Chapter 4 - The Eleven Hours of 1974
Margaret had kept a diary.
Not every day.
Only June 12, 1974.
Ethan read while Evelyn slept for two hours in a guest room with Helen nearby.
Diary gave timeline.
1:10 p.m. — wall opened.
1:23 — Evelyn woke.
1:44 — says year 1896.
2:15 — recognizes portrait of Elias.
3:30 — eats soup.
4:05 — asks where father buried.
5:20 — severe dizziness after walking into garden.
6:40 — Dr. Ward measures unusual electrical activity on skin.
8:10 — Evelyn remembers “second bell.”
9:55 — Charles orders main hall cleared.
10:50 — Evelyn begs not to return to copper room.
11:34 — Charles says field test only five minutes.
11:41 — vibration begins.
11:43 — power failure.
11:44 — Evelyn gone.
But one line had been heavily crossed out.
Ethan held page to light.
Readable underneath:
HELEN SAW SOMEONE BEHIND THE COPPER GLASS.
He looked at Helen.
“You never told Margaret?”
Helen’s face stiffened.
“I tried.”
“What did you see?”
“A man.”
Evelyn woke before answer.
She came downstairs slowly, wrapped in blanket.
“What man?”
Helen stared at her.
“In the room behind you.”
“What did he look like?”
“I could barely see.”
“Old?”
“No.”
“Young?”
“Maybe thirty.”
Ethan asked:
“1974 clothes?”
Helen shook head.
“Older.”
“How old?”
“Like a photograph.”
Evelyn’s breathing changed.
“My father?”
Helen whispered:
“I thought so.”
First major speculative reveal.
During Evelyn’s second disappearance, Helen believed Elias Mercer was visible inside chamber.
But Elias had died in 1908.
Could be reflection.
Hallucination.
Optical effect.
Need evidence.
Helen drew what she remembered.
Tall man.
Dark waistcoat.
Silver watch chain.
Distinctive pointed beard.
Ethan compared Elias’s portrait.
Very close.
Evelyn touched drawing.
“Father.”
Margaret looked at Helen.
“Why did you never tell me?”
“Because your father told me I’d imagined it.”
“Charles knew?”
“He asked exactly what I saw, then took me downstairs.”
“To what?”
Helen had never spoken because Charles threatened her family.
He showed her a hidden laboratory beneath east wing.
Not abandoned.
Maintained.
1974 equipment:
oscilloscopes,
industrial generators,
copper coils.
Charles had been trying to recreate Mercer experiment for years.
Why?
Not to bring Evelyn back initially.
He wanted understand preservation effect.
Charles had found Elias’s notebooks in 1958.
He believed technology could revolutionize medicine and materials storage.
He funded secret research.
Node B opened accidentally during renovation and Evelyn appeared.
That was not first time Charles touched system.
It was culmination.
Then why return Evelyn to chamber?
Because Charles wanted test.
Dr. Ward’s “health necessity” may have been partly true.
But Charles also wanted know whether disappearance could be reproduced.
Margaret went pale.
“My father used her.”
“Yes.”
Helen had opposed.
Charles threatened her father’s job and claimed Evelyn would die outside field.
Helen yielded.
So 1974 disappearance was not entirely accident.
It was an unauthorized human experiment.
Margaret had been lied to.
Evelyn had been used.
And Charles Bennett had continued Elias Mercer’s work.
Ethan asked where underground lab was.
Helen pointed toward staircase.
“Under wine cellar.”
Mansion wine cellar had been renovated twice.
No hidden lab ever found.
Margaret whispered:
“Because Dad sealed it in 1975.”
“Why?”
May you like
Helen answered:
“Something came through after Evelyn left.”
