It was a silent fall.
When I opened my eyes again, the ground beneath my feet was covered in shards of glass reflecting hundreds of different versions of myself: crying, numb and bleeding. Each one felt like a fragment torn from my dreams. The sky was directionless, with upside-down streetlights, crumbling building silhouettes and countless distorted human forms floating within it.
"You're finally here."
The voice came from behind me. A boy sat on top of a collapsed bus shelter, his fingertips flicking a translucent shard of memory. Within it was the scene of my first encounter with Lucas: a crime scene swirling with dust, flashing police tape and the smile that had flashed across his face as he looked down.
"Who are you?" I asked.
He lifted his head, a hint of tenderness touching his lips. 'I am the "Memory Builder". You may call me Architect."
I frowned. "Where is this?"
'The Mirror Realm,' he replied casually. 'A layer formed by the accumulation of undispersed consciousness.'
I scanned the surroundings. In the distance, a towering skyscraper floated, its structure composed of flickering memory fragments. Images flashed in overlapping layers: sobs at a funeral, a mother's whisper and a child screaming, 'Don't go!'
'Are you in charge of this?'
'Just repairing it.' The architect snapped his fingers lightly. A fragment floated up and slowly reassembled onto another patch of light.
'The memories of the dead aren't complete. They need someone to put the pieces back together, otherwise they will disintegrate forever."
I watched an unnamed woman finally smile within that patch of light, then dissolve into white light. In that moment, I heard a faint humming sound, as if consciousness were shifting.
"What about me?" I asked.
He paused his work and shifted his gaze from the fragments to me. 'You... you're different.'
The air suddenly grew cold. The surrounding images seemed to trigger a programme, rewinding in unison to the same scene: the night my spirit vision awoke, and I collapsed on the laboratory floor, my lenses shattered.
Architect stood up, his tone almost gentle. 'In that moment, you died once in reality.'
"Nonsense." I took a step back instinctively.
'The world you see now is a projection of your spiritual vision. The energy surge that night created a new consciousness within the mirror realm — Evelyn Prime."
Hearing the name made my heart clench.
'You mean... another me?'
"Not 'another'."
He stepped in front of me and pointed at the faint glow on my forehead.
'The "original". The you in reality is merely a reverse-engineered vessel."
My breath caught in my throat.
"Then where is she now?"
The Architect tilted his chin towards the distant light tower.
'She's there. Restoring her lost memories. Once she has finished, your existence will no longer be necessary."
I tried to rush forward, but he stopped me.
'Don't rush. You haven't grasped it yet.'
He spoke as though explaining a diagnosis to a patient. 'The Mirror Realm is a reflective plane of consciousness. Every soul leaves an 'echo' here. You're the only one who can exist on both sides simultaneously."
'Why me?'
'Because you once tried to undo death.'
The Architect murmured. "Your ability to see the memories of the dead isn't a gift; it's a burden. You thought you were saving them, but you were actually helping them 'remember' their pain.'
I was speechless. Wind swept through the shattered streets, stirring light particles of dust. In that instant, I saw an image of Lucas—collapsed in front of the lab with a faint smile on his lips as if he were saying something to me.
'I couldn't save him,' I murmured.
The Architect spoke softly: 'That's why you came here. Because you refuse to accept that he's gone.'
My fingertips trembled. The reflections in the lenses all turned towards me, each one whispering, ' 'Let go.'
I clenched my teeth. 'How do I get back then?'
The youth smiled, revealing a dazzlingly white set of teeth. 'You must see her.'
"See who?"
"Evelyn Prime. She's been waiting for you for a long time.'
He held out his hand and pointed towards the top of the Tower of Light. The tower was built from countless memories, each level flickering with fragments of humanity.
'But when you ascend, you must decide: stay and become her true self, or leave and let her take your place.'
A scientist smiles before the flames, and so do I on the day I first saw the Mirror Realm.
'If you choose to leave,' the Architect's voice carried from afar, 'your memories will be reclaimed. You will become a person without a past.'
I stopped and turned to look at him.
'And if I stay?'
He smiled softly, his gaze as deep as the lake beneath the mirror.
'Then you will become part of the memory forever.'
The light atop the tower began to warp. My shadow stretched out infinitely, eventually overlapping with another figure. She stepped out of the light, her face identical to mine.
Evelyn Prime.
Her expression was serene, and her voice was almost an echo of my own. 'You've finally come.'
I looked at her as if gazing into the deepest mirror.
'Are you me?'
She nodded. 'Yes, and no.'
'The moment I was born, your body was still alive. We were meant to share one consciousness, but Mother's experiment separated us.'
I froze. 'Mother?'
'You thought she studied "clairvoyance", but it was "memory inheritance". She sought to preserve consciousness, to extend the memories of the dead."
Evelyn Prime extended her hand, her palm glowing.
'But she never imagined it would work on you.'
The light flowed along her fingers and onto me. I saw countless images: Mother's laboratory; Lucas being pulled into a flash of electromagnetic waves; and the moment I opened my eyes on the hospital bed.
The fragments overlapped, finally forming a coherent picture:
'The price of awakening clairvoyance is the fragmentation of the soul.'
Tears nearly spilled from my eyes. Staring at her, I asked in a trembling voice: 'Then what should I do?'
Evelyn Prime smiled as if she were looking at a past version of herself.
"Choose: Either remember them and stay here, or forget everything and return to reality.'
I closed my eyes.
I could hear Lucas's voice echoing in my ears: 'Reality is for remembering, not sleeping.'
When I opened my eyes again, the world of the Light Tower started to fall apart.
All the images floated upwards like grains of sand, dissolving into silent dust.
I reached out, trying to grasp that sliver of light, but found nothing.
In that fleeting instant before it vanished, I heard the Architect's voice echoing through the void:
'Every memory requires a builder, but not every builder can leave their own memory behind.'
The light at the tower's peak extinguished completely.
And I began to fall towards the bottomless mirror.