Anomaly

After the extensive series of tests Charlotte had undergone, the family finally gathered once again in the observation room. Emily remained silent for a few moments, casting one last glance through the reinforced glass. On the other side, some of the equipment used during the examinations was still running.

Small indicator lights blinked at steady intervals while soft beeps echoed through the otherwise empty room, silent remnants of the long succession of tests. Emily's gaze lingered on the machines for a moment before her thoughts drifted elsewhere. All of this was still difficult to accept.

The conclusions they had reached challenged nearly everything she would have considered plausible just a few days ago. Ironically, a large part of that breakthrough had come from Victor. If he hadn't made that casual remark about forests, Emily probably never would have abandoned conventional explanations and started considering more unusual possibilities.

Letting out a quiet sigh, Emily turned her attention back to the family. Charlotte's parents stood close together, both clearly lost in thought. The concern on their faces was obvious, but so was the confusion. A perfectly understandable confusion, considering everything Emily had just explained about her latest findings.

For several seconds, no one spoke. The silence hung heavily over the room. Charlotte's father was the one who finally broke it: "So... what exactly are you trying to tell us?"

His voice remained controlled, but the tension underneath was unmistakable. He slowly rubbed his jaw as he tried to organize his thoughts: "Because, honestly, I'm not sure I'm following"

Emily opened her mouth to answer, but Charlotte's father continued before she had the chance. His expression gradually hardened, as though the very possibility left a bitter taste in his mouth: "Our daughter is some kind of oracle or something?"

Emily tilted her head slightly at the question. To be honest, she'd been asking herself that exact same thing ever since the hypothesis first crossed her mind. The problem was that, despite all the theories she'd constructed so far, she still had no idea what any of it actually meant.

In fact, what bothered her most was the reaction, or rather, the lack of one. Charlotte simply didn't seem to care about any of the things Emily said regarding her situation. There was no concern, no surprise, not even curiosity in her expression. It was almost as if none of this information mattered to her at all.

After taking a few moments to organize her thoughts, Emily decided to share the few conclusions she had managed to reach. They weren't concrete answers, but they were still better than remaining silent.

"I wouldn't necessarily say she's an oracle" Emily's voice was steady, carrying the professional tone she naturally adopted when dealing with delicate situations: "Based on everything I've observed so far, your daughter isn't exactly the anomaly. She's more like... an avatar created by it"

Emily paused briefly, carefully choosing her next words: "Technically speaking, the two don't share a conventional relationship. Other than being, in a sense, the same person, there's nothing that actually connects them"

The silence that followed lasted only a few moments. Her gaze drifted toward Charlotte, who seemed oddly distracted. While everyone else remained seated around the table, the girl kept staring at a spot near its center, as though she were focused on something only she could see.

Emily frowned slightly. That was strange. Still, after releasing another quiet sigh, she continued: "As for why your daughter doesn't remember any of this..." Emily shook her head almost imperceptibly: "Unfortunately, I still can't formulate a plausible explanation. That's assuming, of course, that this is genuinely the case"

Charlotte's family remained silent in response to Emily's methodical explanation. None of them seemed to have an immediate answer. Victor and Rupert exchanged a brief glance. Doubt was evident on their faces, but so was the understanding that, at this point, any argument they made would be nothing more than speculation.

In the end, both remained silent. Laura watched the scene for a few seconds before shifting her attention to Charlotte's parents. The girl herself appeared thoughtful, her fingers interlocked in her lap as she absorbed every word of the conversation. After a moment, Laura turned back to her parents.

"Didn't you ever find it strange?" she asked calmly, though there was unmistakable firmness in her voice: "The fact that a sudden pregnancy happened to someone who, medically speaking, wasn't supposed to be able to have children?" The couple stiffened almost imperceptibly.

Laura held their gaze for several more seconds before continuing: "Not even once did other possibilities cross your minds?" She tilted her head slightly: "Not even once did you wonder whether it might have been... divine intervention?"

Her words echoed through the room like an unavoidable verdict. For a brief moment, no one spoke. Charlotte's parents exchanged a quick glance. Her mother's hands tightened in her lap while her father looked down at the floor before lifting his gaze again. Both visibly flinched, if only slightly, at the suggestion.

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Naturally, Laura, Emily, Rupert, and Victor all interpreted that reaction the same way. Yes, at some point they had considered that possibility. Maybe not in those exact words. Maybe not even consciously. But the unusual nature of the pregnancy had undoubtedly crossed their minds before.

And honestly, who could blame them? For a woman who had dreamed of becoming a mother and spent years being told it was impossible, questions like that eventually lose their importance.

People rarely analyze miracles when those miracles finally grant them the one thing they've wanted their entire lives. In the end, speculating about the origin of what happened would never change the outcome. Charlotte existed. And that alone had always seemed to be the only thing that truly mattered to them.

