Chapter 3

My heart was pounding up in my throat.

I peered in through the crack in the window.

Inside, a few men were playing cards around a beat-up table.

One of them griped, "Damn, lost another two hundred today."

Another said, "Serves you right. Who told you to go running off after women last night?"

"Women, my ass. Just those old broads in the troupe, ugly as sin."

"What about the new one? The one whose leg got bitten?"

"Locked up. Boss says let her heal a couple more days, then she's back performing."

"Where'd the boss get that woman anyway?"

"No idea. Boss brought her back. Who knows what backwater he scraped her out of."

"She's not bad looking, though. Just got something wrong in the head. Doesn't talk, mute as anything, day in and day out."

I edged back, my foot slipped, and I stepped on a chunk of broken brick, making a noise.

"Who's there?!"

I flattened myself against the ground, too scared to move, while someone stood in the doorway looking around.

"There's nobody. You're jumping at every little thing."

"I heard something."

"Stray cat, probably. Place is crawling with them."

The man looked around once more, then went back inside.

I waited until they started up their card game again before slowly crawling backward.

I crawled to the other side of the factory building, where there was a small room, and a person crouched in the corner.

I gave the wooden board a light tap.

The person looked up. It was her.

When she saw me, her pupils shrank hard, and she shook her head desperately.

But she said those two words again:

"Get out."

Before I could react, footsteps came from behind me.

"Damn, there really is someone!"

I turned around, and a man came rushing at me.

I broke into a run, and the man chased after me, cursing the whole way.

I ran out of the factory grounds, out onto the main road, and flagged down a taxi.

When I got home, my mom froze for a second when she saw me come in. "Why are you back at this hour? No work today?"

I looked at her face.

My mind was a complete mess.

"Mom." I sat down beside her.

"Hm?"

"Do you… do you have any long-lost sisters? Like a twin?"

My mom went still for a moment, then laughed. "What's gotten into you today? I'm an only child. Grandma only had me."

"Then do you still have photos of yourself from when you were little?"

"Sure, they're in the photo album."

I dug out the album and looked at the pictures one by one.

From age three to twenty, the face in the photos had barely changed.

But these photos—the one at three, the one at thirteen, the one at twenty.

It was like the same person, just in different clothes and hairstyles.

I closed the album.

"Mom, I'm going out for a bit."

"Where are you off to now? Dinner's almost ready."

"I'll be right back."

I went downstairs and called my childhood friend.

"Help me look something up. That abandoned factory area over by the Starlight Chemical Plant—is it under your precinct's jurisdiction?"

"Yeah, it is. That place has been empty for ages. What's up?"

"Can you check who owns those factory buildings, or who's renting them, whether there's anything on file?"

"Okay, I'll look into it when I get to work tomorrow."

"Can't you do it today?"

"My guy, do you know what time it is? I'm off the clock. Besides, that factory area's been derelict for over a decade. Who's going to rent a dump like that?"

I hung up the phone.

My mind was full of that woman's eyes.

Who is she?

I've lived twenty-three years, and that woman I call "Mom" every single day—who exactly is she?