"What?" Thaddeus whispered, and she closed her eyes, grimacing.
"Project Grey Stone, I think... I think it's real," she repeated, and he stared at her. He took a step back, clenching his hands behind his back as he looked at the floor. She thought it was real? He turned from the woman, keeping his gaze fixed on the floor as he considered his options.
"Why?" he quietly asked her. The woman sighed, and he heard the couch squeak as she sat down.
"It was too random," she began. "Back when we first started the Project, the first few subjects we got were all from Pennsylvania. They were all from towns around Philadelphia, and two of the subjects even knew each other. Our mass hysteria theory worked back then," she told him, "it explained everything. Then we got that girl from Arkansas, the man from Texas; that couple from Alabama. How did they connect to Philadelphia? The girl had been there for summer break, but the other three? They'd never set foot there." He turned his head, peering at her from the corner of his eye. The woman shook her head, running a hand over her face as she sat forward. "And then people from other countries started calling in, all repeating the exact same story, and I realized that our theory couldn't explain that." The doctor paused, clearly waiting for him to voice his opinion. He stayed silent. "The stories," she murmured, "they were the other part that never made sense to me. Every single person said the same thing- the cave, the wizard, the statues, they always described them in the same way. How could a man from Texas and a little girl from Rwanda imagine the exact same thing? How could they describe it so similarly? And then freaking Superman came along and changed everything."
"How so?" he quietly asked her, turning to watch the woman as she stood from the couch.
"Because he was an alien, Thaddeus! A real, live alien! And if aliens were real?" she shook her head. "Suddenly magic didn't seem like such of a big stretch anymore. I started thinking... what if this was real?"
"Superman showed himself two years ago," Thaddeus pointed out. "Why didn't you leave then?"
"Because I liked working with Sivana Enterprises," she told him. "I didn't want to ruin a good thing just because I was having doubts. So, I stayed quiet and kept my head down. Continued the interviews, kept taking notes. And it was working," she said, "until our newest subject."
"Her video," he realized, and the doctor nodded.
"I know you won't believe me, you left before it ended, but Thaddeus," she reached out, taking his shoulders as she looked up at him. "I saw it!"
"Saw what?" the man asked her, and her eyes widened in amazement as she spoke.
"The cave," she told him. "It was just for a split second, but her door opened and the light faded, and it was there!" She searched his eyes, her excitement fading as she let him go and stepped back. "I'm sorry," she quietly apologized. "I shouldn't have touched you. You," she paused, giving a little self amused chuckle, "you probably think I'm crazy." The woman gestured to the letter he held. "That's why I have to quit. The Project needs someone who can look at our data subjectively," she shook her head, "I can't do that any more. I'm sorry to disappoint you, sir," she murmured, her eyes downcast. He blinked, suddenly feeling as if he were looking at a younger version of himself.
"It was real, dad!" he could hear himself yelling. "I promise, it was there!"
"Stop deluding yourself, Thaddeus," his father had said. He could feel the words on the tip of his tongue.
"Stop deluding yourself, Lynn," he could say, crumpling her letter. She'd been exhausted, been listening to the subjects for too long. He could tell her it wasn't real, that she'd imagined it. He could... The man held her letter out, and focused his power. A thin spark of lightening lit it on fire, burning it to ash in the blink of an eye. The woman stared wide eyed at his hand, her gaze slowly lifting to his. He would not be like his father.
"It's real," Thaddeus told her.