Chapter 13: The Phantom Evidence
I. The Morning of the Mirror
Declan woke up at 3:00 AM in his cottage, his knuckles raw and bleeding. He had no memory of how it happened. The Metallic Scent was so thick in the room it tasted like he'd been sucking on a copper coin.
He stumbled to the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face. When he looked in the mirror, he didn't see himself. He saw a message written in the steam on the glass: FIND THE SECOND KEY.
His heart did a slow, painful roll in his chest. I didn't write that. I couldn't have. But the handwriting—the sharp, slanted "F," the hooked "Y"—was undeniably his. It was the same handwriting from his official Garda reports.
He was communicating with himself across the blackouts. Or rather, the "Killer" Alex was building was leaving breadcrumbs for the "Detective."
II. The Blood in the Basin
He walked back into the kitchen, his boots crunching on something small. He looked down. It was a tooth. A small, milk tooth, yellowed with age but still structurally sound.
Panic, cold and oily, slid down his spine. He checked his own mouth—all teeth accounted for. He checked the black journal. There was a new entry, dated two hours ago:
Entry 6.4: Subject successfully retrieved the secondary physical anchor from the 'Dry Well' site. No witnesses. The Silence was achieved through the tactile sensation of extraction. The noise has stopped.
Declan felt like he was watching a movie of his own life through a foggy lens. He had apparently gone back to the asylum in his sleep, dug something up, and brought it home. But where was the "Dry Well"? And whose tooth was this?
III. The Session of Shadows
He drove to St. Jude's at dawn, the tooth wrapped in a tissue in his pocket. He confronted Alex Sterling, slamming the tooth onto the mahogany desk.
"What is this, Alex? I woke up with this in my house. My hands are torn up. I don't remember leaving the cottage."
Alex didn't look shocked. He picked up the tooth with a pair of silver tweezers, examining it with the same detached curiosity he'd show a botanical specimen.
"This is a breakthrough, Declan," Alex said softly. "Your subconscious is no longer just dreaming; it's acting. It's searching for the physical truth to justify the guilt you feel. This tooth... it's likely from the O'Connell girl. You're finding what the original Garda missed."
"But I don't remember it!" Declan shouted.
"Because the Silence is a protective state," Alex explained, leaning in. "Your mind blackouts to protect your conscious self from the trauma of the discovery. But look at the cost, Declan. You're becoming a ghost in your own life. You're planting things, finding things... how long until you 'find' something that proves you were there fifty years ago?"
This was the gaslighting at its peak. Alex was convinced Declan that he was literally re-enacting the crimes to "find" the truth, effectively making Declan a forensic investigator of his own manufactured guilt.