Maya woke before sunrise.
No machines beeped.
No footsteps in the hall.
No distant city noise.
Just… quiet.
Not normal quiet.
Deep quiet.
Like the world was holding its breath.
She opened her eyes.
The hospital room was there.
But the colors were… faded.
Soft.
Unfinished.
She sat up slowly.
The heart monitor beside her was on.
But the line wasn't moving.
Flat.
Yet she felt her heart beating.
Strong.
Steady.
"I'm… dreaming?"
"No," said a voice gently.
She turned.
Eli stood near the window.
But something about him was wrong.
He looked… doubled.
Like two versions of him overlapped slightly out of sync.
"You're not supposed to be here like this," he said softly.
Maya blinked. "Here like what?"
Eli hesitated.
Because he could see it now.
After what he had done, after forcing reality to obey—
Maya wasn't fully inside time anymore.
She was… adjacent.
Untethered from the strict flow that held everyone else.
"You're hearing the gap," he said.
"The gap between moments."
She looked down at her hands.
Light passed through them faintly.
Not transparent.
Just… less solid.
"I don't feel sick," she whispered.
"You aren't," Eli said.
"You crossed a line when you came back."
Her eyes widened.
"I died?"
Eli couldn't speak.
Silence answered for him.
But she didn't panic.
She looked toward the ceiling.
Listening.
"I hear something," she said.
Eli went still.
"What?"
"Like… a huge clock. But it's not ticking right. It's skipping."
Eli's blood ran cold.
She could hear it.
The mechanism of existence.
And she was hearing its failure.
Far beyond Earth, the cosmic system recalculated.
"Secondary anomaly detected."
"Subject connected to Primary."
"Human consciousness adapting to post-terminal state."
A pause.
Then, something close to unease:
"They are synchronizing."
Back in the room, Maya looked at Eli with new understanding.
"You didn't just save me," she said softly.
"You pulled me somewhere else."
Tears filled his eyes.
"I didn't know how to lose you."
She reached for his hand.
Their fingers touched—
—and reality around them went still again.
Not violently.
Not breaking.
Just… pausing respectfully.
Like the universe itself didn't want to interrupt.
Maya squeezed his hand.
"You're not supposed to carry this alone anymore."
Eli looked at her.
And for the first time…
He wasn't the only anomaly in the room.