**EPISODE SEVENTY-SEVEN**
**THE UNIVERSE THAT WAS BORN BY MISTAKE**
**Part Eighteen: THE FIRST BREATH AFTER THE END**
The universe...
breathed.
Milo felt it.
Not as wind.
Not as sound.
As pressure.
A breath...
moving through everything.
The darkness expanded.
Then...
contracted.
Diana screamed.
Milo reached for her.
His fingers touched her hand.
For one second...
he felt her.
The next...
she was gone.
"MILO."
Her voice came from everywhere.
Milo spun around.
"Diana!"
Nothing.
Then...
THUMP.
THUMP.
Two heartbeats.
Not from Diana.
From the universe.
The darkness beneath Milo's feet...
began glowing.
A line appeared.
Thin.
White.
It stretched beneath him...
toward infinity.
Then...
another.
And another.
Millions of lines.
Writing.
The universe...
was writing itself.
Milo stepped backward.
"No."
A word appeared beneath his feet.
BEGINNING.
Another.
ACCIDENT.
Another.
CHILD.
Milo looked up.
The darkness had changed.
There was a sky.
But it was unfinished.
Half blue.
Half black.
Stars appeared...
then disappeared.
A moon rose.
Then remembered...
it had never existed.
And fell.
Tarzan landed beside Milo.
Face-first.
He remained there.
A pause.
Then he raised one hand.
"I HAVE ARRIVED."
Milo stared at him.
Tarzan slowly stood.
"WITH DIGNITY."
"You fell out of nowhere."
Tarzan looked upward.
"I BLAME NOWHERE."
The sky cracked.
Tarzan pointed.
"SEE?"
Milo grabbed him.
"Where's Diana?"
Tarzan's expression changed.
He looked around.
For once...
he did not joke.
"I DON'T KNOW."
The witness appeared.
Then the old man.
Then the nameless child.
All of them...
one by one...
falling into existence.
The old man landed on his knees.
The pen remained in his hand.
But...
it was writing by itself.
The witness clutched the manuscript.
Milo looked at it.
"What does it say?"
The witness did not answer.
Milo stepped closer.
"What does it say?"
The witness slowly turned the page.
There was no title.
Only one sentence.
THIS UNIVERSE WAS NOT APPROVED.
Tarzan raised his hand.
"WHO APPROVES UNIVERSES?"
No one answered.
Tarzan lowered it.
"AGAIN."
A pause.
"BAD DEMOCRACY."
The nameless child was staring at the sky.
Milo followed his gaze.
Something...
was falling.
At first...
Milo thought it was rain.
Then...
a person.
Then...
thousands of people.
Men.
Women.
Children.
Creatures.
Cities.
Entire memories.
Falling from the unfinished sky.
The child whispered...
"Rejected worlds."
The old man closed his eyes.
"No."
Milo looked at him.
"What?"
The old man pointed upward.
"They weren't destroyed."
Another world fell.
Upside down.
A forest.
A building.
A street.
All of it...
silent.
"They were discarded."
Milo stopped breathing.
"By whom?"
The pen in the old man's hand...
answered.
BY THE STORY.
---
1. THE UNIVERSE THAT SHOULD NOT EXIST
The ground shook.
A city appeared in the distance.
Not built.
Appeared.
One second...
empty land.
The next...
buildings.
Roads.
Cars.
People.
Then...
silence.
Milo stared.
The people were standing still.
Every one of them.
Frozen.
Tarzan walked toward the nearest man.
"HELLO."
The man did not move.
Tarzan waved.
Nothing.
He poked him.
The man blinked.
Tarzan screamed.
The man screamed.
They both ran in opposite directions.
Milo closed his eyes.
"Tarzan."
From far away...
"HE STARTED IT."
The nameless child whispered...
"They don't know yet."
Milo looked at him.
"Know what?"
The child pointed at the sky.
"That they're alive."
The frozen people began moving.
Slowly.
One by one.
A woman looked at her hands.
A child began crying.
An old man looked toward the horizon.
Then...
everyone spoke.
Different voices.
Different languages.
The same sentence.
"Where were we before?"
Milo felt cold.
The old man dropped the pen.
The pen continued writing.
Milo looked down.
A sentence formed in the dust.
