**EPISODE ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-TWO**
**THE READER WHO STOPPED READING**
---
BLACK SCREEN.
No stars.
No room.
No jungle.
No table.
No door.
Nothing.
Then...
a page turned.
FLIP.
Another page.
FLIP.
Another.
FLIP.
The sound continued.
Slowly.
Patiently.
As though someone were reading a book in complete darkness.
FLIP.
FLIP.
FLIP.
Then...
the pages stopped.
A voice whispered:
"Who is reading?"
Silence.
The voice asked again.
"Who is reading?"
Still nothing.
Then...
a third voice answered.
"I am."
LIGHT.
Nova opened his eyes.
He was standing in a railway station.
Not the station from before.
Not the impossible station where time had folded into paper.
This one looked ordinary.
Almost painfully ordinary.
A clock hung above the platform.
07:15.
A train waited nearby.
No passengers.
No conductor.
No destination.
Just a train.
Nova looked around.
"Milo?"
No answer.
"Tarzan?"
Nothing.
He turned.
The platform stretched endlessly in both directions.
At the far end...
someone was sitting on a bench.
A man.
Reading a book.
Nova knew him.
The Reader.
Nova walked toward him.
The man didn't look up.
Nova stopped beside the bench.
"What are you reading?"
The Reader turned a page.
"Myself."
Nova frowned.
"That's impossible."
The Reader smiled.
"You've said that before."
Nova sat beside him.
"Where is everyone?"
"Who?"
"Milo. Tarzan. The Original Human. The Woman. The Author. The Dreamer."
The Reader closed the book.
"They are where they need to be."
"Where is that?"
"Outside the story."
Nova looked toward the empty train.
"And you?"
The Reader looked at the book in his hands.
"I am trying to leave."
Nova stared.
"You can't."
"Why?"
"Because you're the Reader."
The man smiled.
"Exactly."
He stood.
And placed the book on the bench.
Nova looked at it.
"What happens if you leave?"
The Reader walked toward the edge of the platform.
"The story ends."
Nova stood.
"That's what we're trying to do."
"No."
The Reader stopped.
"You are trying to finish the story."
He turned.
"I am trying to stop being part of it."
Nova said nothing.
The Reader continued.
"Those are not the same thing."
A distant whistle sounded.
FWWWWWHHHH.
The train doors opened.
Inside—
there were hundreds of seats.
Every seat was occupied.
But nobody was there.
Only books.
One book on every seat.
Nova walked toward the nearest carriage.
"What are those?"
The Reader answered:
"Stories that were abandoned."
Nova stepped inside.
A book lay on the first seat.
Its cover read:
THE BOY WHO WAITED
Nova opened it.
The first page said:
HE WAS WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO COME BACK.
Second page:
NO ONE DID.
Third:
SO HE BECAME A STORY.
Nova closed it.
Another book.
THE GIRL WHO NEVER WOKE UP
Another.
THE MAN WHO REMEMBERED TOMORROW
Another.
THE ANIMAL WHO WANTED A NAME
Another.
Nova stopped.
The last book had no title.
He opened it.
One sentence.
THIS IS THE STORY YOU ARE CURRENTLY READING.
Nova dropped it.
The book landed on the floor.
It opened.
Pages began turning rapidly.
FLIP.
FLIP.
FLIP.
The words changed.
NOVA LOOKED DOWN.
NOVA WAS AFRAID.
NOVA PICKED UP THE BOOK.
NOVA READ THE WORDS.
Nova stepped backward.
"No."
The words changed again.
NOVA SAID NO.
Nova froze.
The Reader entered the carriage.
"That's why I stopped."
"Stopped what?"
"Reading."
Nova looked at him.
"You can do that?"
The Reader nodded.
"Eventually."
"How?"
"By refusing to believe every sentence."
Nova looked at the book.
The words were still changing.
NOVA LOOKED AT THE READER.
Nova whispered,
"Then if I don't read it..."
The sentence disappeared.
The Reader smiled.
"Exactly."
The book became blank.
Nova looked at him.
"You were first."
The Reader's smile disappeared.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"You've said that before."
"I know."
"Then remember."
The Reader sat.
"I was not created first."
Nova waited.
"I arrived first."
"Where?"
"Here."
"At the station?"
"No."
The Reader looked into the distance.
"Inside the first sentence."
Nova remembered.
I AM HERE.
The Reader continued.
"The Original Human wrote those words."
"Yes."
"But he wasn't the first person to hear them."
Nova frowned.
"Who did?"
The Reader looked at him.
"I did."
Silence.
Nova sat across from him.
"How?"
"I was the person who wondered whether anyone was listening."
The Reader touched his chest.
