Water tastes like copper and regret.
Arden spits it out. Treads harder. The city tilts around her buildings leaning, water pushing, physics optional. Kael surfaces three feet away. Gasping.
"Where's Amara?"
"There." He points.
Window. Broken. She's already climbing through.
Smart. Get to dry ground. Except there is no dry ground. Just buildings. Water. Bodies.
So many bodies.
All blonde. All her sister.
One floats past Arden's face. Close enough to touch. Eyes open. Staring. Not seeing.
"They're not real," Kael says.
But the hand that grabs Arden's ankle feels real. Nails digging. Pulling down.
She kicks. Hard. The corpse doesn't let go. Just pulls. Silent. Determined.
Arden's lungs scream. She's going under. Can't stop it.
Kael grabs her wrist. "Don't fight it. Go limp."
"What?"
"Trust me."
She stops kicking. The corpse pulls her down six inches. Then pauses. Confused maybe. It lets go.
Arden surfaces. Choking. "How did you "
"Drowned bodies don't want struggling prey. They want sinkers." He's already swimming toward the building. "They're not hunting. They're drowning. There's a difference."
Philosophy while treading water in a death city. Very Kael.
They reach the window. Pull themselves through. Wet carpet. Office space. Cubicles under three feet of water.
Amara sits on a desk. Shaking. "I hate water. I hate this. I hate everything about this."
"Station Five," Kael says. "Drowning City. One of the worst."
"You've been here before?"
"Different version. Same concept." He moves toward stairs. "We need higher ground before "
The water rises. Fast. One foot. Two feet. Three.
"Before that," he finishes.
They run. Up stairs. Water chasing. Fourth floor. Fifth. Sixth.
Seventh floor is dry. Windows show the flooded streets below. And standing on a distant rooftop.
Her sister. Platinum hair catching light that shouldn't exist.
Watching.
"She hasn't moved," Amara says. "Just stands there."
"She's waiting," Arden says. Knows it. Feels it. "This is her Station. Her rules. She wants me to come to her."
"So don't."
"I have to."
"Why?" Amara spins. "Why do you have to do what the Station wants? What the Entity wants? Why can't we just. Hide. Wait it out."
"Because there is no waiting it out." Kael checks doors. Looking for something. "The Stations don't end. They escalate. We either move forward or die slowly."
"I vote die slowly."
He finds a storage room. Pulls them inside. Closes the door.
Dark. Quiet. Just breathing.
"Five minutes," he says. "We rest five minutes. Then we move."
Arden slides down the wall. Sits. Her clothes are heavy. Water dripping. The Codebook against her ribs. Still there. Still dry somehow.
She pulls it out. Opens it.
Five entries. Five uses. Five memories gone.
She turns to the blank pages. Pen appears.
"Don't," Kael says. "Not yet. Save it for when we need it."
"What if I need it now?"
"Do you?"
She thinks about her sister. About the water. About drowning.
About forty-seven seconds.
"I need to drown," she says.
Silence.
Then Amara: "I'm sorry. What?"
"I need to drown. Like she drowned. I need to feel it. All of it. Then maybe." She closes the Codebook. "Then maybe she'll understand."
"Understand what?" Amara's voice pitches high. "That you're insane? That you have a death wish? That "
"That I'm sorry." Arden stands. "That I've always been sorry. That I'd take it back if I could. But I can't. So I'll do the next best thing. I'll drown like she did. Count to forty-seven. Feel what she felt."
Kael blocks the door. "This is a bad idea."
"Most of my ideas are bad."
"This one's different. This one might actually kill you."
"Then I resurrect. Lose another memory. Come back. Try again."
"Or you lose the wrong memory." His hand is on her shoulder. "You lose the reason you're fighting. The reason you're here. And then what? You're just a ghost playing games forever."
"I'm already a ghost."
The words sit there. Heavy. True.
Amara breaks the silence. "If you're doing this. If you're really doing this." She swallows. "I'm coming with you. I can't let you die alone."
"You don't have to "
"I know. But I'm coming anyway." She looks at Kael. "Both of us. Because that's what you do when someone's about to do something stupid. You make sure they don't die doing it."
Kael sighs. Long. Tired. "Fine. But we do this smart. We plan. We prepare. We "
"We go now." Arden opens the door. "Before I lose my nerve."
They descend. Back into water. Third floor. Second. First.
The street is deeper now. Ten feet of water. Fifteen. The buildings rising like tombstones.
Arden looks at her sister's rooftop. Half a mile. Maybe less.
She swims.
The corpses circle. Patient. Hungry. She goes limp when they grab. They release. She keeps swimming.
Behind her. Kael and Amara. Following. Not stopping her.
Quarter mile. Eighth mile. Almost there.
The building. She reaches it. Climbs. Window to window. Using broken frames as handholds. Water dripping. Hands slipping.
Seventh floor. Eighth. Ninth.
Rooftop.
Her sister stands at the edge. Back turned. Hair perfect despite the water. Despite everything.
"Took you long enough," she says. Doesn't turn around. "I've been waiting ten years. What's another hour?"
"I'm sorry." Arden's voice cracks. "I'm so sorry."
"For what?" Her sister turns. Beautiful. Cold. Empty. "For letting me drown? For counting? For making me into this?"
"Yes."
"Which one?"
"All of them." Arden moves closer. "All of it. Everything. I'm sorry for being twelve. For being jealous. For being frozen. For being me."
Her sister studies her. Really looks.
