"You're not the only Sleepless anymore."
Kai stared at her.
Silver hair, faded ember eyes, and a Dreambind crystal that looked... fractured.
It pulsed like a heartbeat but in reverse — like it was consuming time instead of passing it.
His throat was still dry from the Dream. His memories hazy.
That man… that void… those photographs.
Kai reached for his blade. Instinct.
> shhhk
Lira placed her foot on it, smirking.
> "If I wanted you dead, you wouldn't even remember you existed."
He looked up, breath shallow.
"Who are you?"
She crouched, staring him in the eyes.
> "The last girl to wake up screaming from a dream no one else remembers."
---
Flashback — 3 Weeks Ago (Lira's Memory)
City of Ashlight.
Inside a Dream.
She was ten levels deep. Hunting a wraith.
Standard recon — until the level didn't reset.
Instead, it looped.
Same sky. Same screams. Same blood.
Over.
And over.
And over.
On the 117th loop, she saw herself — strung from a Dreamtree, whispering answers to questions no one asked.
She carved the loop open with her own bones.
And stepped into The Shattered Gate.
There, a voice waited:
> "You escaped the story written for you. Now write your own, or be devoured by the blank spaces."
Her Dreambind cracked that night.
Split into two.
---
Back to Present
Kai blinked. "That's impossible. Dreambinds don't… split."
Lira looked away.
> "Neither do people. But here we are."
---
They sat in silence.
Outside, the Waking Realm shifted.
Their hideout — a crumbling post-dream refuge — moaned in the wind like it remembered the war.
Kai finally asked, "Why are you really here?"
Lira reached into her coat and pulled out a torn photograph.
His blood froze.
The man in the photo was Kai.
Smiling.
Wearing a school uniform.
And next to him…
Lira.
Younger. No scar.
Kai felt his heart thud like a hammer.
"I don't remember this."
Lira's voice cracked.
> "Neither do I. But every time I go deeper into the Labyrinth… he's waiting."
> "Your other self."
> "And he calls me by a name I haven't heard since before the collapse — Astra."
---
The Archivist's Words Echoed
> "Until you remember… that you were me."
Kai looked at the photo again.
Someone had scribbled something on the back.
"The Fifth Door opens with forgetting. The Sixth with love. The Seventh never closes."
---
He stood up, pacing.
"I need to go back."
Lira narrowed her eyes. "Into the Host again?"
Kai shook his head. "No. Deeper. Past the Host. Past the Echo Layer."
Lira blinked. "…The Gate Below?"
Kai nodded slowly. "The part of the Labyrinth they erased from the maps."
---
Cut to: An underground vault — deep inside a ruined bunker.
Kai and Lira descend, passing corpses of failed Dreamwalkers.
Skeletons with Dreambinds embedded in their skulls.
At the end is a door — sealed with seven locks.
Each lock marked with a symbol:
🩸 Blood
🔥 Flame
🪞 Mirror
🐍 Wyrm
💀 Bone
⏳ Hourglass
☁️ Cloud
Only one of them is open: the 🩸Blood.
Kai's hand starts bleeding on its own.
Lira clutches her head.
> "This place… it hums with forgotten things."
He steps closer. The door pulses.
Suddenly — a voice speaks inside both their heads.
> "You brought the girl. Good."
> "The story must return to its spine."
---
They turn — but no one's there.
The air warps.
Reality inside the vault folds.
A figure appears — faceless — robed in pages. A cloak of unwritten memory.
The Archivist.
Lira screams, but no sound comes.
The Archivist gestures once.
The photo in Kai's hand bursts into flame.
> "You are repeating yourselves. Just like before. Just like always."
Kai shouts, "What are you?!"
The Archivist holds up a notebook.
Written across it:
"THE FIRST DREAMER"
---
🔥 Then — the Seventh Lock starts to click.
One by one.
On its own.
As if welcoming them.
> "You're not dreaming," the Archivist whispers.
> "You're being written."
---
CRACK!
The door shatters.
A blast of wind pulls them inside.
They fall — not through space — but through layers of memory.