"That question created me."
Nova stared.
"The first reader wasn't someone who opened a book."
"No."
"He was someone who waited for an answer."
The Reader nodded.
"The moment the Original Human wrote 'I AM HERE,' something inside the story answered."
Nova whispered,
"We are here."
"Yes."
"And that answer became you."
The Reader looked down.
"For a while."
"What changed?"
The Reader smiled sadly.
"I became addicted to knowing what happened next."
Nova understood.
"The Reader kept reading because he was afraid of the ending."
"Yes."
"And that's why you were there first."
The Reader nodded.
"Because the first thing a story needs after being spoken..."
He paused.
"...is someone afraid to stop listening."
A sound came from the next carriage.
THUMP.
Nova turned.
The Reader didn't.
"What's that?"
"Someone who hasn't learned to stop."
THUMP.
Again.
Nova moved toward the sound.
The next carriage door was locked.
A name was written across it.
MILO FINCH
Nova's heart tightened.
He grabbed the handle.
It wouldn't move.
"Milo!"
No answer.
He hit the door.
"Milo!"
A voice came from inside.
"Don't open it."
Nova froze.
"Milo?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because if you open this door, I'll ask you to take me back."
Nova looked at the Reader.
The Reader said nothing.
Nova placed his hand against the glass.
Inside...
Milo was standing beside his machine.
The machine was running.
Its screen displayed:
"YEAR: UNKNOWN"
"LOCATION: FIRST MEMORY"
"RETURN: AVAILABLE"
Milo stared at the machine.
"I can go back."
Nova said,
"You promised you wouldn't."
"I know."
"Then don't."
Milo laughed bitterly.
"You don't understand."
"What?"
"I can fix it."
Nova's voice became quiet.
"Fix what?"
Milo looked away.
"The moment before everything went wrong."
Nova knew what he meant.
The moment before loss.
The moment before regret.
The moment before the need for stories.
Milo touched the machine.
"I could go back."
Nova shook his head.
"You could."
Milo looked at him.
"But?"
"You would still have to come back."
Silence.
Milo closed his eyes.
The machine began counting.
10.
11.
12.
Nova stepped closer.
"Milo."
7.
8.
"Don't."
5.
6.
Milo's hand trembled.
3.
4.
Nova pressed his palm against the glass.
"I won't ask you to forget."
1.
The machine stopped.
Milo opened his eyes.
Nova whispered:
"Just stop returning."
The machine went dark.
Milo looked at the screen.
Then...
he smiled.
"I hate when you're right."
Nova smiled.
"You taught me how to stop."
Milo opened the door.
He stepped out.
The machine remained inside.
Nova looked at it.
Milo shook his head.
"Leave it."
"You don't need it?"
"No."
"Why?"
Milo looked down the endless platform.
"Because for the first time, I know where I am."
Nova asked:
"Where?"
Milo answered:
"Here."
The station trembled.
A second door appeared.
TARZAN
Nova approached it.
This door was different.
It was made of wood.
Vines covered its edges.
Something scratched from the other side.
SCRATCH.
SCRATCH.
SCRATCH.
Nova opened it.
Jungle.
Rain.
Darkness.
And...
Tarzan.
He stood in the center of a clearing.
Surrounded by trees.
Nova stepped through.
Tarzan looked at him.
"You came."
"I said I would."
"You always say that."
Nova smiled.
"And you always doubt me."
Tarzan looked around.
"This place is not my jungle."
"What is it?"
"The jungle remembers me."
Nova looked at the trees.
Each trunk had words carved into it.
Names.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Characters.
People.
Creatures.
Heroes.
Villains.
Forgotten voices.
Tarzan touched one tree.
"Every story leaves something behind."
"What?"
"A shape."
Nova looked closer.
The carving beneath Tarzan's hand read:
SURVIVAL
Tarzan stepped back.
"That was my role."
"Was?"
Tarzan nodded.
"Not anymore."
Nova looked at him.
"What are you now?"
Tarzan smiled.
"A man."
The trees shook.
Leaves fell.
The word SURVIVAL began disappearing.
Nova watched.
"You don't have to be the first character anymore."
Tarzan nodded.
"I know."
"You don't have to represent anything."
"I know."
"You can just exist."
Tarzan looked at the jungle.
"That is harder."
Nova smiled.
"I know."
Tarzan walked toward him.
"Do you know why I was first?"
Nova thought.
"Because you survived?"
"No."
"Because you were imagined?"
"No."
"Because someone needed a character?"
Tarzan shook his head.
"I was first because someone needed to prove that a person could continue after the story changed."
Nova looked at him.
"And did you?"
Tarzan smiled.
"I am standing here."
