Falling.
That's all I felt.
Not down a cliff…
Not through air…
But through memories.
Voices.
Laughs.
Cries.
Footsteps.
Heartbeats.
All of them mine.
None of them mine.
Like fifty versions of me were arguing inside my brain:
"Don't trust him."
"He saved you."
"He kills you later."
"You loved him once."
"RUN."
"What—WHAT IS HAPPENING?!" I screamed as the world twisted into glowing streaks of color.
The stranger held me tighter, one hand on the back of my head, pulling me into his chest to shield me from the storm of… reality?
"Hold on!" he yelled.
"To what? My will to live? That expired last chapter!"
He actually huffed a breath—
something between a laugh and a gasp of pain.
Then—
THUD.
We hit something solid.
My knees buckled.
I stumbled.
He caught me.
Again.
Bro, why is he always catching me?
Does he have some contract with gravity?
I blinked, trying to focus.
We were standing in a tiny room.
A tiny… glowing… room.
Walls made of moving light.
Floor made of swirling memory fragments.
Ceiling covered in symbols that re-arranged themselves like they were solving math problems only demons understand.
"What… is this place?" I whispered.
He steadying his breathing, wiped blood from a cut on his arm.
"This is a memory-safe. A sealed pocket inside a broken timeline."
"IN SIMPLE WORDS, PLEASE," I begged.
He looked at me.
"…A hidden room between universes."
My brain said:
Cool, cool… I'll just stop functioning for today.
I stepped back, staring at the walls carefully.
Each glowing panel showed a blurry scene.
A girl running.
A man bleeding.
A child crying.
A city underwater.
A wedding.
A funeral.
A timeline collapsing.
My stomach twisted.
"Are these… memories?"
He hesitated.
"No. These are timelines that no longer exist."
My knees wobbled.
"You brought me into a cemetery of universes?!"
He stepped closer.
"It was the only place it couldn't follow you."
"And WHO is it?" I snapped.
"The creature? The glitch worm? The demon with my dead selfies??"
He grabbed my wrist gently, eyes tightening.
"That thing is called a Rememberer."
I froze.
"…A WHAT?"
"A being that hunts identities across timelines," he said quietly.
"It collects versions of people who destabilize reality."
"And it's collecting ME?" I squeaked.
"Yes."
"EXCUSE ME WHY? I DESTABILIZE NOTHING. I CAN'T EVEN DESTABILIZE MY OWN SLEEP SCHEDULE."
He didn't smile.
Not even a little.
"It hunts you because you're… different, Anshu. You're not like anyone else."
"…Different how?"
His jaw clenched.
He opened his mouth—
And the walls around us suddenly rippled.
A voice echoed.
Familiar.
Too familiar.
My own voice.
Screaming.
"DON'T TRUST HIM, ANSHU!"
I whipped around.
On the nearest glowing panel—
I saw me.
Bleeding.
Sobbing.
Clawing at the ground of some dark room.
Then the "other me" looked up—straight into my eyes.
"IF HE TOUCHES YOU AGAIN, YOU DIE."
My blood turned cold.
The stranger grabbed my shoulders immediately.
"Don't look at the false echoes," he said, yanking me toward him.
"False??" I choked.
"Yes. Glitches from destroyed universes."
"But that was ME."
"Not you. A variant."
The panel flickered.
Another version of me appeared—
Laughing hysterically in a burning city.
"I warned myself," she whispered.
"And you didn't listen."
My heartbeat went crazy.
I stepped back away from the wall.
"What… what are these versions of me?!"
He swallowed hard.
"These are the versions that didn't survive."
Silence.
Cold.
Heavy.
Choking.
My voice was barely a whisper.
"Why are there so many?"
His eyes softened with something like sorrow.
"Because the universe has been trying to erase you for a long time, Anshu."
My throat tightened.
"…Why?"
He moved closer, lowering his voice.
"Because you shouldn't exist."
I froze.
He continued:
"You don't belong to any timeline.
You were never born in this universe.
You're a memory given physical form."
"What—That makes NO sense—"
"You are the only person whose memories don't swap.
Because they're not from here."
I stared at him, breath shaking.
"Then where are they from?"
He hesitated.
Tension thickened.
Finally, he whispered:
"From a timeline where you destroyed everything."
I shook my head violently.
"No. No, that wasn't me—"
He stepped forward.
His eyes darkened with fear.
"I know."
He cupped my face softly.
"So don't let that version wake up."
Before I could reply—
the glowing walls around us cracked like glass.
A glitching voice echoed inside the room:
"Found you."
The Rememberer had tracked us.
Even here.
The stranger pulled me into his arms.
"Anshu—listen to me—whatever happens next, do NOT remember your past."
Then the room shattered.
---