Chapter Sixteen

The USB drive vanished before Emiiy and Sophia got the chance to shout for help. It all happened so fast.

The man in the mask snatched it from Ryan and ran off immediately.

“Don't let him get away!” they all yelled.

The man from Damian's security team ran towards him, but the man in the mask hit his face with an iron tray and dashed off.

Emily wanted to go after the masked man so that she could recover the USB drive; but Sophia discouraged her from going. She insisted that it was risky but Emiiy did not listen to her. Just when she thought she had found something, someone came from nowhere and snatched the only real evidence she found. “No, not this time.” She said as she sprinted into the hall. It was too late for her because the man is already out of sight. The man from Damian's security team instructed them to shut all the exits.

As the man in the mask approached the emergency exit, everyone including nurses, patients and visitors scattered around in confusion.

Before the security operative got to the emergency door, the masked man had already exited. “Oh shit!” he cursed with disappointment. Emiiy was panting hard when she got to the emergency door. “Did he get away?” She asked. He looked outside and replied, “he did. “What are we going to do now? How can we find him?” Sophia said as she arrived two minutes later also panting heavier than Emily.

“Well, we can start by finding out how he got access into a hospital as secure as this one.”

Just as Emily and Sophia were making their way back to Ryan's hospital ward, they heard a loud scream coming from his ward. When they rushed inside, they saw Ryan sitting erect. “He was not the only one.” He said as he was struggling to get out of his bed. “What do you mean?” Emily said. “There was someone else, I saw someone standing outside my window.”  “So there were two attackers here today.” Sophia said. “It was not an attacker, It was Emiiy’s mother,” he responded. “What do you mean by that? You already know that my mother is dead.” Emily replied to him as she became more confused. That response was followed by silence.

“I know that your parents are dead, but the woman I saw standing at the window looked exactly like your mother.” Ryan broke the ice with an uneven breath.

“Maybe it is all the medication that they gave you. It is making you imagine things. I hear that too much sedatives cause hallucinations.” Sophia responded.

“I am not hallucinating, I am very sure of what I saw.” Ryan replied with a weak voice. “Was she just standing there?” Emily asked in a more confused voice as she moved closer. “She was just watching this room from across the window.”Ryan said, as his eyes looked to the window.

Sophia called the security operative and instructed him to check if there is any CCTV across the street. Emiiy just stood and wondered if there could be any iota of truth in Ryan's story. Emiiy stood confused as she pictured her mother's face. The whole scenario made no sense to her. 

Sophia saw a shiny black device on the floor. It was just underneath Ryan's bed. When she bent down to pick it up, she realized that it was a recording device. They all seemed surprised because they didn't know how long it had been there.

They were all scared as Emiiy looked at it closely. They thought there may be others as Ryan ordered Damian's security team to search the room for bugs.

They were still trying to figure out the whole thing when Emily's phone beeped. There has been a message from an anonymous sender. “You were not meant to discover the house. Now that you have, they know you are looking.”

A picture was also sent after the text message. From the time stamp, it was taken that same morning. It was a picture of the house she grew up in. The front door was wide open and it was clear that a woman was standing inside because her face was directly at the camera. She almost dropped her phone in fear as she magnified the picture. Sophia asked, “What is the matter?” She took the phone to check what was sent, and gave it to Ryan afterwards. It was the woman Ryan saw from the hospital window. Someone everyone believed had died long ago.