Jonas didn't move. He couldn't.
His gaze was locked on the window where the figure had stood.
Nothing remained now, but trees and stillness. But the air in the room was different charged, humming just below hearing, like the moment before lightning.
Behind him, Mara sat down again.
Like this was routine. Like she had done this before.
"You saw it, didn't you?" she asked softly.
Jonas nodded once.
"That means it saw you too."
He turned to face her. "What is it?"
She didn't answer right away. Instead, she motioned toward the armchair across from her. "Sit. I'll tell you everything. But you need to stop reacting and start listening."
Jonas hesitated, but his legs gave him little choice. He sank into the chair, his heart pounding.
Mara exhaled. "Two years ago, you were part of a research team. You weren't just the subject, you were the architect. You pioneered a process to map consciousness beyond physical perception. The working theory was… if we could isolate what makes up a person's awareness, we could reach beyond it. Extend it. Tune it like a frequency."
She looked at him. "You called it: The Gate."
Jonas felt like his ribs were caving in. "I... , why can't I remember this?"
"Because on the fourth trial, the Gate opened. And whatever you made contact with… it made contact back."
Flashes surged through his head again distorted audio, screaming voices, ink-black tendrils stretching through sterile white corridors, lights bursting overhead.
"You were lost for eight hours," Mara said. "When they found you, everyone else was gone. Vaporized, shredded, or simply… missing. You were the only thing left in the containment chamber. And you were whispering its name."
Jonas's eyes narrowed. "What name?"
She leaned forward. Whispered: "Eris."
The word landed in his skull like a crack of thunder.
He felt it. Like pressure behind his eyes. The same way a fever breaks.
Mara continued. "Eris is not a being in the way we understand. It's not intelligent. it's curious. Hungry. And worse: it remembers impressions. Not just thoughts, but feelings. Pain. Fear. The act of being noticed by it burns through the mind."
Jonas gripped the arms of the chair. "So I shut the gate."
"No. You tried to bargain with it."
The room fell deathly still.
"I... ,what?"
"You offered it a part of yourself in exchange for containment. Not just a thought or a memory, Jonas ..... , you. Your guilt. Your trauma. Your humanity. You fractured your own mind to feed it. To keep it docile."
She paused, then added: "And it worked. For a while."
Jonas could barely breathe. "That's why I forget. That's why I was stuck in a loop."
Mara nodded. "Every time your mind starts rebuilding itself, it creates patterns that wake it up. Like music. Or geometry. Or language. And when it starts stirring, you destroy the pattern to protect what's left. That's the loop."
His throat was dry. "So what happens now?"
She looked toward the window. "You broke the loop. You restored almost 50% of your memory. Eris noticed."
Jonas whispered, "Is it free?"
"No , not yet."
"But it's trying."
Mara met his eyes. "Yes and the more you remember, the closer it gets."
Jonas stood. "Then I'll stop. I'll forget again. Wipe it clean."
Mara didn't move. "Too late. The moment you saw it, it saw you."
A low hum filled the room.
Not from inside.
But outside. From the woods.
The trees no longer stood still.
They shivered, like something massive was passing through them bending time, space, and memory with every step.
Mara stood now too.
Her voice was calm. Resigned.
"It's coming, Jonas."