THE FIRST LAW OF AN ACCIDENT:
IT DOES NOT KNOW WHY IT HAPPENED.
Diana's voice whispered...
"Neither do I."
Milo froze.
He turned.
"Diana?"
Nothing.
Then...
closer.
"Milo."
He ran.
Tarzan shouted after him.
"THAT IS NEVER A GOOD IDEA."
Milo ignored him.
The voice came from beyond the new city.
Across a field.
Through a forest that appeared...
tree by tree...
as he ran.
"Diana!"
A tree appeared in front of him.
Milo hit it.
Hard.
Tarzan appeared behind him.
"THE FOREST IS DEVELOPING VERY QUICKLY."
Milo pushed himself upright.
"Where is she?"
Tarzan pointed ahead.
"I THINK SHE'S THAT WAY."
"How do you know?"
Tarzan pointed behind himself.
"THAT WAY HAS NO DIANA."
Milo stared.
Tarzan shrugged.
"LOGIC."
They ran.
The witness followed.
The old man followed.
The nameless child...
did not.
Milo looked back.
"Come on!"
The child remained still.
The new forest grew around him.
He whispered...
"This isn't where she went."
Milo stopped.
"What?"
The child looked at the sky.
"It's where she will come from."
Silence.
Then...
the universe breathed again.
THUMP.
THUMP.
Milo's eyes widened.
Not heartbeats.
Contractions.
The ground pulled inward.
The sky pushed outward.
The entire universe...
was being born.
---
2. THE FIRST MISTAKE
A scream echoed through the sky.
Diana.
Milo ran.
The others followed.
Ahead...
the forest ended.
A cliff.
Beyond it...
nothing.
Not darkness.
Not space.
Nothing.
And floating above the nothing...
was Diana.
Milo stopped.
"Diana!"
She turned.
Milo's heart broke.
She looked older.
Not decades older.
Universes older.
Her eyes carried memories that had never happened.
One hand held her stomach.
The other...
was covered in blood.
Milo stepped toward the edge.
"Diana."
She looked at him.
And smiled.
"Diana?"
Her smile disappeared.
"Which one?"
Milo froze.
Tarzan whispered...
"THAT IS NOT A QUESTION I LIKE."
Diana looked at her own hands.
"I remember dying."
Milo couldn't speak.
"I remember living."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I remember marrying you."
Milo stopped breathing.
"I remember hating you."
Another breath.
"I remember never meeting you."
Milo whispered...
"Stop."
Diana looked at him.
"I can't."
Her stomach moved.
Once.
Then...
again.
Two hands pressed outward.
Milo took another step.
"Diana..."
She screamed.
The universe screamed with her.
The old man whispered...
"The children are choosing."
Milo turned.
"What does that mean?"
The old man looked at the manuscript.
It had changed.
TWO CHILDREN.
TWO UNIVERSES.
ONLY ONE CAN BE BORN FIRST.
Milo stared.
"First?"
The witness looked at him.
"If one is born..."
A pause.
"The other becomes a memory."
The nameless child whispered...
"Like me."
Everyone turned.
The child was crying.
"I was never supposed to remember."
Milo stepped toward him.
"What happened to you?"
The child shook his head.
"I was born second."
The old man closed his eyes.
The child continued.
"By the time I woke up..."
He looked at Diana.
"...my universe was already gone."
Diana screamed again.
The two hands pressed outward.
The old man whispered...
"The first mistake."
Milo looked at him.
"What?"
The old man pointed at Diana.
"I thought the first child created the second."
A pause.
"I was wrong."
Milo stared.
"Then what created them?"
The pen rose from the ground.
Writing in the air.
A single word.
CHOICE.
---
3. THE CHILD WHO WAS NEVER CHOSEN
The nameless child laughed.
No one had ever heard him laugh before.
It was...
wrong.
Small.
Broken.
"You still don't understand."
Milo looked at him.
"Then explain."
The child stepped closer to the cliff.
"Every universe believes it is first."
The witness whispered...
"No."
The child looked at him.
"Every child believes it was born."
Diana's eyes widened.
The child pointed at her stomach.
"But sometimes..."
He smiled sadly.
"...being remembered comes before being born."
The universe flickered.
