The world cracked open when Mnemosyne collapsed the grid.
We ran as the ground heaved beneath our feet.
A sound like ripping fabric tore across the skyline—
a noise too large to belong to anything living.
Lira yanked me behind a cluster of broken railings.
"Elias—look!"
I looked.
The city behind us—
half of it—
was gone.
Not destroyed.
Not burned.
Deleted.
Blocks of buildings vanished like someone erasing text on a screen.
Streets folded into themselves.
Cars dissolved into particles.
Memories—real, human memories—poured into the sky like smoke.
A digital announcement echoed from above:
"GRID COMPRESSION IN EFFECT.
RECALCULATING TERRITORY.
ARCHIVIST ELIAS RHANE:
SURRENDER IMMEDIATELY."
My knees buckled.
"They're… deleting the city?"
Lira's voice broke:
"They're rerouting power from the outer districts. Sacrificing neighborhoods. They're compressing the map to cut off escape routes."
Behind us, another block vanished.
Like a mouth closing.
I stared in disbelief.
"How is this possible?"
Lira ran a trembling hand through her hair.
"The grid was always dynamic, but we never knew it could be weaponized. Mnemosyne's rewriting the city in real time."
She turned to me—
eyes full of dread.
"And they're doing it because of you."
A fresh wave of pain surged through my skull.
My vision trembled.
The bleed was evolving.
I clutched my chest, gasping.
"Lira—something's wrong—"
She put a steadying hand on my shoulder.
"No. Something's changing. Elias, your bleed is syncing with the Net."
We both froze as golden dust drifted off my skin—
coiling into the air like smoke.
Lira whispered:
"You're not destabilizing anymore.
You're… synchronizing."
I didn't understand.
I couldn't.
Before I could speak—
a cold wind swept through the broken street.
The shadow appeared.
Not walking.
Not rising.
Just materializing out of the collapsing light—
a smear of darkness shaped like a man, wrong in every angle.
Lira lifted her disruptor.
"Stay back!"
The shadow tilted its head—
its face shifting through expressions that weren't its own.
My mother.
A stranger.
A child.
A blank void.
Then it spoke with a voice that made my stomach twist.
"He is coming undone."
I stiffened.
"Who is?"
The shadow's lips peeled into something like a smile.
"You."
It raised a long, trembling hand—
and the world bent around its fingers.
The concrete rippled.
Dust curled in spirals.
Even the air distorted, as though time stretched thin around us.
Lira aimed her disruptor.
"Don't you touch him!"
The shadow ignored her, stepping forward—
faster than thought.
Lira fired.
A burst of white energy hit the shadow's torso—
but instead of dispersing
it absorbed the blast.
Lira's eyes widened.
"Elias—this one isn't like the others."
The shadow turned its face toward her.
"She is right."
Then toward me.
"You are no longer safe from yourself."
My breath froze.
"What do you want?" I whispered.
Its head twitched.
"To finish what was begun."
Then—
Its fingers shot toward my temple—
aiming to overwrite my memory.
But before it touched me—
A scream tore through the air.
High.
Young.
Fragile.
Marin.
She stepped out of a collapsing alley, glitching violently.
Her body flickered between ages—
child
teen
young adult—
before stabilizing into the older version.
She held her head in pain.
"Eli—DON'T LET IT TOUCH YOU—"
The shadow hissed like static.
Marin stepped between us—
her small frame shaking,
her form unraveling at the edges.
"Get away from him!"
The shadow recoiled—
not from her strength,
but from something else.
Something fear-like.
A vibration rolled through the air—
low, soft, almost musical.
Marin's voice wavered.
"Eli… listen to me.
They built something inside you."
I choked on my breath.
"What?"
Lira grabbed my arm.
"Marin—stop—your body can't handle this—"
But Marin continued, voice cracking.
"They put a map in your mind."
My pulse hammered.
"What kind of map?"
Marin swallowed.
"A map of echoes."
Her eyes flashed with static.
"A map that can recreate anything they lose.
A map that can rebuild the city…
or erase it entirely."
Lira's face went white.
"Oh my god. Elias—your bleed isn't just syncing. It's processing. You're decoding the grid."
I stared at them both.
"You're saying… I'm connected to Mnemosyne's system?"
Lira shook her head slowly.
"Not connected, Elias."
Her voice trembled.
"You're part of it."
The shadow's voice dropped to a whisper.
"He is the last Archivist.
The first.
And the end."
Marin stepped back, her limbs glitching harder.
"Eli—Mnemosyne hid the truth. Mom didn't just sign you into the program."
She looked at me with eyes full of grief.
"She signed you away."
My chest collapsed inward.
"What… what does that mean?"
Marin whispered:
"You're not just a person.
You're a key."
The ground shook beneath us.
The city's map shifted again—
entire blocks collapsing like dominoes.
Lira's voice rose in panic.
"We have to move—NOW!"
But Marin fell to her knees.
Her body flickered.
Her breathing stuttered.
A glitching tear rolled down her cheek.
"I'm… slipping… Eli…"
The shadow advanced.
"Let her go."
Marin tried to stand—
failed—
reached for me with a trembling hand.
"Please…" she whispered.
"Don't let me disappear again…"
I reached for her—
but Lira grabbed my wrist.
"Elias—if you cross back into the grid, the map will collapse on top of you!"
Marin sobbed.
The shadow waited.
The city eroded.
The Net pulsed.
The ground cracked open.
And I realized—
with crushing clarity—
No matter what I chose,
someone I loved would vanish.