the common area, picked up a pencil and paper and began drawing chilling images. These are some of her drawings.”
He hands me a small stack of papers. Drawing after drawing is that of daemonum nereium. She has drawn him from every angle and in great detail, making him just as frightening in the images as he was in the simulation. The thought suddenly occurs to me—this is where the images for the simulation came from.
“A few days after Dr. Billings died, a lot of unexplained events occurred around the colony. All of them led up to the mysterious death of Subject Seven on August 6th, 1969.”
“August 6th, 1969? That’s the day my dad was born.”
“Yes, it was."
He looks down at the files in front of him. “Subject Seven was photographed for her identification badge when she came to live here in 1953.”
He picks up a black and white photograph, holds it in front of his face, and looks wearily at it. “This is her,” he says handing me the photograph.
I slowly reach out for it, almost afraid to look at it. I pull it close to me, and drop my gaze apprehensively. “She looks exactly like me.”
“She is you.”
I read the caption on the photograph. “Margaret Jane Evans. Date of birth, January 14th, 1941.”
“That photograph was taken in June of 1955 when she was fourteen. This photograph,” he says handing me another, “was taken in March of 1967, after she stopped interacting with the staff. She was twenty-six.”
I gasp at the difference between the two photographs. In the first photo, her hair is perfectly glossed and artfully arranged into large waves. Her eyes are fluid and vibrant, her clothing impeccably pressed and a sign of the times. Despite her emotional struggle, she looks pulled together and well cared for.
In the second photo, her cheeks are sunken in; her eyes hollow and lifeless. Her arms are gaunt, poking out like sticks from under a hospital gown. Her hair is long, pin straight and stringy, parted down the center and clinging to her temples. The years at the colony were not kind to her.
“What happened to her in those twelve years?” I ask, shocked.
“There’s no clear explanation. It was widely assumed throughout the colony that her disease progressed. She was heavily medicated on a daily basis. Many of the physicians who cared for her believed that the medication took a toll on her frail body.”
“But her body wasn’t always frail. How did she get like that? She looks emaciated.”
“When she stopped interacting with the staff, she stopped eating. She was catatonic. She did nothing to care for herself. She made no effort to interact with anyone.”
“Did Dr. Billings ever figure out who the other person was, the other soul?”
“That’s where the story becomes even more interesting. While Dr. Billings walked with Subject Seven, she never identified herself as Margaret. Each identity had a different name and a distinct personality. One was Emma. The other, Clara.
“Clara?” I look at the photograph again. I haven’t had any memories of this come to me through the pendant. I haven’t dreamt of anything is this time period. There’s nothing in the journals regarding this. I don’t know what to think.
“Do you know who Clara is?” he asks me.
“William Owens had a daughter name Clara. She was thirteen when the curse was cast. She got lost the first night. I suppose it could have been her.”
“I think Isabel was trying to send Clara back, trying to free her from the caligo to use her as bait. I think she was also trying to link her to you. She could never get a grip on you, for all of those years, all the versions of you who existed. No matter what she did, you always slipped away from her. When she sent Clara back, something in the two of you was already connected, so your souls latched onto each other. And since you were the stronger of the two, she went wherever you went. The timing was just perfect.”
“Do you think that’s what is happening now, with Natalie?” I ask.
“I think it’s similar. I believe it’s possible that Natalie is Clara.”
“It’s possible, I suppose. I have another theory though. I’m not entirely sure that Clara was ever truly captivated by the caligo." I hesitate before revealing one of my secrets.
“I have a talisman that allows me to recover memories from my previous existences. I saw another member of my family get literally swallowed by the caligo. Every memory