The jungle became silent.
Then...
one by one...
the trees lost their words.
SURVIVAL.
FEAR.
HUNT.
ESCAPE.
RETURN.
RUN.
All disappeared.
Only one word remained.
HERE
Tarzan touched it.
"That's enough."
Nova remembered the first sentence.
I AM HERE.
The Reader had arrived because someone wondered whether anyone was listening.
Milo had stayed because someone wanted time to stop.
Tarzan had survived because someone needed proof that a story could continue.
And Nova...
Nova had been created to remember.
But now...
he was becoming something else.
A choice.
A continuation.
A person.
The jungle dissolved.
Nova, Milo, and Tarzan returned to the railway station.
The Reader was standing near the train.
The Original Human stood beside him.
The Woman was there.
The Dreamer.
The Author.
Seven again.
No eighth chair.
The Original Human looked at Nova.
"You understand now."
Nova shook his head.
"Not completely."
"Good."
"Why good?"
"Because complete understanding is another kind of prison."
The Author smiled.
The Dreamer laughed softly.
The Reader looked toward the train.
"I have one final thing to show you."
He opened his hands.
There was no book.
Nova frowned.
"Where is it?"
"I don't have one."
"But you're the Reader."
"Not anymore."
The Reader stepped toward the train.
"I stopped reading."
The train began moving.
Slowly.
The Reader didn't board.
Nova watched.
"What happens now?"
The Reader answered:
"Now the story has to exist without someone watching it."
The train accelerated.
The empty carriages passed them.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Hundreds.
Every window reflected a different story.
A child.
A soldier.
A scientist.
A poet.
A king.
A prisoner.
A mother.
A stranger.
A monster.
A dream.
Then...
the final carriage.
Its window showed Nova.
Not as a child.
Not as the Original Human.
Not as a character.
Just Nova.
Standing alone.
Looking outward.
The train vanished.
The Reader turned back.
And for the first time...
he looked free.
Nova asked:
"Are you still the Reader?"
The man thought.
"No."
"Then who are you?"
He smiled.
"I don't know."
Nova laughed.
"That's becoming familiar."
The Reader nodded.
"I think I'll find out."
Then he walked away.
Not into another story.
Not through another door.
Just...
away.
The Original Human watched him leave.
"I always thought the Reader was created to watch me."
Nova looked at him.
"He wasn't."
"Then why?"
"To prove that being witnessed isn't the same as being understood."
The Original Human smiled.
"That's true."
The Woman stepped toward Nova.
"You still haven't asked about me."
Nova looked at her.
"Who were you before the story?"
She answered:
"Your first memory."
"Nothing else?"
"Nothing more."
"Where will you go?"
She looked toward the horizon.
"Where memories go when they stop being prisons."
Nova understood.
"Into life."
She nodded.
Then...
she disappeared.
Not dramatically.
Not painfully.
She simply became light.
The Dreamer watched.
"That's how it happens."
Nova looked at him.
"What?"
"When a dream wakes."
The Dreamer closed his eyes.
His body began becoming transparent.
"Are you leaving?"
"No."
"Then what?"
"I'm becoming memory."
Nova smiled.
"Goodbye."
The Dreamer smiled.
"Not goodbye."
He disappeared.
"Remember me."
Then...
the Author remained.
Nova turned toward him.
"What about you?"
The Author placed his pencil on the table.
"I have written enough."
"Are you going to disappear too?"
"No."
"Then what will you do?"
The Author looked at the blank page.
"Learn how to live without turning everything into a story."
Milo laughed.
"That might be the hardest thing any of us has done."
Tarzan nodded.
The Original Human sat down.
Nova sat beside him.
For a while...
nobody spoke.
The station became quiet.
The clock still showed 07:15.
Nova looked at it.
"Has that clock moved?"
The Original Human shook his head.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because this place doesn't measure time."
Milo looked at the clock.
Then smiled.
"Good."
Nova asked:
"Why?"
"Because for once, I don't need it to."
Milo sat down.
Tarzan sat beside him.
The Author sat opposite.
The Original Human looked at Nova.
"There is one thing left."
"What?"
"The question."
Nova remembered.
The four questions.
Who was the original author?
Why was the Reader there first?
What was born with Nova?
What happens when the last character stops reading?
Nova looked at the blank page.
"The first question is answered."
The Author nodded.
"The author was the need."
"The second..."
Nova looked toward the empty track.
"The Reader was first because the first sentence needed someone to hear it."
The Reader was gone.
But somehow...
the station seemed to hear them.
"The third..."
Nova paused.
Milo looked at him.
Tarzan looked at him.
The Original Human looked at him.
"What was born with Nova?"
