POV: AIDEN
The darkness that falls isn't the darkness of night.
It's a darkness with gravity.
The rift space collapses not like shattering glass,
but like a chest being split open to force out something that has been hidden for far too long.
I fall with Elara. Or I think we fall. This space twists direction as it pleases.
"Elara!"
My hand immediately searches for her—
Thank God. She's here. Her breathing is fast but still real.
But another voice is faster than mine.
"Aiden."
I freeze.
The child my younger self stands right in front of us.
Not floating. Not flickering.
He stands as if this space was built for him.
He looks at me with eyes far too calm for a child.
"You took so long."
That voice…
a voice that shouldn't belong to a body that small.
Cold. Steady. As if it became an adult before it ever had time to be afraid.
"Elara… behind me."
I shift my body, covering her from the child's view.
But he shakes his head.
"No need. She's already seen everything."
Elara grips my sleeve.
I can feel her fear, but she doesn't let go.
I hate myself for not being able to save her from this.
"What do you want?" I ask quietly.
The child smiles.
A smile that I… know very well.
"Not what. Who."
He points at my chest.
"I want you."
The space around us pulses, producing a sound like a heartbeat forced to beat twice as fast.
Elara clutches my arm tighter.
"Aiden… why is he"
Because I started all of this.
Because the first rift wasn't an anomaly.
Not an experiment.
Not an accident.
Because its source… was the first fear of a child who didn't know how to stop blaming himself.
But I can't say that now.
The child takes one step closer.
The space responds to his step bending, cracking, yielding.
"Little Aiden…"
I try to stay calm.
"You shouldn't be here."
He lifts his head.
"I was born here. When you broke my world."
My heart drops.
"What do you mean?"
Elara's voice breaks like she's hoping the answer won't be as awful as she fears.
The child looks at her.
That look alone makes me want to cover her eyes with my hand.
"He broke our world," he says casually.
"And I am the first shard."
I want to throw up.
"STOP."
My voice cracks.
"Don't involve her in this. If you want something, take me. But don't drag Elara into that past!"
The child tilts his head.
"Elara was in it even before you knew her name."
My blood freezes.
"What do you… mean…"
He smiles again older this time, sharper, knowing too much.
"She isn't a coincidence, Aiden."
Elara tightens her grip on my clothes.
"Aiden, what does that mean? Why is he saying I"
I don't get to answer.
Because the space changes before my tongue moves.
Everything around us suddenly… lives.
Shadows crawl like blood, light flickers like overstimulated nerves, the air thickens like anger searching for its shape.
The child lifts his hand toward me.
And the world splits.
POV: ELARA
I scream, not because I'm afraid—
but because something pulls Aiden away from me like an invisible hand.
"AIDEN!"
He's thrown backward, hitting some kind of fractured wall I never noticed before.
His body falls, but the space swallows the impact as if eating the sound alive.
I run toward him—
But the child appears in front of me.
One step.
So close.
So small.
So wrong.
"You don't need to help him," he says quietly.
"You just need to watch."
"Watch what?"
My voice shatters.
"The beginning."
He taps the ground—or whatever surface lies beneath us.
And the world reflects an image.
Like black glass turning into memory.
I see an old house.
Broken glass.
A child crying.
Someone yelling.
A door slammed.
The floor shaking.
And a tiny boy hiding under a table while the outside world explodes without mercy.
I cover my mouth.
"A-Aiden…"
The child looks at me without emotion.
"He never told you this one, did he?"
I bite my lip until I taste bitterness.
"Why are you showing this to me?"
"Because you need to know what he created at that moment."
He leans closer.
"The first rift."
And the image changes—
exploding into light, sound, screams, and something that defies every physics law that should exist.
I see… God…
the child holding his head terrified, alone
and the entire room bending inward toward him like the world collapsing into the center of someone's trauma.
Space breaks.
Light warps.
Objects float.
A deep hum vibrates through my bones even though this is only a memory.
The rift… was born from a child.
From Aiden.
I stumble back, tears spilling before I even realize I'm crying.
"Stop…"
My voice cracks.
"Please… stop."
But the child only watches me, steady.
"If you want to save him," he says,
"you must know what hunts him."
He glances at Aiden, still collapsed, shaking violently.
"And that is himself."
POV: AIDEN
I don't want to see it.
Don't want to remember it.
Don't want Elara to know.
But the rift doesn't care about what I want.
I'm pulled forward, my body dragged by the gravity of my own memories.
"Elara…"
I force my voice out.
"Don't—look—"
But it's too late.
She looks at me with eyes not filled with pity…
but understanding.
And that hurts more.
"Aiden…"
Her voice is soft, trembling.
"You… were alone through all of that?"
I want to answer.
But the child speaks first.
"He wasn't just alone," he says quietly.
"He was dangerous."
I snap.
"Don't talk like you're not me!"
The child looks at me like I'm the one who doesn't get it.
"I am the part you buried.
The part that shaped the rift.
The part you abandoned.
The part you fear admitting."
He raises his hand.
The rift glows.
And I feel something pulling me out of myself—
not physically, but like my past is forcing me to stand before it.
"Aiden," he says softly,
"you must return."
"Return to where?"
"To where I was born," he answers.
"To the source of the rift."
I freeze.
"No."
The child smiles faintly.
"You don't have a choice."
The rift begins to swallow light, air, even sound.
Elara runs toward me.
"AIDEN!"
I reach for her hand—
or try to.
But our fingers don't touch.
Because space stretches between us.
"Elara—DON'T LET GO!"
"I won't! I promise!"
Her voice breaks.
But promises have no power here.
The child whispers:
"Now, we go home."
And the world devours me.
Aiden disappears.
Not falling.
Not being pulled.
Gone.
Elara collapses to her knees, her hand still reaching out, trembling without holding anything.
The rift closes slowly—
leaving only one sentence echoing from the distance:
"To save him… you must enter a time that does not belong to you."
And darkness swallows everything.