sweetie.
She sets the camera down on a chair that has been left in the hallway. She gives it a short, steady look, and adjusts it fractionally so that it is trained on the people in the hall.
CARREAU: Get that door closed.
BAKER: You want to shut it in with us?
