The corridor finally stopped trembling, but that didn't mean it was safe.
The silence felt like a giant mouth that had just finished swallowing something and was now waiting for the next victim.
The pale hand that had reached out from the door was gone not withdrawn, but dissolved into the gap. Like white liquid forced into another shape.
Aiden still stood in front of Elara, positioning himself as a shield. His whole body was tight from shoulder to spine. His breaths were short, fast the kind that meant he wasn't just scared… he was angry. Angry at something he couldn't hit without risking breaking the entire world.
Elara held onto the wall, her body still weak, but her mind no longer fogged like before.
The shock was still there wrapping around her, stabbing the back of her neck but she could think a bit clearer now.
"Aiden…"
Elara's voice was soft, but there was a clear crack in it.
"Why does that entity know things that… that only you should know?"
Aiden didn't answer right away.
His broad shoulders sank a little, as if the question simple as it was hit the most fragile part of him.
"Elara… please. Don't start with that."
His tone wasn't commanding. Not angry.
More like someone trying to hold in an explosion.
Elara's eyes were still wet.
"But it's… important."
Aiden closed his eyes for a second and exhaled.
"Yeah. I know it's important."
He opened them again and looked at her deep, exhausted, honest.
"But you have to understand one thing first."
Elara nodded, though her heart hammered in her chest.
Aiden stepped closer, just half a pace.
"Its voice… its knowledge… isn't because it knows me."
Elara held her breath.
"It knows because it knows you."
Her brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"
Aiden swallowed hard, his voice cracking ever so slightly.
"It that entity is made of every version of you. Every Elara who ever died. Every memory that never finished. Every fear you left behind in every loop."
Elara felt her stomach drop.
"…so it knows me because… it's the version of me that failed?"
Aiden shook his head.
"It's not you, Elara. It doesn't have a soul. It only carries the leftover patterns of you."
"But it knows things about you, too," Elara pushed.
"Things I don't even know."
Aiden looked down.
Then raised his head, unguarded for the first time.
"That's because it existed before you."
The corridor seemed to pull the air out of their lungs.
"What?"
Aiden stood tall, but his shoulders sagged slightly as if giving up on a truth he'd hidden too long.
"Elara… it appeared in a loop where you didn't exist."
Elara stepped back—just a tiny step.
"…but it uses my shape."
Aiden nodded slowly.
"Because your shape is the one that disturbs the pattern the most."
"Elaraaaa…"
The whisper came again from behind the wall.
Not loud. But sharp enough to twist nausea in Elara's chest.
Aiden glared at the wall.
Then grabbed Elara's hand and pulled her not rough, but certain.
"We need to move. Now."
Elara swallowed, but followed.
The corridor ahead seemed to stretch not an illusion.
This corridor was alive, reshaping itself around them.
"Aiden… wait."
Elara slowed down.
"I still need answers."
Aiden stopped, breathing tight.
"Which answer?"
Elara hugged herself.
"The entity said… you saved yourself through me."
Aiden froze.
Completely.
"It lied."
"But why could it say that?"
Elara stared at him with something sharper than fear.
"Aiden… you said I died many times. You said you were always there in every loop. But I remember nothing. And now that thing talks like… like you had a personal reason to keep repeating the loops."
Aiden looked away.
For the first time since she'd met him he looked defeated.
"Elara… I"
The corridor pulsed.
The dim lights flickered like dying bulbs.
Aiden moved instantly.
He shoved Elara to the safer side of the hallway, placing himself between her and the darkness.
"Elara, listen to me."
His voice went low, fast.
"We can't talk here. It can hear."
"Who can hear?!" Elara demanded, near tears.
Aiden met her eyes intense, focused, pleading.
"That entity it has no form. It borrows yours. And it spreads. The more you talk about things you're not supposed to know… the stronger it gets."
Elara froze.
"So if I learn the truth… it gets closer?"
Aiden stared at her for a long moment, calculating.
"…Yes."
The voice filled the corridor.
"Elaraaaa…
you want the truth, don't you?
You want to know who made you die over and over?"
Elara covered her ears.
"Stop! Stop!"
Aiden grabbed her shoulders.
"Hey look at me. Look at me, Elara."
His eyes locked onto hers sharp, desperate.
"I promise… I'll explain everything. But not here. Not in walls that listen."
Elara breathed shakily.
"If I go with you to a safe place… you'll be honest?"
Aiden nodded.
"I swear."
"With everything?"
Her voice cracked.
"Including… your relationship with the other Elaras in previous loops?"
Aiden closed his eyes like the words hurt.
"…including that."
The corridor stretched two walls pulling apart reluctantly to make a path.
Aiden guided her quickly.
After minutes of walking, they reached a small room like a cheap control room. Wires exposed, broken monitors… but oddly, the desk and chairs were spotless. As if someone cleaned it every loop.
Aiden closed the heavy steel door.
A soft click a manual lock, not digital.
Elara frowned.
"This room… it looks untouched by the loop."
Aiden looked at her.
"Because it is."
He sat down.
Gestured for her to sit across from him.
"Elara… this is the only room the entity can't hear."
Elara shivered half terrified, half relieved.
"Why?"
Aiden inhaled deeply.
"Because this room was built by"
He stopped himself.
"Elara…"
Aiden's breath trembled.
For the first time since Chapter One Aiden looked like a man about to break.
"You know why I always know the exits? Why I know what the entity wants? Why I sense danger before it appears?"
Elara stared, waiting.
"…because you've been here a long time?"
Aiden shook his head.
"Because I'm not just someone trapped in the loop."
His voice dropped, fragile but final.
"I'm someone who helped create it."
Elara went still.
Her body went numb.
"…w—what?"
Aiden clenched his fists.
"Elara… I was part of the team that designed the loop system. Years before you ever entered it."
The corridor outside vibrated faintly like something waking up.
Aiden looked at Elara with guilt carved into every line of his face.
"And the entity…
it first appeared after another version of you died in the very first test loop."
Tears ran down Elara's cheeks.
"…so… I died because of… your project?"
Aiden covered his face with both hands.
"Elara… I didn't know it would turn into this. I didn't know the system would form an entity from your echoes. I didn't know you would"
BANG.
The door shook violently.
The voice returned.
"Elaraaa…
you were their experiment…"
Aiden jumped to block the door.
"Elara, trust me.
I'll explain everything.
But you need to stay inside."
Elara stood slowly, trembling but her eyes were sharp now.
"Aiden…"
He turned, breath uneven.
"Yes?"
Elara looked at him like someone who had just lost the ground beneath her feet.
"…you were in love with another Elara, weren't you?"
Aiden froze.
The entity laughed softly.
The door shuddered.
Aiden opened his mouth—
but no words came out.
Elara saw the answer written all over his face.
And before Aiden could speak—
A thin crack split through the door,
and the white hand slid inside.
The voice whispered:
"Elara…
because the answer is—
yes."