Chapter 15 - Daniel's Impossible Past
The photograph made no sense.
Daniel had claimed to rent the house fifteen years ago.
The young man standing beside Victor Hale couldn't possibly be him.
Unless...
"No..."
The realtor leaned closer.
"That's impossible."
The elderly woman looked exhausted.
"It's him."
"You know Daniel?"
"I knew him when he was a child."
"How old would he be now?"
She answered without hesitation.
"Seventy-three."
"But the man who called me sounded no older than forty."
Nobody spoke.
Rick walked toward a locked filing cabinet in the corner.
He scratched at the bottom drawer.
I forced it open.
Hundreds of personnel files filled the cabinet.
Each folder contained photographs taken years apart.
The strange part wasn't the dates.
It was the faces.
None of them changed.
Victor Hale.
Same face.
1974.
1975.
1976.
1977.
Harold Bennett.
Same face.
1978.
1979.
1980.
Daniel Cross.
Same face.
1981.
1982.
1983.
No wrinkles.
No gray hair.
Nothing.
The final folder bore my own name.
I stared at it in disbelief.
Inside was a photograph of me carrying moving boxes into the house on the day I arrived.
Someone had documented my move before I even unpacked.
Beneath the picture was a typed sentence.
Phase Seven Candidate Accepted.
The date matched the day I signed the purchase agreement.
But one detail froze everyone.
The approval signature wasn't Victor Hale.
It wasn't Harold Bennett.
It simply read:
Caretaker: Active.
At that exact moment, every monitor in the control room switched to a single live feed.
The camera overlooked the entrance where we had first climbed down beneath the neighboring yard.
May you like
A tall figure wearing a gray coat slowly closed the hatch above.
Locking us underground.
