The fun.eral was too quiet—eerily so.
Aaron wasn’t the kind of person you buried in silence. He was loud, electric, the kind of man who turned even tragedy into a celebration.
Yet there I was, standing in the rain, watching a coffin sink into the earth. I was dressed in black, stiff and frozen.
My wife, Elena, clung to my hand, though I couldn’t tell if it was out of love or control. Two rows ahead, our parents sat stone-faced, dry-eyed, detached. Something felt wrong.
Then my phone buzzed.
It was a message from Aaron’s number.
I’m not de.ad. That’s not me in the casket.
I went cold. My eyes swept the tree line as my fingers shook over the keyboard.
Aaron? Where are you?
A pause. Then:
Can’t say. They’re listening. Don’t trust your wife. Or our parents.
That night, I couldn’t sleep. Elena curled beside me, but I felt miles away.
If Aaron was alive, then who was in the ground? And why warn me about my wife and parents?
The next morning, I drove to Aaron’s place.
His usual chaos had vanished. The apartment was wiped clean—no photos, no dishes, no toothbrush.
Just a water bottle and a jar of pickles in the fridge. Aaron hated pickles. He hadn’t d!ed. He’d been erased.
I remembered our childhood hiding spot: a fake outlet behind his dresser. Inside was a burner phone. Three contacts, one video.
Grainy footage. Aaron, breathing hard, glancing behind him.
“If you’re watching this, either I escaped… or I didn’t make it. If there’s a body, it’s fake. The people behind it—closer than you think.
Start with Elena. Ask Dad about Cold Ridge. Don’t trust anyone. Especially not Mom.”
My heart raced. I waited two days before confronting Dad. He was grilling burgers like it was any other Sunday.
“What’s Cold Ridge?” I asked.
He froze mid-turn, then slowly set the spatula down.
“Where did you hear that?”
“Aaron.”
He exhaled. “It was a research site. Government-adjacent. Experimental.”
“Experimental how?” I asked.
His eyes shifted toward the house where Mom watched us.
“Cognitive, physical. Enhancements. Aaron volunteered. He was one of their only successes.”
“So, he was a test subject?”
“Yes. It worked. But when the project ended, others wanted to keep using him. He called it ‘being hunted.’
Faking his de.ath may’ve been his only escape. But if he reached out… they’ll come for you too.”
“Then what do I do?”
“You finish what he started,” he said.
I needed help. Aaron’s ex, Riley, was my next stop.
She was more than a girlfriend—she’d worked with the program. She let me in without question.
“I always knew he couldn’t stay buried,” she whispered.
She pulled out a folder labeled ECHO – Unsanctioned Trials.
“I was his handler, assigned to monitor progress. But I saw what it did to him—blackouts, migraines. They made him into a weapon.”
Inside were documents: drug logs, mood charts, photos of Aaron strapped down.
“He escaped with a drive,” she said. “It has everything—evidence, blueprints, recordings. If it gets out, Echo burns. So do your parents.”
“My parents?” I asked.
“Your mom was a clinical lead. Your dad did logistics. Aaron found out. That’s why they buried him.”
She handed me a second phone showing a map.
“This pin? That’s where he might be.”
I drove out that night.
The road stopped short, leaving me to hike through dense forest. After an hour, I found a shack nestled in the trees.
“Aaron?” I called. “It’s Nate.”
The door cracked open. He stood there—gaunt, wary, but alive.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said.
“I saw the files. I know everything.”
He let me in and pointed to a metal lockbox.
“I’ve been gathering proof. But they found me.”
Suddenly, a noise outside—a twig snapped. Shadows shifted beyond the trees.
“You were followed,” he whispered. He handed me a pistol. “We run or we fight.”
A voice rang from the woods.
“Aaron Cross. Nathan Cross. Come out with the drive.”
They knew my name.
Aaron shoved the flash drive into my coat. We crashed out the back door, sprinting through the brush. Gunfire whispered behind us.
“Ranger tower!” he yelled.
We climbed the old steel structure, bullets pinging off metal. At the top, Aaron hooked the drive into a transmitter.
“Uploading now.”
“What’s on it?” I asked.
“Remember Dad’s scholarship story? It was a lie. We were enrolled as children. Twins made perfect test subjects for emotional conditioning. Loyalty as a weapon.”
My stomach turned. Our lives had been an experiment.
The upload hit 100%.
“Too late,” Aaron smiled.
By morning, the files were everywhere—Reddit, Telegram, major news. Project Echo exposed. Names, footage, funding. Our parents. Elena.
Turns out, my wife had been assigned to me. A psychological handler. Every emotion, every fight, is all part of a study.
Three days later, I returned home.
“You saw it all,” my mother said.
“You should be grateful,” my father added.
“You fed us to monsters,” I replied.
Aaron stepped into view. My mother gasped.
“You told the world I was de.ad,” he said.
“You were unstable,” she cried.
“No. You were afraid of being exposed,” I said.
Then I handed Dad a subpoena.
“You’re testifying.”
Six months later, we sat backstage at a televised interview.
“You ready?” I asked.
Aaron looked at me through the mirror.
“I d!ed once,” he said. “This is just resurrection.”
Project Echo was shut down. Officials indicted. Our parents went to prison. Elena filed for divorce. I let her go.
A year later, Aaron lives quietly in the mountains. I started a foundation to help others speak out.
Sometimes I pass a mirror and barely recognize myself. But that man—he survived. He didn’t just crawl out of the grave. He built something honest on top of it.
Not for revenge. For truth. And truth always finds its way back from the de.ad.
