AllFreeNovel
Share Us
NOVAK: It’s okay now.
The lie is a flimsy one, and even the girls seem to know it.
SOPHIA: What happened?
NOVAK: Um. Carolyn, she was... sick. She had to go away.
SOPHIA: She tried to hurt me. I have a ouch.
She holds out her arm for the requisite kiss. Novak rolls up the girl’s sleeve. The imprint of fingers is visible on Sophia’sskin. Novak, struggling to maintain an unworried smile, plants a kiss on the girl’s arm.
NOVAK: Okay, kiddos. Come with me. Everything’s going to be okay.
She puts force behind the words, as if her determination will make it true. Together, each girl holding one of Novak’s hands, they walk through the hallway and into the control room. The camera dangles by its strap from Sophia’s hand. It captures a few frames of the door, closed, and of the wide pool of blood on the concrete floor in the hallway.
In the control room, Hardcastle and Kapoor sit in dilapidated chairs. Martin leans against a table. He smiles at the Sophias and taps a finger to his lips; no one else appears to notice.
HARDCASTLE: You found them. Good.
NOVAK: If anyone tries to touch either one of them—
HARDCASTLE: You’ve made yourself clear.
KAPOOR: No one’s doing anything until we figure out which one of them is which.
Novak looks down and notices the camera. She takes it from Sophia and positions it.
KAPOOR: Carolyn seemed to, I don’t know, glitch out or something.
NOVAK: What about the other one?
She sounds queasy.
KAPOOR: The other... the one outside.
NOVAK: If this was the copy, the one out there was the real Carolyn. But you said that she attacked you.
KAPOOR: She did. She came out of nowhere, screaming at us.
NOVAK: What was she screaming?
KAPOOR: She... I don’t remember. She was asking something. Where something was.
HARDCASTLE: Where did you take them.
His voice is monotone, his gaze distant. He shakes his head a little, eyes focusing.
HARDCASTLE: That was it, wasn’t it? She was asking where we took them. Took who, though? And how did she end up near here?
KAPOOR: We were heading for the beach. I remember that. And we weren’t gone that long.
NOVAK: We don’t know how long you were gone. None of our watches work here.
KAPOOR: The camera...?
NOVAK: I checked the display. It’s stuck on 12:47, and the recording light flickers on and off. There’s no way to be sure how much of an interval might be missing. I thought you were gone about fifteen minutes, but it might have been longer.
KAPOOR: It would be easier to think if it weren’t for that damn singing.
