Chapter 91 – When Time Walked Backward
The first thing Evetyl noticed was the silence.
Not ordinary silence.
There was no wind.
No breathing.
No distant movement.
No sound of Kai.
Nothing.
She opened her eyes.
The white world was gone.
The room was gone.
The door was gone.
Kai was gone.
Everything was gone.
Evetyl stood alone in a darkness that stretched in every direction.
Then she heard a sound.
A clock.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
She looked around.
There was no clock.
Yet the sound continued.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Then the sound reversed.
Tock.
Tock.
Tock.
Evetyl frowned.
Something was wrong with time.
She looked at her hands.
They were changing.
For a moment, they looked like the hands of a child.
Then a teenager.
Then an adult.
Then they returned to normal.
"No..."
She stepped backward.
The darkness moved with her.
A memory appeared.
Aren standing in the old house.
Then the memory reversed.
Aren walked backward.
The door closed itself.
The sunlight returned to the sky.
A cup that had fallen from a table suddenly rose and returned to someone's hand.
Everything was moving backward.
Evetyl whispered,
"The timelines..."
Another memory appeared.
Crosshaven.
The city was burning.
Buildings were collapsing.
People were running.
Then everything reversed.
The flames disappeared.
The buildings rebuilt themselves.
People returned to places they had already left.
Then the entire city vanished.
Evetyl's heart began racing.
"No."
A voice answered behind her.
"Yes."
Evetyl turned.
Kai stood there.
But something was different.
He looked exactly as he had before.
No black mark.
No strange eyes.
No wounds.
Just Kai.
She ran toward him.
"Kai!"
He caught her.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Evetyl held him tightly.
"I thought I lost you."
Kai slowly put his arms around her.
"I thought I lost you too."
She pulled away.
"What happened?"
Kai looked around.
"I don't know."
"Do you remember the door?"
"Yes."
"The thing inside you?"
Kai became quiet.
"I remember."
Evetyl looked at his chest.
The black symbol was gone.
"Are you okay?"
"I think so."
"Think?"
Kai gave a nervous smile.
"I've learned not to say I'm completely fine when reality is falling apart."
Evetyl almost laughed.
Almost.
Then she noticed something.
"Kai."
"Yeah?"
"You're younger."
Kai blinked.
"What?"
"Your face."
He touched his cheek.
"What about it?"
"You look..."
She hesitated.
"Different."
Kai stared at his hands.
"So do you."
Evetyl looked down.
Her clothes were different too.
Older clothes.
The clothes she remembered wearing when she was much younger.
Kai looked around.
"Maybe time really is moving backward."
"Then where are the others?"
"I don't know."
"We need to find them."
Kai nodded.
"Agreed."
He reached for her hand.
But before their fingers touched—
The world disappeared.
---
Evetyl opened her eyes again.
This time, she was lying on stone.
Aren was shouting.
"Wake up!"
Evetyl sat up.
Aren grabbed her shoulders.
"You're alive!"
She stared at him.
"Aren?"
"Yes!"
"What happened?"
Aren looked around.
"I was hoping you could tell me."
Elara was beside him.
She looked exhausted.
Kai was standing several meters away.
Noah was sitting against a wall.
Cr-Hook was lying flat on the floor.
The First Anomaly was staring at the ceiling.
The Curator was holding his book.
The First Thought was frantically turning pages.
The Eye floated near the wall.
The Warden stood completely still.
And the First Thing was nowhere to be seen.
Evetyl looked around.
"Where are we?"
The Curator answered.
"Crosshaven."
Evetyl stared.
"That's impossible."
The Curator nodded.
"I know."
She stood.
Outside the broken window was Crosshaven.
But it wasn't the Crosshaven they had left.
The city looked older.
Much older.
The towers were smaller.
The streets were narrower.
The strange bridges between worlds had not yet been built.
Even the central tower was missing.
Evetyl walked toward the window.
"When are we?"
The First Thought answered without looking up.
"According to my calculations..."
It stopped.
"What?"
"It should be impossible."
"Just tell me."
The First Thought looked at her.
"We're approximately eight hundred years in the past."
Everyone became silent.
Cr-Hook slowly sat up.
"That's not good."
Noah looked outside.
"How did we travel backward?"
The Curator closed his book.
"We didn't."
Evetyl turned.
"Then what happened?"
The Curator looked toward the sky.
"Something moved the timeline around us."
Kai frowned.
"Who?"
The Curator didn't answer.
The First Thought did.
"The First World."
---
Evetyl's chest tightened.
"The First World?"
The First Thought nodded.
"It's waking."
Aren stepped closer.
"Can it do this?"
"No."
"Then what is happening?"