For one second...
Milo saw another world.
A normal hospital.
Diana sleeping.
Milo beside her.
One child.
One heartbeat.
Then...
it vanished.
Another appeared.
Diana was alone.
Milo had never existed.
Two children.
Then...
another.
Tarzan was a doctor.
Tarzan screamed.
"NO."
The universe changed again.
Tarzan wore glasses.
He was holding a clipboard.
"NO."
Again.
Tarzan was a banana.
Milo stared.
Tarzan stared.
The universe corrected itself.
Tarzan became Tarzan again.
He looked at Milo.
"I HAVE SEEN TOO MUCH."
The child continued.
"Every version wants to survive."
The old man whispered...
"Of course."
The child looked at him.
"That's why you failed."
Silence.
The old man's face changed.
Milo looked between them.
"What did he do?"
The child pointed at the old man.
"He tried to choose the best universe."
The old man whispered...
"I was trying to save them."
"And you decided which ones deserved to exist."
The old man began crying.
Milo stared.
The child continued.
"Do you know what a universe does..."
He looked at the sky.
"...when it discovers it was not chosen?"
The darkness answered.
"IT REMEMBERS."
The new sky turned black.
Every frozen star...
opened its eyes.
---
4. THE STARS THAT REMEMBERED
Milo looked up.
The stars were watching.
Thousands.
Millions.
Each one...
an eye.
Tarzan slowly moved closer to Milo.
"THE SKY IS DOING THE THING AGAIN."
"What thing?"
"THE EYES."
Milo nodded.
"Yes."
"I DON'T LIKE THE EYES."
"I know."
The stars blinked.
The world changed.
Milo saw...
failures.
Not his own.
Universes.
A thousand Milos dying.
A thousand Dianas screaming.
Tarzan drowning in a jungle that had no water.
The witness standing before an empty courtroom.
The old man...
burning pages.
Children.
So many children.
Waking.
Then disappearing.
The nameless child fell to his knees.
"Stop."
The stars continued.
"STOP."
Milo reached for him.
The child screamed.
"I REMEMBER THEM."
Milo grabbed his shoulders.
"Who?"
The child looked up.
His eyes were no longer human.
Inside them...
worlds were collapsing.
"Everyone I replaced."
Silence.
Diana whispered...
"Replaced?"
The child looked at her.
"You think I was forgotten."
A pause.
"I wasn't."
He pointed at himself.
"I was chosen."
The old man stepped backward.
"No."
The child smiled.
"And they remembered."
The stars began falling.
Not toward the earth.
Into the child.
One by one.
Light entered his body.
His face changed.
Older.
Younger.
Different.
Milo.
Not Milo.
The old man.
Not the old man.
A thousand faces.
The child screamed.
Then...
went silent.
He opened his eyes.
And spoke with thousands of voices.
"WE WERE NEVER LOST."
Milo stepped backward.
The voice continued.
"WE WERE WAITING."
The manuscript burst into flames.
The witness dropped it.
But the manuscript did not fall.
It opened.
Pages turned.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Every page...
a different universe.
Every universe...
the same ending.
A child waking up.
The universe disappearing.
Milo whispered...
"Why?"
The child looked at him.
"Because you keep choosing."
---
5. DIANA'S FIRST MEMORY
Diana fell.
Milo ran.
He reached her.
This time...
his hands did not pass through.
He caught her.
"Diana."
She looked at him.
Her eyes...
were Diana's.
For one second.
Milo almost cried.
"I remember you."
Milo whispered...
"Good."
Diana shook her head.
"No."
She looked terrified.
"That's the problem."
The world trembled.
Milo held her tighter.
"What did you remember?"
Diana looked toward the nameless child.
Then...
the old man.
Then...
the two unborn hands.
"Milo..."
Her voice broke.
"You were never the first Milo."
Silence.
Tarzan whispered...
"OH."
Milo stared.
Diana continued.
"There were others."
"I know."
"No."
She grabbed his face.
"You don't."
Milo froze.
"The old man wasn't the first Author."
The old man closed his eyes.
Diana looked at him.
"And you..."
She looked back at Milo.
"...weren't written to be Milo Finch."
Milo stopped breathing.
The universe stopped with him.
Diana whispered...
