Samy's vision tilted without warning.
At first it was just a faint pressure behind her eyes, like the world had leaned an inch too far to the left. Then the pressure turned into a spin. The classroom—so normal just moments ago—blurred at the edges, sounds stretching and warping as if underwater.
"Samy?" Tin's voice reached her, distant.
She tried to answer. Her lips parted, but no sound came out.
The floor rushed up.
A dull thud echoed as her body collapsed, and the memory fractured.
"Samy!" Tony was at her side instantly, kneeling, panic sharp in his movements. Jet followed, her jaw tight as she checked her pulse, while Tin hovered above them, fear written plainly on her face.
"Hey—hey, wake up," Tony said, shaking her shoulders gently, then harder. "Samy, come on. This isn't funny."
But Samy didn't move.
Her body lay still, eyes closed, breath shallow but steady—as if she were asleep. Or worse, somewhere else entirely.
Inside her mind, the noise disappeared.
There was no classroom. No friends. No danger.
Only light.
Samy found herself standing in a place that felt neither real nor unreal—a vast, pale space that pulsed softly, like a heartbeat. She looked down and froze.
She was small.
Not just smaller—younger. Her hands were tiny, her arms thin, the weight of years gone from her body. Before she could panic, another presence stepped into view.
A little girl.
She looked exactly like Samy.
Same eyes. Same faint scar near the eyebrow. Same expression she used to wear before the world taught her how to hide things.
Her younger self held out a hand.
Samy didn't question it.
She took it.
The moment their fingers touched, warmth flooded her chest—comfort so deep it hurt. Memories stirred, half-forgotten feelings surfacing: innocence, trust, belief in things being okay.
Her younger self began to walk, and Samy followed without resistance. She didn't ask where they were going. Somehow, she already knew this was something she had to see.
They stopped before a glowing door.
It stood alone in the empty light, tall and radiant, humming softly like it was alive. The glow reflected in her younger self's eyes, making them shine with quiet certainty.
Samy swallowed.
Before stepping forward, she turned to the little girl and whispered, "Thank you."
Her younger self smiled—gentle, knowing—and slowly released her hand.
The door opened.
—
Outside her mind, Tin clenched his fists.
"She's not waking up," he said, voice tight. "Tony—this is bad. This is really bad."
Jet glanced around, unease creeping into his expression as the memory around them flickered. The classroom walls trembled faintly, like an image struggling to stay intact.
"Whatever's happening to her," Jet muttered, "it's pulling her deeper."
Tony looked down at Samy, guilt burning behind his eyes. "You promised everything would be okay," he whispered—to himself more than anyone else.
The memory shuddered again.
Somewhere far away, reality was tearing itself apart.
—
Roger and Kim stood frozen, watching helplessly as chaos unfolded.
They could feel it now—the pressure in the air, the tightening grip of something inevitable. The shadows in the distance clashed harder than ever, each collision cracking the space around them like thunder splitting the sky.
"We can't change it," Kim said quietly, his voice heavy with dread. "No matter what we do."
Roger clenched her jaw, fists tightening at her sides. "That doesn't mean we stop trying."
Ahead of them, the music room trembled.
Inside, Peter and Noah stared at each other as the walls seemed to breathe, the lights flickering violently.
"What's going on?" Peter demanded, his confidence cracking for the first time.
Noah shook his head, gripping the torch tighter. "I don't know."
The tension between them thickened, old resentment mixing with fresh fear. The door they had entered through slammed shut on its own, the sound echoing unnaturally loud.
No wind. No footsteps.
Just silence.
Then—movement.
Something shifted in the corner of the room.
Peter spun toward it. "Did you invite someone else?"
"No," Noah snapped, his voice rough, strained. "I didn't."
The room felt wrong now—like it was watching them.
Roger and Kim exchanged a glance. Even though this was the past, the danger felt real. The music room held power, and power never slept.
—
Far away, beyond memory and time, the two shadows fought like gods at war.
Each strike sent shockwaves through the void. The white shadow moved with controlled fury, every attack precise, desperate. The black shadow answered with raw rage, unrestrained, devastating.
"I wanted to save them!" the white one roared, voice cracking like lightning.
The black shadow slammed into him, darkness flaring. "You should have saved yourself that day!"
Their blows collided again, the impact ripping through reality itself. They weren't just fighting each other—they were tearing open wounds that had never healed.
They knew each other.
They had mattered to each other.
And something terrible had broken them beyond repair.
—
Samy stepped through the glowing door.
The light dimmed, reshaping itself into walls, furniture, shadows.
She stood inside a bedroom.
Her sister's room.
The sight made her chest tighten. Memories she'd buried stirred uneasily—arguments, silence, words that cut deeper than they should have. This wasn't a place she associated with comfort.
So why was she here?
Samy took a cautious step forward, her instincts screaming that this mattered. The room felt frozen in time, exactly as it had been years ago. Posters on the wall. A desk cluttered with notebooks. A mirror reflecting a version of Samy she barely recognized.
Her gut twisted.
There's something here, she thought. Something important.
Outside, Tin, Tony, and Jet watched as Samy's memory continued to fade, the world around them bleaching toward nothingness.
"Samy…" Tin whispered, fear breaking through his usual calm.
And far away, in the black space between worlds, Roger and Kim stared at the disaster unfolding—knowing they were trapped between past and present, truth and consequence.
Three different worlds.
Two fractured memories.
One war that threatened to swallow them all.
And somewhere within it, Samy was about to uncover a truth she had never been ready to face.