The First Thought looked at Evetyl.
"The First World isn't moving."
"It is remembering."
Evetyl stared.
"Remembering what?"
The First Thought slowly closed its book.
"The world before itself."
---
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Elara asked,
"How can a world remember something that happened before it existed?"
The First Thought answered,
"That is precisely why I'm afraid."
Kai crossed his arms.
"So what happens if it remembers everything?"
The Curator looked at him.
"We don't know."
Cr-Hook sighed.
"That answer has become a tradition."
Noah almost smiled.
Then the entire building shook.
Everyone became serious again.
A sound came from outside.
People screaming.
Evetyl ran to the window.
"What's happening?"
Aren joined her.
They looked down.
People were running through the streets.
But they weren't running away from something.
They were running toward something.
A crowd had gathered near the center of the city.
At the center stood a little girl.
She couldn't have been more than seven.
She was holding a white flower.
Evetyl froze.
The flower was identical to the one she had carried.
"Kai."
"I see her."
The girl looked upward.
Straight at Evetyl.
She smiled.
Then she disappeared.
Evetyl stepped back.
"What was that?"
The First Mother appeared behind them.
Everyone turned.
Her form was smaller now.
Not the enormous presence from before.
She looked almost human.
Old.
Tired.
But still recognizable.
Aren immediately stepped toward her.
"Mother."
She looked at him.
"Aren."
Elara rushed forward.
"Mother!"
The First Mother opened her arms.
Elara embraced her.
For the first time, the ancient being looked peaceful.
Evetyl watched them.
Then she noticed something.
Her mother wasn't looking at them.
She was looking at Kai.
Kai noticed too.
"Why are you staring at me?"
The First Mother whispered,
"Because I know where we are."
"Where?"
She pointed toward the city.
"This is the day I met him."
Kai frowned.
"Who?"
The First Mother looked at Evetyl.
"The first Kai."
Evetyl's heart skipped.
"You said there was only one."
"There is."
"Then what do you mean?"
The First Mother looked at the sky.
"Your Kai is here."
She pointed toward the street.
"And the original is about to be born."
---
Kai stared at her.
"Born?"
The First Mother nodded.
"You weren't always created as a person."
"You became one."
Kai frowned.
"How?"
"Through memory."
"Whose?"
The First Mother looked at Evetyl.
"Hers."
Evetyl stepped backward.
"Mine?"
"You created the first memory of him."
Kai looked confused.
"Then why don't I remember?"
"Because that memory was erased."
"By whom?"
The First Mother looked toward the Curator.
Everyone turned.
The Curator remained silent.
Evetyl stared.
"You erased Kai?"
The Curator shook his head.
"No."
"Then who?"
The Curator slowly opened his book.
A page turned by itself.
A name appeared.
THE FIRST THOUGHT.
The First Thought froze.
Everyone looked at it.
"No."
The Curator stared.
"You did."
The First Thought shook its head.
"I don't remember."
"That is the problem."
Evetyl looked between them.
"What did you erase?"
The First Thought stepped backward.
"I don't know."
Aren frowned.
"How can you erase something and not remember it?"
The First Thought looked terrified.
"Because I erased it from myself too."
---
The city outside suddenly became silent.
The people stopped moving.
Every person turned toward the same street.
The little girl had returned.
This time, she wasn't holding a flower.
She was holding a key.
A black key.
Kai stared.
"The First Key."
The Curator's expression changed.
"Impossible."
The girl slowly raised it.
The sky above Crosshaven cracked.
Not like glass.
Like paper.
A huge white hand appeared through the crack.
The Warden immediately raised its chains.
"Everyone behind me."
The hand stopped.
Then a voice spoke.
"Don't."
The Warden froze.
The voice continued.
"I am not here for you."
The hand pointed toward Evetyl.
"I am here for her."
Evetyl stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
The girl looked at her.
The voice came from the girl.
But it wasn't her voice.
"You already know."
Evetyl felt cold.
"No."
"Yes."
"Tell me."
The girl smiled.
"You called me mother."
The First Mother suddenly stepped forward.
"Don't listen to it."
The girl looked at her.
"You still pretend."
The First Mother became pale.
The girl continued.
"You know what she is."
The First Mother clenched her fists.
"She is my daughter."
The girl smiled.
"That is what you told yourself."
Evetyl stared.
"What does she mean?"
The First Mother looked at her.
"Nothing."
"You're lying."
"I am protecting you."
"From what?"
The First Mother didn't answer.
Evetyl stepped closer.
"Mother."
The First Mother finally whispered,
"From yourself."
---
The black key began glowing.
The entire city shook.
Kai stepped beside Evetyl.
The girl looked at him.
"You."