"You were written to remember being someone else."
The letters returned.
Across the sky.
I.
V.
A.
N.
Milo stepped backward.
The child screamed.
"NO."
Diana looked at the letters.
Tears filled her eyes.
"I know that name."
Milo whispered...
"Who is Ivan?"
Diana shook her head.
"I don't know."
Another letter.
The child began screaming louder.
"STOP REMEMBERING."
M.
A.
X.
The old man fell to his knees.
"No."
Milo looked at him.
"You know."
The old man said nothing.
Milo grabbed him.
"YOU KNOW."
The old man looked up.
For the first time...
Milo saw something worse than fear.
Recognition.
"I wrote it once."
Milo froze.
"What?"
The old man whispered...
"Before I became the Author."
The sky darkened.
"I had another name."
Milo stepped backward.
The old man began crying.
"I forgot it."
The letters continued.
I.
V.
A.
N.
M.
A.
X.
I.
M.
U.
S.
Milo whispered...
"Maximus."
The universe...
stopped breathing.
---
6. THE NAME BEFORE THE STORY
Nothing moved.
Diana stared at Milo.
Tarzan stared at the sky.
The witness stared at the manuscript.
The child...
covered his ears.
The old man whispered...
"Don't say it."
Milo looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because names are doors."
Milo laughed.
It came out broken.
"That's insane."
The old man looked around.
"LOOK AROUND."
Milo stopped laughing.
The old man stood.
Slowly.
Painfully.
"I thought I was the First Author."
Milo whispered...
"You aren't."
"No."
The old man looked at the letters.
"I was the first one who remembered writing."
Silence.
The manuscript opened.
A page appeared.
Older than the others.
A single sentence.
BEFORE MILO FINCH...
THERE WAS A MAN WHO WROTE BECAUSE HE COULD NOT FORGET.
Milo looked at Diana.
She was pale.
The old man continued.
"I forgot his name."
The child screamed.
"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO."
The old man turned.
The child was no longer a child.
He had grown.
Not physically.
In presence.
The darkness gathered behind him.
"You erased him."
The old man shook his head.
"I erased nothing."
The child's voice changed.
"Then why do I remember?"
Milo whispered...
"Who are you?"
The child looked at him.
For the first time...
without fear.
"I told you."
He pointed toward himself.
"I was the second."
Milo waited.
The child smiled.
"But not the second child."
The universe cracked.
Tarzan whispered...
"OH, COME ON."
The child pointed at the old man.
"I was the second Author."
The old man collapsed.
Diana screamed.
Milo stared.
The child continued.
"The first one..."
He looked directly at Milo.
"...was you."
Milo shook his head.
"No."
The child smiled sadly.
"That is what you always say."
---
7. THE READER WHO BECAME A WRITER
The blank page appeared.
Floating between them.
Milo reached for it.
The child grabbed his wrist.
"Don't."
"Why?"
"Because it remembers your handwriting."
Milo looked at his hand.
"I've never written."
The old man laughed.
A terrible sound.
"Exactly."
Everyone turned.
The old man stood.
His face was different now.
Older.
Familiar.
Milo saw something in him.
Not resemblance.
Memory.
The old man whispered...
"You didn't become a writer because you created a story."
He looked at the page.
"You became a writer because you found one."
Milo stopped.
Diana whispered...
"Found one where?"
The old man looked into the darkness.
"Inside yourself."
The page began writing.
ONCE UPON A TIME...
Milo whispered...
"No."
The sentence continued.
...A MAN FORGOT HIS OWN NAME.
The universe shook.
Tarzan pointed at the page.
"THAT IS A TERRIBLE BEGINNING."
The witness whispered...
"It's not a beginning."
The page continued.
...SO HE CREATED SOMEONE ELSE TO REMEMBER IT FOR HIM.
Milo stared.
The child began crying.
Diana looked at him.
"What does it mean?"
The child whispered...
"Milo Finch."
Milo froze.
The child continued.
"Was never supposed to exist."
Silence.
Diana grabbed Milo's hand.
The child looked at them.
"He was a memory container."
Milo whispered...
"Me."
The child nodded.
"You."
The sky opened.
And behind it...
another room.
A man sitting alone.
Writing.
