The Hollow Box (Part-7)

Episode 7: “The Things Beneath”

The sisters took Iris to the one place no one would think to look — the old greenhouse behind the Arundel Cemetery. It had belonged to their grandmother, abandoned for years but still standing. Vines covered the roof, moonlight slipped through cracked glass, and the air smelled like forgotten soil. They huddled there, wrapping Iris in a blanket and lighting a few candles. Lara sat across from her. “Start from the beginning.” Iris looked down, as if searching for pieces inside her.

"The lab is where I was born. "Grown," Iris said. In contrast to you, I don't have a mother. However, your mother, Dr. Eleanor Clark, treated me as though I were important.

“What were they trying to do to you?” Lana said quietly.

Iris paused.

The Order of Nox holds that the human soul can be unlocked. They said that they could control it if they could eliminate suffering, loss, and memory. They used it all to experiment on me. Nothing is ever forgotten by me. I'm not a sleeper. And occasionally...

She extended her hand.

A darkness wrapped like fog around her wrist. then disappeared.

"On occasion, I see things before they occur."

It caught Lara's breath. “They developed a weapon of the mind.”

Iris gave that nod. I wasn't alone, though. There were twelve of us. I am the sole survivor.

Her eyes went glassy all at once. Grasping her head, she gasped.

"They're on their way." Not tonight. However, shortly. And I won't be targeted by them. They are on their way to you.

Lana muttered, "Why?"

Iris faced her, and her voice wasn't solely her own this time.

It had layers. As though she were the conduit for something else's voice.

"Because your blood contains what they were unable to produce." The secret is you. Both of you.

And then she fell.

“Do you think Iris was created… or chosen? What do you believe her true purpose is?”