Darkness swallowed us whole.
Not normal darkness.
Not "lights off" darkness.
This one felt… alive.
Like it could breathe.
Like it was breathing with us.
I clung to the stranger's arm as reality reset around us with a faint static sound —
like an old TV tuning into a channel that wasn't meant for humans.
My voice trembled.
"Where… are we now?"
His silhouette was barely visible.
"We're between memories," he whispered.
"Between who you were and who you might become."
"Bro that tells me NOTHING. Am I dead? Are you dead? Is this an afterlife? Or like… the pre-afterlife? A trailer before death?"
He gave me that look again.
That soft, sad, devastatingly handsome look.
"You're alive, Anshu. That's what matters."
Before I could reply, a faint light ignited under our feet.
A long, narrow road of floating memory fragments appeared.
Pictures.
Scenes.
Moments.
None of them mine.
A wedding.
A burning forest.
Two lovers arguing.
A girl crying in an empty room.
A boy smiling at someone he shouldn't love.
The stranger stepped onto the glowing path like he'd done it a thousand times.
"Stay close to me," he said quietly.
"If you fall off, you will enter someone else's life."
I blinked.
"Enter someone's WHAT—??"
He held my wrist, firm but gentle.
"Just trust me."
And stupidly—
dangerously—
I did.
We walked, the memories glowing beneath our feet like shattered stars.
Then I noticed something odd.
Some of the glowing fragments were showing me.
Me laughing with a boy I didn't know.
Me dancing at a festival I never attended.
Me holding hands with someone whose face was blurred.
Me hugging a boy under a neon cityscape.
My chest tightened.
"What… are these?"
He stopped walking.
His voice lowered.
"Those are your other lives."
My breath vanished.
"My what?"
"The timelines where you lived differently. With different people."
I stared at the glowing fragments.
One showed me kissing someone.
Another showed me crying over someone's body.
Another showed me smiling like the universe never hurt me.
I felt something heavy in my chest.
"And why don't I remember any of this?"
He hesitated.
Then he said the first TRUTH that shook my soul:
"Because I remember them for you."
I turned to him sharply.
"What do you mean YOU remember them?"
He didn't answer.
He looked pained.
Guilty.
Broken.
As if remembering hurt him more than forgetting ever hurt me.
And then—
The path lit up ahead.
Bright.
Warm.
A figure stood there.
A boy.
Not the stranger.
Someone else.
Younger.
Soft features.
Beautiful eyes.
An innocent smile that didn't belong in this terrifying place.
He looked… familiar.
Too familiar.
He took a slow step toward me.
"Anshu…?" he whispered.
My heart dropped.
His voice hit me like déjà vu.
Like a memory from a dream I wasn't supposed to remember.
"Who… who are you?" I whispered.
He smiled softly.
Sadly.
A smile full of heartbreak.
"You don't remember me," he said quietly.
"But I remember everything about you."
The stranger beside me stiffened instantly.
His grip on my wrist tightened.
I looked between them.
"Do you two know each other?" I asked cautiously.
The younger boy nodded.
"Yes. We met in a timeline you forgot."
The stranger's jaw clenched.
"That timeline doesn't exist anymore."
The boy didn't stop smiling.
"It doesn't have to exist to matter."
My heart twisted.
"What… what do you remember?" I asked.
His eyes softened.
"You and I… were supposed to fall in love."
I froze.
The stranger's entire aura darkened.
The boy continued.
"But you never got to finish our story."
"Why?" I whispered.
He looked straight into my eyes.
"Because someone killed me before you could."
Silence.
Heavy.
Cold.
Shattering.
I felt my blood turn to ice.
"Killed you?" I echoed.
The boy nodded gently.
"Yes."
Then he pointed at the stranger beside me.
The man whose hand was holding mine.
The man who saved me.
Protected me.
Warned me.
"He did."
I stepped back.
Heart pounding.
Air gone.
I looked at the stranger in horror.
"Is… is that true?"
His eyes didn't flinch.
His voice was steady.
"Yes."
My breath broke.
"You killed him?"
He stepped toward me slowly.
"To protect you."
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"You have no idea what you are, Anshu."
My heart slammed against my ribs.
"WHO AM I???" I shouted.
His jaw tightened.
The boy stared at him with grief.
And the stranger finally whispered:
"You're the girl every timeline tries to love…
and the girl every universe tries to erase."
---