The door opened without making a sound.
Beyond it was not another room.
It was a memory.
Olivia knew that immediately.
Not because she remembered it, but because something inside her recognized it before her mind could.
A narrow bedroom.
A wooden desk.
A small window covered by rain.
An old laptop resting beside a stack of notebooks.
Everything looked ordinary.
Too ordinary.
Olivia stepped through.
The moment her foot touched the floor, the white room disappeared behind her.
The door vanished.
She turned around.
Nothing.
Only the bedroom remained.
Then the laptop screen turned on.
No system interface.
No warning.
No strange symbols.
Just a date.
17 YEARS AGO.
Olivia stared at it.
"That isn't possible."
The screen changed.
FIRST MEMORY LOADED.
She moved toward the desk.
On top of it lay a notebook.
The cover was completely black.
Her name was written across it.
OLIVIA
She opened the first page.
Blank.
The second page.
Blank.
The third page contained a single sentence.
I woke up before I was born.
Olivia's fingers froze.
She turned the page.
Another sentence.
They told me I was the first.
Another.
They were lying.
The pages continued.
Each one contained something about her life.
Her childhood.
Her fears.
Things she had forgotten.
Things she had never told anyone.
Then she reached a page that made her stop breathing.
It described the first time she had seen the mysterious system.
But the date was wrong.
It happened years before she remembered owning a laptop.
Olivia looked toward the computer.
The screen changed.
MEMORY CONFLICT DETECTED.
She whispered, "Show me the original."
The room went dark.
Then the laptop displayed:
ORIGINAL MEMORY CANNOT BE DISPLAYED.
"Why?"
BECAUSE YOU ARE INSIDE IT.
The lights returned.
Someone was sitting on the bed.
A little girl.
Olivia recognized her immediately.
Herself.
The child looked no older than six.
She was holding a pencil and staring at the wall.
Olivia couldn't move.
The little girl slowly turned.
Their eyes met.
"You came back."
Olivia swallowed.
"Do you know me?"
The child smiled.
"I know what you become."
"Who told you?"
"No one."
The child pointed toward the wall.
Olivia looked.
There were hundreds of drawings.
Cities.
Machines.
Doors.
People without faces.
And one enormous black circle.
In the center of every drawing was the same figure.
Olivia.
But behind her stood another shape.
A shadow with no body.
"What is that?"
The child lowered her voice.
"That is what was here before you."
Olivia stepped closer.
The shadow in the drawing suddenly moved.
Not on the paper.
Inside the room.
The lights flickered.
The laptop displayed:
EXTERNAL PRESENCE DETECTED.
The child stood up.
"You need to leave."
Olivia looked at her.
"You said you knew what I become."
"I do."
"What do I become?"
The child pointed at the laptop.
The screen changed.
OLIVIA — VERSION 0
Then:
STATUS: ASLEEP
Olivia's eyes widened.
"What does that mean?"
The child's smile disappeared.
"It means you're not the first Olivia."
A deep sound came from beneath the floor.
The walls trembled.
The drawings began falling one by one.
Then the bedroom door appeared.
Exactly like the door from the white room.
But this time the number wasn't 00.
It was 01.
The handle turned.
Olivia stepped backward.
The child whispered:
"Don't let her in."
"Who?"
The door opened.
A woman stood on the other side.
She looked exactly like Olivia.
Same eyes.
Same face.
Same voice.
But there was something different in her expression.
She wasn't confused.
She wasn't afraid.
She looked like someone who had been waiting for years.
The woman smiled.
"Finally."
Olivia stared at her.
"Who are you?"
The woman looked at the child.
Then back at Olivia.
"I am Version One."
The laptop behind Olivia suddenly displayed a final message:
VERSION 1 HAS ENTERED THE MEMORY.
Then another line appeared.
VERSION 0 IS NO LONGER ASLEEP.
The little girl screamed.
The room went completely black.
And in the darkness, Olivia heard a second voice whisper:
"Now there are three of you."