Page 19 of Lost Echoes

“Nothing,” Laurel says quickly, her expression sharp. Then she forces a smile. “Nothing for you to be concerned about. Good little boys and girls don’t have to worry because they follow the rules.”

A muffled, distant voice sounds from somewhere. I turn around, looking for it. Nobody else seems to notice it.

Laurel talks about the play again. More cries sound not far away, but nobody pays them any attention. It’s too hard to pay attention to Laurel while someone’s in pain.

Some invisible force pulls at me, tugs. Like it wants to take me away from here. I dig my heels into the ground, but it pulls all the harder. The distant voice sounds closer. Familiar.

I need to check on the crying kids.

When Laurel turns her back to us, I take a step away, then another. Everyone else is enthralled with what she’s saying, and they don’t notice me. I make my way to the hall and follow the sounds.

This room is different. There’s no chalkboard, no instructor. It’s full of children, all of whom have wires attached to them and numbers on their backs. Some wires go to their heads and others to their limbs.

No wonder they’re crying.

The room is also filled with computer screens, and beeps sound from every direction.

A child turns to me, reaches for me. Calls out.

Then the distant voice gets louder, says my name. A force pulls me away from the hallway, through the building, and back to space.

I find myself on a couch. Claire sits across from me. What does she want me to call her again? Dr. Hanson.

She gives me a concerned look. “Did you remember anything?”

“I saw some kids down in the dark place. Someone was running experiments on them.”

Claire blinks a few times. “Someone was running tests on kids?”

The cries continue to echo in my ears, and an overwhelming sadness blankets me. “I want to go back to my dressing room. I need to sleep.”

“It might help you to talk about what you saw.”

I cover my face with my palms and shake my head.

“Perhaps later, after you’ve had some time to process everything.” Her chair squeaks as she gets up to open the door.

All I want to do is sleep. I never want to go back to that basement again.

More than that, I don’t want to face the question forcing its way to the front of my mind…

Was I one of the kids with the wires attached to me? Could I have seen myself and not realized it because I didn’t realize it was a memory?

10

Billa

I finish the last of my almond milk latte just as the bell rings above the cafe door. My head immediately whips in the direction. The tall, elegant woman with a perfectly twirled bun steps in like she’s never been uncomfortable anywhere in her life.

That has to be Florencia. I wave the investigative reporter over, and she sashays around the tables as if this were a dance floor instead of a coffee shop. “Billa?”

I nod, and as she sits, I hand her the tea she said she wanted over our texting conversation.

She thanks me as she slides out of her overcoat. “Sorry to keep you waiting. There was construction near City Hall, and I couldn’t get around it.”

“No problem.” I smile. “I appreciate you meeting with me on such short notice—and on the weekend, no less.”

Florencia sips her tea. “When you said you had connections to Radley, I jumped at the opportunity.”