Nova placed his hand over his chest.
"Choice."
The room became completely still.
"And the fourth?"
Nova looked at the blank page.
"What happens when the last character stops reading?"
No one answered.
Nova picked up the pencil.
He looked at the page.
The page contained only five numbers.
121.
122.
123.
124.
125.
Nova crossed out 121.
Then 122.
Then 123.
Then 124.
Only...
125.
remained.
Milo stood.
"You're not writing it."
"No."
Tarzan stood beside him.
"Why?"
"Because I don't want the ending to become another cage."
The Original Human looked at him.
"Then what will you do?"
Nova placed the pencil down.
"I'll live."
The station lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then...
the entire station began disappearing.
The floor became paper.
The walls became paper.
The train became paper.
The clock became paper.
Milo shouted:
"Nova!"
Nova reached for him.
"I've got you!"
Tarzan grabbed Milo.
The Original Human reached for Nova.
The Author grabbed the table.
Everything began folding inward.
Not collapsing.
Folding.
Like a book being closed.
Nova heard hundreds of voices.
Characters.
Readers.
Authors.
Dreamers.
People who had existed for one sentence.
People who had existed for a thousand pages.
All saying the same thing.
"Don't forget us."
Nova closed his eyes.
"I won't."
The voices continued.
"Don't rewrite us."
"I won't."
"Don't bring us back."
Nova opened his eyes.
"I won't."
"Then what will you do?"
Nova looked at them.
"I'll let you go."
Silence.
The entire universe stopped.
Then...
every story became quiet.
Not dead.
Quiet.
Free.
The final page appeared.
Nova stood before it.
Milo beside him.
Tarzan beside Milo.
The Original Human behind them.
The Author behind him.
The Reader somewhere beyond the page.
The Dreamer somewhere inside memory.
The Woman somewhere inside the first sentence.
Nova looked at the blank page.
Then wrote only four words.
WE WERE HERE.
The page accepted them.
A second line appeared by itself.
AND THAT WAS ENOUGH.
Nova smiled.
But then...
a final sound came from the blank space beneath the words.
SCRATCH.
Nova looked down.
A new sentence was appearing.
He didn't write it.
Nobody did.
The letters emerged slowly.
THE LAST CHARACTER IS NOT NOVA.
Nova froze.
Milo stared.
Tarzan stepped closer.
The sentence continued.
THE LAST CHARACTER IS THE ONE WHO STILL NEEDS THE STORY.
Nova's eyes widened.
The page turned black.
BLACK SCREEN.
A voice whispered:
"Who still needs it?"
No answer.
Then...
another voice.
Very small.
Very young.
Very familiar.
"I do."
Nova turned.
A child stood behind him.
Holding a red pencil.
Nova knew that child.
He had seen him before.
In the first room.
At the first desk.
Before the Original Human.
Before the Author.
Before the Reader.
Before Nova.
The child smiled.
And asked:
"Do you know why I wrote 'I AM HERE'?"
Nova couldn't speak.
The child held out the pencil.
"Because I was afraid nobody would answer."
Nova looked at him.
"And did anyone?"
The child smiled.
"Yes."
"Who?"
The child pointed at Nova.
"You did."
The screen went completely black.
Then...
one final transmission appeared.
---
RECOVERED TRANSMISSION // FILE: N-122
"STATUS: READER RELEASED"
"FIRST READER: NO LONGER READING"
"READER FUNCTION: COMPLETE"
"MILO FINCH: HAS STOPPED RETURNING"
"TEMPORAL MACHINE: ABANDONED"
"TARZAN: HAS STOPPED RUNNING"
"SURVIVAL FUNCTION: COMPLETE"
"WOMAN: RELEASED FROM MEMORY"
"DREAMER: AWAKENED"
"AUTHOR: NO LONGER WRITING"
"ORIGINAL HUMAN: LIVING"
"NOVA: CHOOSING"
"FIRST AUTHOR: NEED"
"FIRST SENTENCE: I AM HERE"
"FIRST ANSWER: WE ARE HERE"
"LAST CHARACTER: UNKNOWN"
"FINAL PAGE: 1"
"EPISODES REMAINING: 3"
"ENDING: APPROACHING"
---
A final line appeared.
Not in the transmission.
Not on the page.
Not in the story.
In the darkness.
THE READER HAS STOPPED READING.
A pause.
BUT SOMEONE IS STILL LISTENING.
BLACK SCREEN.
Silence.
Then...
a child whispered:
"Nova."
Nova answered:
"I am here."
The child smiled.
"I know."
**TO BE CONTINUED…**
Written By,
Ivan Edwin
Pen Name :MAXIMUS.
©All Rights Reserved