"You think sorry fixes anything?"
"No."
"You think drowning yourself makes us even?"
"No."
"Then why?"
"Because I need to understand." Arden stops. Five feet away. "I need to feel what you felt. Forty-seven seconds. Underwater. Watching the surface get farther away. Knowing someone's up there. Watching. Counting."
Her sister's face doesn't change. "You want to drown."
"I need to."
"Say please."
Arden blinks. "What?"
"Say please." Her sister smiles. Sharp. Broken. "Beg me to drown you. Like I begged you to save me. Silently. In my head. While I sank. While you counted."
The words stick in Arden's throat.
But she says them.
"Please."
Her sister's hand moves. Casual. Lazy.
The water rises. Instant. Thirty feet. Fifty. Swallowing the rooftop. Swallowing everything.
Arden doesn't fight. Just lets it take her.
Down.
Into cold.
Into dark.
She counts.
One.
This is what jealousy costs.
Two. Three. Four.
This is what hesitation tastes like.
Ten. Eleven.
Her lungs burn. Want air. Scream for it.
Twenty.
She thinks of her sister. Nine years old. Terrified.
Thirty.
Watching the dock get farther away.
Forty.
Watching her sister stand there. Book in hand. Not moving.
Forty-seven.
She opens her mouth. Water rushes in.
Fills her lungs.
Drowns her.
Death is cold. Then nothing.
Then gasping.
Hands pulling her up. Breaking surface. Air. Burning air.
She coughs. Water everywhere. Coming out. Can't stop coughing.
"Breathe." Her sister's voice. "Just breathe."
Arden looks up. Her sister holds her. One arm around her waist. Swimming. Pulling her to the building.
"Why?" Arden chokes out.
"Because I'm not you." Her sister's voice breaks. "Because I don't count. I act. I save people even when they don't deserve it."
They reach the rooftop. Her sister hauls her up. Lays her down.
Arden lies there. Breathing. Alive. Resurrected? Or saved?
"You pulled me up," she whispers.
"I did."
"At forty-seven seconds."
"I did."
"You couldn't let me die."
Her sister sits beside her. Looks out at the drowned city. At her corpses. At everything.
"No," she says. Quiet. "I couldn't."
They sit. Water lapping. Wind from nowhere.
Then her sister speaks.
"I hate you."
"I know."
"I wish you'd stayed down there."
"I know."
"But I couldn't watch you drown." She covers her face. "I couldn't be you. Couldn't count while someone died. Even someone I hate."
Arden sits up. Slowly. Everything hurts.
"That makes you better than me."
"Don't." Her sister drops her hands. "Don't try to make this redemption. Don't try to fix us. We're broken. We'll always be broken."
"I know."
"Then why are you still here? Why keep trying? Why not just die and forget and move on?"
"Because I'm still breathing." Arden looks at her. "Because you just saved me. Because somewhere under the hate. We're still sisters."
Her sister laughs. Bitter. Wet.
"Sisters." She stands. Moves to the edge. "Fine. You want to be sisters? Then watch."
She presses both hands to the air.
The water drains. Fast. Rushing away. Buildings emerging. Streets appearing.
"I'm ending this," her sister says. "The Station. The drowning. All of it."
"You can do that?"
"I am the Station. The Entity made me the water. Made me the drown. Made me the punishment." She looks back. "But it can't make me keep you here. Can't make me kill you. So I won't."
A door appears. Gold light. Exit.
"Go," her sister says. "Before it stops me. Before it realizes."
"Come with me."
"Can't. I leave. Station collapses. Seven other players still here. They die."
"Then we save them first."
"There's no time." Her sister's form flickers. Glitching. "It knows. It's coming. You have to go now."
Kael appears. Climbing. Amara behind him.
"Arden!" He grabs her. "We have to move. The Station's collapsing."
But Arden looks at her sister. At the girl she failed. At the woman she hates. At the sister she loves.
"What's your name?" Arden asks. Needs to know. Needs to remember.
Her sister smiles. Sad. Real.
"You already forgot," she says. "The resurrection. When you drowned. You lost my name."
"No." Arden's chest empties. "No. I can't. Not your name. Not that."
"It's okay." Her sister is fading. Translucent. "You kept the important part. You kept trying. Kept fighting. Kept being you."
"Tell me. Please. Tell me your name."
"It doesn't matter." Almost gone now. "You'll remember me. Even without the name. You'll remember I saved you. That's enough."
"It's not "
Her sister vanishes.
The water rushes back. Violent. Angry.
"MOVE!" Kael drags her toward the door.
They run. Jump. Fall through gold light.
Hit grass.
Station Six.
Snow. Ice. Cathedral.
But Arden doesn't see it. Just lies there. Empty.
She had a sister. Just lost her. Just saved her. Just failed her.
But she can't remember her name.
Can't remember what to call the person she loved most.
Kael kneels beside her. "What did you lose?"
"Her name." Arden's voice is nothing. "My sister's name."
He helps her stand. "Then we keep moving."
"Why? What's the point? I keep losing pieces. Soon there'll be nothing left."
"Then we make new pieces." He pulls her toward the ice cathedral. "We keep building until there's something. Until there's you."
They walk.
Into snow.
Into cold.
Into whatever comes next.
Behind them. In the drowning city. In the collapsed Station.
Seven players climb from water. Saved. Free.
They don't know who saved them.
Don't know a sister died to give them time.
They just know they survived.
And sometimes that's enough.