The silence lingering over the room remained for several more seconds, heavy and uncomfortable, until it was finally broken: "So..." Charlotte suddenly spoke, immediately drawing everyone's attention. Her eyes moved across the faces around her as she tried to process the absurd chain of information she'd just been given.

"What you're saying..." she continued, pausing briefly and pointing at herself with her thumb: "is that technically, my real body, or whatever that thing was, sent... me" She pointed at herself again: "An avatar" Another pause: "So that I could conceive a child for my own mother?" No one answered immediately.

Charlotte remained silent for a few moments, staring into the empty space as she tried to process the sentence she had just spoken. Then she tilted her head slightly to the side: “Because honestly, saying it out loud just makes everything sound even more absurd”

She rubbed her forehead with one hand and let out a short laugh: “And why the hell would he do that? Or... I would do that?” she quickly corrected herself, making a face: “Actually, I don’t even know what I should call myself in this situation anymore”

Her gaze shifted across the others, searching for some kind of reasonable explanation: “But seriously... why? What’s the point? Because the way you’re describing it, it sounds like someone came up with the most complicated, confusing, psychologically disturbing plan possible just to achieve something that could’ve probably been done in like fifty different ways”

Charlotte crossed her arms and slowly shook her head: “It doesn’t make any sense. None. Not even a little. The more I think about it, the more it feels like someone lost a cosmic bet”

Emily subtly tapped her finger against the table, producing a nearly imperceptible rhythm. That was the core issue, why? Emily didn’t have the answer. And, if she was being honest with herself, she doubted she ever would.

Over decades of dealing with the most diverse kinds of anomalies, Emily had learned a simple and frustrating lesson: trying to understand them through conventional logic was, more often than not, a pointless exercise.

Many of them didn’t even possess a structure of thought or existence that could be comprehended by a human mind. And the ones that did... well, those were usually the worst. The deeper someone dug for answers, the more they realized that certain truths simply weren’t meant to be faced directly. Some researchers had lost years of their lives chasing explanations.

Others had lost far more than that. Emily’s gaze briefly swept across the room. Still, it wasn’t as if she was completely out of options. Even if Emily didn’t know what was happening, there was someone who probably did. At least far more than she did at the moment.

Emily let out a long, tired sigh. Her lips had already started to part, ready to call out the presence that was most likely observing everything from somewhere in the room. Given recent events, she wouldn’t have been surprised if she was being watched right now.

But before she could say anything, Charlotte’s voice cut through the silence: “Anyway...” The single word was enough to draw everyone’s attention. Emily turned her head toward her, along with the others in the room.

Charlotte had her arms crossed, her brows slightly furrowed, an expression that seemed to hover between discomfort and disbelief: “I was trying not to think too much about it” she continued, subtly pointing toward the center of the table: “But since apparently no one else is going to say it, I guess someone has to. Because honestly... this is starting to get a little unsettling”

For a moment, no one responded. Then Charlotte raised her hand more clearly and pointed directly at the table in the center of the room: “Did no one else notice that very suspicious-looking shadow hiding under there?”

Everyone’s eyes automatically followed her gesture. Charlotte narrowed her eyes: “And just to be clear, I’d also like to know why that shadow has two golden lights staring at me for who knows how long”

No one answered right away. The parents of Charlotte exchanged a quick glance, confusion clearly written across their faces. There was concern there too. On the other side of the table, Victor, Rupert, Emily, and Laura also looked at one another. Their reaction, however, was different.

Although surprised, their expressions carried a hint of recognition, as if they already suspected what this situation really was. For a few seconds, no one spoke or moved. Then, a shadow began forming right in the center of the table.

At first, it was just a small dark blotch. But it quickly expanded, spreading across the surface like liquid ink, completely ignoring the laws of nature. Everyone’s eyes locked onto the center of the table. From the pulsating darkness, a figure slowly emerged. It was the same entity Charlotte and her family had encountered some time ago.

Laura shifted slightly in her seat, startled. Rupert raised an eyebrow. Emily let out a barely noticeable sigh, while Victor simply closed his eyes for a brief moment. Charlotte’s parents, on the other hand, looked completely speechless. None of them had the chance to say anything before the entity itself broke the silence.

It looked around at the faces surrounding the table, then tilted its head slightly. Its expression carried a rare hint of embarrassment, like someone caught doing something they shouldn’t have been doing: “Uh...” it began, scratching the back of its head in a strangely human gesture: “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on your conversation”

Its gaze swept across the group. After a brief pause, the entity offered a small, awkward smile, or something that could almost pass for one: “Sorry?” it asked, sounding more like a genuine apology than a formality.

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