Chapter 4: The Girl Who Knew the Error
> "Some people enter your story already knowing how it ends."
— Fragment flagged as unstable memory
---
Kairo didn't know how long he walked.
Time didn't pass here—it unraveled.
Trees flickered like corrupted frames. The sky blinked.
The key burned in his hand now.
It pulsed, reacting to something close.
He turned a corner that shouldn't exist—
And saw her.
The girl from the stained glass.
Sitting on a stone bench that hadn't been there a second ago.
Reading a book that had no title, its pages shifting with static between each blink.
She looked up before he could speak.
> "You took longer than I calculated."
Her voice was calm.
Certain.
As if she had spoken to him in hundreds of timelines before this one.
> "Do I know you?" he asked.
She smiled. Not cruelly. Not kindly.
> "Not yet. But you will."
---
The world around them pulsed.
The trees glitched, freezing mid-motion. A crow in the sky hung like a paused video. Even the wind held its breath.
> "What is this place?" Kairo asked.
> "A pocket of memory that doesn't belong to either of us," she said, closing the book. "But the system doesn't scan it anymore. We can talk here."
> "Talk about what?"
She walked toward him.
Slowly.
As if approaching a dangerous possibility.
> "About you. The version that was erased. The one before 'Kairo' was chosen as your name."
---
He felt dizzy.
Like falling through someone else's heartbeat.
> "I don't remember anything before Protocol 0…"
> "You're not supposed to," she said, eyes narrowing. "That's what the Oblivion Protocol does—it resets the identity layer."
She paused.
> "But you… something went wrong. You triggered an echo before full overwrite."
He stared at her.
> "You're not from the system, are you?"
She didn't answer.
Just looked over her shoulder—then whispered:
> "They're coming. The real writers. The ones who correct stories that try to correct themselves."
> "You need to wake up, Kairo."
> "But not too fast."
---
A new sound filled the air.
Not a scream.
Not a roar.
Something worse.
Typing.
Fast. Violent. Angry.
As if an invisible machine was trying to erase them from the page.
The trees began folding inward.
> "RUN," she shouted, grabbing his wrist. "I'm not losing you again!"
---
They ran through collapsing code, memory melting behind them.
And then—
nothing.
---
Kairo woke up on the cold ground, gasping.
The girl was gone.
But burned into the grass beside him—
five words written in her handwriting:
> "Find the page they hid."
---
🌀 Interactive Echo:
> Who is she?
Why does she know Kairo's erased identity?
Share your theory — before the system edits it away.