CHAPTER 4
I opened it.
Not with force. Not with fear.
But with the kind of stillness that only comes after screaming.
The kind of stillness that doesn't come from peace
but from exhaustion.
The light behind the door wasn't bright.
It flickered, like it wasn't sure it should be there.
Like it remembered a time when it had been real,
and now was only pretending.
I stepped inside.
Stone walls, curved inward. A spiral.
No windows. No torches. No sound.
Only breath.
Not mine.
New Zone: The Hollow Archive
Access Level: Restricted
Caution: Memory Echo Density High
The floor beneath me hummed.
Not with power.
With warning.
My ribbon twitched again. That thin, faded thread that held me to who I once was.
But this place it didn't want who I was.
It wanted who I had forgotten to be.
Shelves stretched into the dark.
Books with no titles. Pages written in handwritings I almost recognized.
Almost.
A whisper came.
Not near. Not far.
"Not all stories are meant to be told. Some are meant to be remembered… quietly."
One book fell.
It didn't hit the ground.
It landed in my hands.
Its cover was blank.
But I felt it.
Her voice.
Her scent.
Her blood.
This was hers.
The one I had let go.
The one who had run.
The one who had told me to run.
I opened it.
Pages turned on their own.
And I saw memories not from my mind,
but from hers.
Running. Hiding. Hoping.
Praying I would come back.
And when I didn't
she stopped praying.
She stopped believing in anything.
Even me.
Anchor Fragment Acquired: The Believer Who Lost Her Faith
Emotional Sync: 89%
Passive Trait Unlocked: Echo-Bound
Your presence may trigger dormant memories in others.
The air tightened.
Like the room hated what it had just shown me.
Like the past wanted to stay buried.
But I had come too far to stop now.
A shadow moved.
Behind the shelves. Tall. Silent.
I followed it.
It didn't run.
It didn't hide.
It simply waited.
At the center of the Archive: a mirror.
But not a reflection.
A doorway. Into another time.
My time.
A version of me stood on the other side.
Younger.
Not broken.
But about to be.
"Do you want to change it?"
The voice came from the mirror.
It was mine.
But older.
And tired.
And cruel.
"You don't get to heal. Not until you understand why you bled in the first place."
The mirror rippled.
And I reached out.
But before my fingers touched it
System Override: Access Denied
Reason: Core Stability Incomplete
Current Integrity: 62%
Required: 75%
I pulled back.
Fist clenched.
Teeth grinding.
Not out of rage.
But because I knew the system was right.
I wasn't ready.
Not yet.
Behind me, a voice.
Soft. Female.
"You were always so desperate to fix the past… you never stopped to ask if it wanted to be fixed."
I turned.
And she was there.
Not her. Not fully.
An echo.
Flickering at the edges.
Eyes full of everything I had lost.
"If you really want to find the truth… stop running toward it."
She stepped into the mirror.
And disappeared.
I stood alone.
Again.
But the ribbon on my wrist pulsed.
Not glowing. Beating.
Alive.
New Task Available: The Mirror Path
Objective: Find the Memory That Broke the World
Time Limit: Undefined
Difficulty: ???
The door behind me closed.
And this time…
it stayed shut.
The door didn't open again.
It breathed shut.
Like lungs that had held truth for too long.
I didn't try to force it.
Some doors are meant to be passed through once.
Some truths held only once before they burn.
The corridor ahead was different.
It wasn't made of stone.
Not shadow.
Not memory.
It was made of possibility.
But broken ones.
Choices not made. Words not spoken.
A hallway full of what could have been.
You Have Entered: The Path of Unspoken Things
Warning: Emotional Feedback May Distort Reality
Anchor Stability: Wavering
I walked.
Not fast.
Not slow.
But like every step was a question I didn't want the answer to.
And the walls whispered.
Not in voices.
In images.
Flickers.
Me holding her hand.
Me walking away.
Me saying nothing when everything should've been said.
Each step... heavier.
Each breath... sharper.
The kind of air that forgets it was ever oxygen.
Then
a chamber.
Round. Windowless. Endless.
And in the middle: a chair.
Old. Simple. Waiting.
And in that chair
Me.
But wrong.
This version of me was clean.
Face unscarred. Eyes calm.
Hands rested on his knees.
But his smile
that smile wasn't mine.
"You made it," he said.
"Took longer than I thought."
I didn't answer.
Because I knew what he was.
Not a shadow.
Not a memory.
Not a ghost.
A choice.
The one I didn't make.
Mirror Construct Detected — Identity Variant: "The One Who Let Go"
Accessing Alternate Outcomes…
"I walked away," he said, still smiling. "When the fire started. When she screamed. When everything cracked I walked."
He leaned forward.
"And I'm happy."
He meant it.
And that was the worst part.
I felt it then.
The system trying to tear him apart.
Trying to reject what he was.
But it couldn't.
Because he was real.
Just not here.
"Do you want what I have?" he asked.
He stood.
Walked toward me.
"You can take it. Just say yes. Just let go."
I looked at my hands.
Scarred. Ash-stained. Still trembling from doors that knew too much.
And I said:
"No."
The room shattered.
Not from rage.
From release.
Because even unmade choices have weight.
And mine had just chosen me back.
Mirror Construct Destroyed
Core Integrity +4%
New Trait Unlocked: Willbound — When facing impossible choices, gain resistance to system corruption.
The hallway returned.
But it felt smaller.
Not because I was bigger
but because I carried more now.
Memories. Anchors. Regret.
Purpose.
At the end of the hall: a window.
The first I'd seen in this world.
Small. Cracked.
And through it sky.
Real sky.
Not a memory. Not a projection.
A storm gathering.
Clouds like torn paper. Lightning without sound.
And on the horizon
a tower.
Crooked. Crimson. Breathing like it had lungs of its own.
Cevareth's heart.
And mine.
Anchor Trail: Final Phase Available
Next Task: Remember the Name You Buried
I turned from the window.
Not away.
Just for now.
Because before I could reach the tower
I had to remember who I was before I stopped being me.