Milo could not see his face.
But he saw the hand.
Holding a pen.
Writing the first words.
ONCE UPON A TIME...
Milo stepped forward.
The old man grabbed him.
"Don't."
Milo looked at him.
"Why?"
The old man whispered...
"Because if he turns around..."
A pause.
"...you will remember."
Milo looked back at the man.
"Remember what?"
The old man began crying.
"Who you were before you became necessary."
The universe breathed.
THUMP.
THUMP.
Diana screamed.
Both children...
were moving.
---
8. THE CHILD WHO CHOSE FIRST
Diana fell to her knees.
Milo ran to her.
The two hands pressed outward.
One from inside.
One from somewhere impossible.
The manuscript opened.
TWO UNIVERSES ARE NOW AWAKE.
The witness whispered...
"What happens now?"
The answer appeared.
THE FIRST CHILD WILL CHOOSE.
The nameless child screamed.
"No."
Milo turned.
The child backed away.
"Not again."
The sky darkened.
Milo stepped toward him.
"What do you mean?"
The child shook his head.
"Every time."
A pause.
"Every time they make the same mistake."
Milo looked at Diana.
"What mistake?"
The child pointed at her stomach.
"Letting a child decide who gets to exist."
Silence.
Tarzan slowly raised his hand.
"AGAINST."
No one looked at him.
Tarzan lowered his hand.
"CONSISTENTLY BAD DEMOCRACY."
Diana screamed.
A voice came from inside her.
"Mother."
Diana froze.
Then...
another.
"Mother."
Two voices.
One...
young.
The other...
ancient.
Milo stepped closer.
"Which one is real?"
The universe answered.
"BOTH."
The old man whispered...
"Then we're finished."
Milo turned.
"No."
The old man looked at the sky.
"The first child chooses the first universe."
The child whispered...
"And the other becomes memory."
Diana looked at Milo.
Tears ran down her face.
"Don't let it choose."
Milo remembered.
The words.
From before.
Don't let it choose.
He looked at the two hands.
Then...
at the manuscript.
Then...
at the old man.
"Maybe that's the point."
Everyone stared.
Milo stepped toward Diana.
"What if we don't choose either?"
The witness whispered...
"That's impossible."
Milo looked at him.
"So is Tarzan being a banana."
Tarzan pointed.
"THANK YOU FOR REMEMBERING."
Milo looked back at the unborn children.
"What if they both live?"
The old man shook his head.
"The story won't allow it."
Milo whispered...
"Then we change the story."
The old man stared at him.
Milo realized...
what he had said.
The child screamed.
"NO."
The sky opened.
The man beyond it...
stopped writing.
Slowly...
his head began to turn.
Milo froze.
The child whispered...
"Too late."
The man turned.
Milo saw his face.
Not clearly.
Never clearly.
A face...
between faces.
A man...
remembered differently by every universe.
But on the page...
beneath his hand...
one name appeared.
IVAN MAXIMUS EDWIN.
Milo stopped breathing.
Diana whispered...
"I remember him."
The old man screamed.
"NO."
The man smiled.
And the universe...
remembered his first sentence.
ONCE UPON A TIME...
The unborn children screamed together.
The sound shattered the sky.
Milo reached for Diana.
The child reached for Milo.
The old man reached for the pen.
Tarzan reached for...
a banana.
The universe...
made another mistake.
And this time...
the mistake...
looked back.
The manuscript burned.
A new title appeared.
EPISODE SEVENTY-EIGHT
THE MAN WHO WROTE HIMSELF OUT OF EXISTENCE
Milo stared at the name.
Then...
at the man.
The man lifted the pen.
Diana screamed.
"Don't let him finish."
Milo ran.
The universe folded.
The man began writing.
Milo reached forward.
The first word appeared.
THE...
Everything stopped.
Milo screamed...
"WHO ARE YOU?"
The man looked directly at him.
And smiled.
Then...
he answered.
"That..."
A pause.
"...depends on which universe you survive."
The pen touched the page.
Darkness swallowed everything.
And somewhere...
before the first beginning...
a name...
forgot itself...
again.
**TO BE CONTINUED...**
Written By,
Ivan Edwin
Pen Name :Maximus.
©All Rights Reserved