Kade asked Liam, "What do you mean you don't know him? When we were there, you pointed at that house. You said you used to go there with your father."
Liam frowned. "Huh?"
"What?" Kade repeated.
Liam shook his head slowly. "That… that didn't happen. I don't know why I said that, but it never happened."
Kade stared at him. "You were lying? Back then, we were connected. There was no reason to lie."
Liam looked lost, his gaze drifting up and down as if searching for something inside himself. Finally, he spoke again, his voice uncertain. "Then I must have been lying. Because I never knew him. I don't know why I said I did."
Kade hesitated. "Then what do you remember about your father?"
Liam froze.
The confusion on his face twisted suddenly into horror. He stood up so fast his chair scraped the floor.
"No… no, this can't be right," he screamed. "What is going on?"
His fingers dug into his own skin as if trying to wake himself up.
Kade rushed toward him. "Hey, what's happening? Are you okay?"
Liam turned to him, eyes wide. "Kade… what do you remember from when you were a kid?"
Kade answered without thinking. "The Alize and the Axa are inseparable. They both exist at the same time, just in different spaces. The alizaxa prefers to live in the past. That's what every child is taught, right?"
Liam shouted, "Think about what you just said Think."
Kade frowned. "What's strange about that? It's just a known fact. Everyone knows it."
Liam grabbed his shoulders. "Do you remember one real moment from your childhood? Just one. Something that connects to you."
Kade's expression changed.
Confusion turned into realization. Realization turned into fear. And then despair.
The memories that surfaced felt real, too real. They weren't like watching a movie. They weren't distant or secondhand. They were first-person. Clear as daylight. Felt through their own senses.
And that was the problem.
They couldn't possibly be their memories.
They remembered being small, tiny, insect-like creatures. Then growing larger. Living among billions, maybe trillions, of others just like them. These creatures clung to the heads of humans, controlling lifeless bodies from above.
A horrific sound escaped both of them at once.
Back at Serena's house, even though everything seemed to be over, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with her parents.
They weren't the same.
They spoke politely, formally, but without warmth. There was no affection in their voices. No familiarity. No connection.
Night came, and everyone went to their rooms to sleep. Everyone except Serena.
She lay awake, staring at the ceiling. She didn't know why she was afraid. Maybe it was because of everything that had happened. Or maybe it was something worse.
She had felt less terrified in that ruined city than she did now, lying in her own bed.
Unable to rest, she got up to drink some water, maybe even eat something. As she passed her parents' bedroom, she heard a sound.
A scraping noise.
Her chest tightened. The door was slightly open.
She moved closer.
Inside, her mother and father were sitting on the floor. Their fingers dragged repeatedly against the wooden boards, scraping until their hands bled. They didn't stop.
They didn't look at each other.
They were crying.
And somewhere in the room, a laugh echoed.
It didn't come from her parents.
It didn't come from anywhere she could see.