Chapter 3: The Memory That Wasn't Yours
> "When you wake up in someone else's past, don't breathe too loudly—memories can hear."
---
Kairo blinked.
The white room was gone.
Now—
he stood in the middle of a ruined chapel floating in an ocean of static.
No sky.
No ground.
Only whispers.
He turned slowly.
Stained glass windows flickered with images from worlds that didn't exist.
One showed him holding a crown.
Another showed him burning.
A third… wasn't him at all.
It was a girl.
Smiling.
Standing beside him.
And behind her—something monstrous wearing his shape.
---
A pew collapsed in the corner.
He looked.
There was someone there.
A boy—no older than ten—sitting alone with his back turned. Pale hands. Short black hair.
And humming.
> The same humming he heard before the system screamed.
Kairo approached cautiously.
> "Hey… who are you?"
The boy stopped humming.
Didn't turn.
Didn't move.
Then—he answered.
But the voice wasn't a child's.
It was his own.
> "You left me behind, Kairo."
> "You rewrote everything but me."
---
Kairo took a step back.
> "What are you talking about?"
> "You'll see," the voice said. "When you find the girl again… ask her who you were before the glitch."
Lightning struck the stained glass.
Each window shattered in slow motion—glass floating upward like reversed rain.
The boy stood now.
Still not facing him.
He raised one hand—and the entire chapel began to collapse.
> "You're not supposed to remember this."
> "But something in you does."
Then—
Silence.
The static sea swallowed the chapel whole.
Kairo gasped—
---
And woke up again.
Alone.
Back in the forest.
But the cube was gone.
The key was still in his hand.
And written across his arm now—
in glowing script only he could see:
> ❝404: Identity Not Found❞
---
🌀 Interactive Echo:
> Who was the boy?
Is he Kairo's past, or something worse?
Drop a theory in the comments — the glitch is listening.