NOVGO.NET Chapter 139: Facility
The seventh door opened completely.
David expected something to emerge.
Nothing did.
For several seconds, the doorway remained perfectly still.
Then the darkness inside it moved.
Not forward.
Around him.
David’s vision blurred.
The facility vanished.
The floor beneath his feet disappeared.
There was no ceiling.
No walls.
No doors.
Only an endless black space stretching in every direction.
David remained standing.
His hand was still wrapped around the wrist of the thing that had reached through the doorway.
Except it wasn’t a thing anymore.
It was him.
Exactly him.
Same face.
Same clothes.
Same eyes.
The other David stared back.
Neither moved.
Then the other David spoke.
"We were never seven."
David’s grip tightened.
"Then explain the seven bloodlines."
The other David tilted his head.
"They were real."
"The seven consciousnesses?"
"Real."
"The seven identities?"
"Real."
David’s eyes narrowed.
"Then why say we were one?"
The other David smiled faintly.
"Because you keep confusing pieces with the thing they came from."
The black space trembled.
Images appeared around them.
Seven children.
Seven different rooms.
Seven different faces.
Each one was David.
But none of them looked identical.
One was angry.
One was terrified.
One was calm.
One was curious.
One was cold.
One was crying.
The seventh simply stared ahead.
David watched them.
"What am I looking at?"
"Yourself."
"I already know that."
"No."
The other David stepped closer.
"You’re looking at what happened when they divided you."
David’s expression hardened.
The images changed.
The seven children were placed inside separate chambers.
Machines surrounded them.
Symbols were carved into the glass.
Blood moved through transparent tubes.
Voices echoed from unseen speakers.
David recognized some of them.
Samuel.
Elaine.
His mother.
But there were others.
People he didn’t know.
Scientists.
Researchers.
Observers.
And behind all of them—
something else.
David stared at it.
A silhouette stood behind the glass of every chamber.
Tall.
Motionless.
Watching.
"What is that?"
The other David didn’t answer.
David turned toward him.
"What is it?"
"You’ve already seen it."
"Where?"
"Everywhere."
The silhouette suddenly appeared behind David.
He turned.
Nothing.
Then it appeared in the reflection of the black floor.
David looked down.
His reflection wasn’t copying him.
It was smiling.
David’s expression remained flat.
"That’s annoying."
The reflection laughed.
The sound wasn’t human.
The entire space shook.
The seven children disappeared.
David looked around.
"What did they do to me?"
"They didn’t divide you."
"Then what?"
"They separated what you could remember."
David went still.
The other David continued.
"Your mind was never seven minds. It was one consciousness with seven layers."
"Why?"
"Because you couldn’t survive with all of it."
David stared at him.
"Survive what?"
The other David’s smile disappeared.
"Knowing."
Silence.
David looked toward the darkness.
"Knowing what?"
The answer came from everywhere.
"That you weren’t created."
David’s breathing slowed.
"You were discovered."
The words settled into the darkness.
David frowned.
"Where?"
"Inside the first experiment."
"What experiment?"
"The one before the facility."
David’s eyes narrowed.
A memory surfaced.
Not his.
A room.
Older than the facility.
Stone walls.
A circle carved into the floor.
Seven people kneeling around it.
A child lying in the center.
David.
But he wasn’t twelve.
He was much younger.
Maybe five.
Maybe younger.
His mother stood beside him.
Samuel was there.
But neither of them looked surprised.
They looked terrified.
David stared at the image.
"Why was I there?"
The other David answered quietly.
"Because they found something beneath the facility."
David looked at him.
"Something?"
"The first gate."
The image changed.
A massive structure appeared beneath the earth.
Not a door.
Not exactly.
It looked like a wound carved into reality.
Seven symbols surrounded it.
The same symbols David had seen throughout his life.
The same symbols connected to the seven bloodlines.
"The bloodlines weren’t created to control you," the other David said.
"They were created to open it."
David’s expression changed.
"And I?"
"You were the opposite."
The image shifted.
David saw himself standing before the structure.
Seven shadows stood behind him.
Each shadow entered his body.
His younger self screamed.
The image shattered.
David took one step back.
"That wasn’t an experiment."
"No."
"It was a containment ritual."
"Yes."
David looked toward the other version.
"Then why did they erase my memories?"
"Because the containment failed."
The black space became silent.
David understood before the words came.
"You were there."
The other David nodded.
"I was the part that remembered."
David stared at him.
"The Memory Core."
"One part of it."
"And the Witness?"
"Another."
"Primary Identity?"
"Another."
David’s jaw tightened.
"So all those versions..."
"Were fragments."
"Of me."
"Yes."
David looked at his hands.
The black lines beneath his skin were spreading.
Slowly.
Almost peacefully.
"Then why do I remember them as separate people?"
"Because you needed to."
"Needed to?"
"If you remembered that every voice was yours, you’d have broken long ago."
David laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"That’s comforting."
"I wasn’t trying to comfort you."
"I noticed."
A sound echoed through the darkness.
A heartbeat.
Once.
Twice.
Then hundreds of times.
David looked around.
The black space began filling with doors.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Each one carried a different memory.
His childhood.
The facility.
Samuel.
His mother.
The seven bloodlines.
The first gate.
And things he had never seen.
David stared.
"What happens now?"
The other David looked toward the endless doors.
"Now they wake up."
"Who?"
"The pieces."
The doors began opening.
One after another.
Memories poured into the darkness.
David saw himself at six.
At nine.
At twelve.
At sixteen.
He saw moments he remembered.
Then moments he didn’t.
A conversation with Samuel.
A night in the facility.
A woman kneeling before him.
A hand placed against his forehead.
A voice telling him to forget.
David staggered.
His head throbbed.
"Stop."
The memories continued.
His knees nearly buckled.
The other David caught his shoulder.
"Don’t fight them."
"I don’t have a choice."
"You do."
David looked at him.
"What?"
"You’ve been fighting yourself your entire life."
The other David leaned closer.
"Try something different."
David clenched his teeth.
The pain intensified.
He closed his eyes.
For once—
he stopped resisting.
Everything came rushing in.
His mother’s voice.
Samuel’s fear.
Elaine’s screams.
The seven children.
The laboratory.
The first gate.
The thing beyond it.
And finally—
himself.
Not seven.
Not fragmented.
One consciousness.
Seven memories.
Seven instincts.
Seven identities built around a single core.
David opened his eyes.
The black lines stopped spreading.
The other David smiled.
"There."
David breathed slowly.
"What changed?"
"You remembered who was choosing."
David looked at his hands.
The lines began retreating.
One by one.
He looked toward the darkness.
"Where is the thing behind the gate?"
The other David didn’t answer.
David’s eyes hardened.
"Where?"
A voice answered instead.
Behind him.
"Here."
David turned.
The silhouette stood several meters away.
It was tall.
Thin.
Its face was impossible to see.
But David recognized the presence immediately.
The same pressure.
The same voice.
The same thing that had been beneath the facility.
The creature raised its head.
David didn’t move.
"You were trapped."
The creature nodded.
"By you."
David frowned.
"I was five."
"You were the lock."
"Then why can you speak through me?"
The creature smiled.
"Because the lock is opening."
David looked toward the darkness behind it.
"And when it opens?"
The creature stepped forward.
The black space cracked.
"Then the world remembers what was buried."
David stared at it.
"What was buried?"
The creature stopped.
"Your first name."
David’s expression changed.
For the first time since entering the chamber, genuine uncertainty crossed his face.
"My first name?"
The creature nodded.
"The name you had before they called you David."
The seven doors slammed shut.
The darkness vanished.
David opened his eyes.
He was back inside the facility.
Samuel stood several meters away.
Elaine was on the floor.
The older David was gone.
The boy was gone.
His mother was gone.
Only Samuel remained.
He looked at David.
And for the first time—
Samuel looked relieved.
David slowly stood.
"Samuel."
Samuel’s face tightened.
"You remembered."
"Not everything."
"You shouldn’t have remembered any of it."
David stared at him.
"What’s my name?"
Samuel didn’t answer.
David took one step forward.
"What’s my name?"
Samuel’s eyes filled with something David had never seen before.
Fear.
Not fear of what David might do.
Fear of what David might become.
"You don’t want to know."
David’s expression went cold.
"That’s not your decision."
Samuel looked toward the seventh door.
It was gone.
In its place was a black wall.
Something moved behind it.
Samuel whispered.
"It’s awake."
David looked at the wall.
Then back
David looked at the wall.
Then back at Samuel.
"What is?"
Samuel swallowed.
"The part of you they couldn’t erase."
A deep sound came from behind the wall.
David didn’t flinch.
Instead, he stepped closer.
The sound came again.
This time, the wall moved.
Not cracked.
Not broken.
It breathed.
David’s eyes narrowed.
Samuel immediately grabbed his arm.
"Don’t."
David looked down at Samuel’s hand.
Then at his face.
"You’re afraid."
Samuel released him.
"I’ve been afraid for sixteen years."
"Of me?"
"No."
Samuel looked toward the wall.
"Of what remembers through you."
David remained silent.
Something scratched against the other side.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Three times.
David stared at the wall.
Then a voice came through.
His voice.
But older.
"David."
His eyes narrowed.
Samuel stepped backward.
David didn’t.
The voice spoke again.
"You finally opened the door."
David’s expression hardened.
"I didn’t open it for you."
A pause.
Then a quiet laugh.
"You still think there’s a difference."
The lights inside the facility flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then every screen around them turned on at the same time.
One word appeared across all of them.
REMEMBER.
David stared at it.
Samuel closed his eyes.
And somewhere beneath the facility, something began waking up.