Kai stared back.
"Me?"
"You are not supposed to be here."
Kai frowned.
"Neither are you."
The girl smiled.
"You still make jokes when you're afraid."
Kai became silent.
The girl tilted her head.
"I remember that."
Evetyl looked at Kai.
"Do you know her?"
"No."
The girl answered:
"He doesn't."
"Not yet."
Kai's expression changed.
"What does that mean?"
The girl pointed the key at him.
"You will."
A flash of light appeared.
Kai suddenly dropped to his knees.
Evetyl caught him.
"Kai!"
He gasped.
Memories flooded through him.
A small house.
A woman.
A child.
A white field.
Aeterna.
Then another image.
A door.
Then another.
A man standing behind it.
Kai opened his eyes.
"I remember..."
Evetyl held him.
"What?"
Kai stared at the girl.
"I've seen her."
"When?"
"Before I was born."
The girl smiled.
"Exactly."
---
The First Thought suddenly screamed.
"Everyone move!"
A shockwave blasted through Crosshaven.
The windows shattered.
Buildings bent.
The streets twisted.
But nothing broke.
Instead, everything became younger.
Stone became wood.
Wood became dirt.
Dirt became empty land.
The city was disappearing backward.
Noah grabbed Cr-Hook.
"We need to leave!"
"Where?"
"Anywhere!"
The Curator shouted,
"Don't run!"
Everyone stopped.
"Why?"
The Curator looked at the sky.
"Because Crosshaven isn't being destroyed."
"What is happening then?"
"It is returning."
Evetyl stared.
"Returning to what?"
The Curator's face was pale.
"The place it existed before."
The First Mother whispered,
"The City Between Worlds..."
"...wasn't the first place between worlds."
Evetyl looked at her.
"Then what was?"
The First Mother closed her eyes.
"The Garden."
---
The world shook again.
A white light spread across the horizon.
Evetyl saw trees.
Thousands of them.
Growing from nothing.
A massive forest appeared around Crosshaven.
At its center stood a single house.
The same house from the First Memory.
The same house where Evetyl had lived.
Kai stared at it.
"That's where we were."
The First Mother nodded.
"Yes."
"Before Crosshaven?"
"Before the First World."
Evetyl felt her heart beating faster.
"Then that's where everything began."
The First Mother shook her head.
"No."
Evetyl frowned.
"What?"
"That's where everything ended."
---
Aren suddenly grabbed Evetyl's arm.
"Look."
She turned.
The little girl was gone.
In her place stood an older woman.
She looked exactly like Evetyl.
Not her older self.
Not Aeterna.
Something between the two.
She was holding the black key.
Kai stared at her.
The woman smiled.
"You took long enough."
Evetyl stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
The woman looked at her.
"Your first memory."
Evetyl froze.
The woman raised the key.
"And his."
She pointed toward Kai.
Kai stared.
The woman continued.
"You want to know why the First World was created?"
Evetyl nodded slowly.
"Yes."
The woman smiled.
"Then open the door."
A door appeared behind her.
Evetyl recognized it immediately.
The First Door.
The door from her visions.
The door that existed before the First World.
Kai whispered,
"Evetyl..."
She looked at him.
"We shouldn't."
The woman smiled.
"Of course you shouldn't."
"That's why you will."
Evetyl stared at the door.
Something inside her was pulling toward it.
A memory.
A promise.
A fear.
Then the door began opening by itself.
The First Mother screamed,
"NO!"
The Curator shouted,
"Evetyl, step away!"
The First Thought dropped its book.
The Warden's chains snapped.
The Eye disappeared.
Aren grabbed Elara.
Noah pulled Cr-Hook backward.
Kai reached for Evetyl.
But it was too late.
The door opened.
Behind it was not darkness.
It was a sunrise.
A peaceful field.
A small house.
A younger Evetyl.
A younger Kai.
And a third person standing between them.
Evetyl stared at the third figure.
Her breath stopped.
She knew him.
She had seen him before.
In every forgotten memory.
In every impossible vision.
In every place where reality had refused to make sense.
The man turned.
He looked exactly like Kai.
But his eyes were different.
Older.
Colder.
And filled with sadness.
He looked at Evetyl.
Then he said:
"You finally found the beginning."
Kai stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
The man looked at him.
And smiled.
"I am the reason you were created."
The First Mother began crying.
The Curator closed his book.
The First Thought whispered,
"No..."
The man raised the black key.
Then the entire First World stopped.
He spoke one final sentence.
"Now that you've come back..."
His eyes moved toward Evetyl.
"...we can finally finish what you started."
The door slammed shut.
And somewhere beyond it...
Aeterna opened her eyes.
To Be Continued...