The countdown never showed up anywhere obvious.
No digital clocks. No ominous voice. No red numbers sliding toward disaster.
It lived in the space between things.
Sam felt it in the pauses during conversation, half a beat longer than normal.
Lena felt it when her phone hesitated before unlocking.
Jordan felt it in the way his notes stopped lining up neatly, equations refusing to balance like they'd lost faith in math itself.
Maya felt it like a held breath that wasn't hers.
"It's getting impatient," she said quietly as they sat on the steps behind the auditorium.
Alex looked at her. "With you?"
"With us," she corrected. "It doesn't separate anymore."
Riley's eyes flicked toward the fenced-off distance. "That's escalation."
--------------
That afternoon, something went wrong.
Not loud. Not dramatic.
A kid in their grade named Evan, quiet, forgettable in the way Marrow loved stood up in history class and asked a question.
"Why is there a building under the park?"
The room froze.
The teacher blinked. Once. Twice.
"I'm sorry?" she said.
Evan frowned. "My dad used to work maintenance. He said...."
The bell rang.
Too early.
Everyone stood automatically, bodies moving without permission.
When Alex looked back, Evan was still sitting there, confused.
By the next period, Evan wasn't on the attendance list.
By the end of the day, no one remembered him asking anything at all.
Except them.
Sam's voice shook. "It erased him."
Jordan swallowed hard. "No. It… rerouted him."
"To where?" Lena demanded.
Riley answered quietly. "To a version where he never noticed."
Maya's hands curled into fists. "It used him as a correction."
Alex felt something inside him snap, not loudly, but cleanly.
"No," he said.
Everyone turned.
"No," he repeated, standing. "This is where we stop pretending it's neutral."
--------
They didn't plan it.
Planning required time.
And Marrow was done giving it.
They went to the edge of the site together, after dark, ignoring the way the paths tried to bend them away.
Alex felt resistance like walking against wind that only pushed in certain directions.
Maya stepped forward and the pressure eased.
"It's letting us," Sam whispered.
"Of course it is," Lena said. "It wants the choice."
Jordan's phone buzzed.
ANCHOR REQUIRED
STABILIZATION IMMINENT
ZERO
The hum beneath their feet surged, not violent, but absolute.
Maya closed her eyes.
"I can feel what it wants," she said. "It doesn't want to hurt anyone.
It just… doesn't know how not to."
Alex took her hand.
"Then we teach it," he said.
Her eyes flew open. "Alex....."
"We're not choosing it," he said firmly. "We're choosing terms."
Sam blinked. "We can do that?"
Alex looked at the ground, at the lie layered over truth.
"It's been copying us this whole time. Maybe it's time we stopped reacting and started defining."
Riley nodded slowly. "If it wants continuity…"
"…it has to allow change," Lena finished.
Jordan stepped forward, heart pounding. "It needs more than one anchor."
Maya's breath caught. "You mean...."
"All of us," Jordan said.
The hum stuttered.
For the first time since this began, Marrow hesitated.
---
Deep underground, the structure shifted, not resetting, not containing.
Listening.
Time passed without incident.
No collapse.
No erasure.
No correction.
Just a long, careful pause.
Then Jordan's phone buzzed one last time.
STATUS: UNDEFINED
MODEL REVISING
Sam let out a shaky laugh. "Did we just confuse a town?"
Alex squeezed Maya's hand. "Good."
Because for the first time, Marrow didn't have an answer ready.
And uncertainty...real uncertainty was the one thing it had never learned how to control.
Which meant the future, fragile and uncontained, was finally open.
And that scared the town more than anything buried beneath it ever had.
AN:-
Anyone support with power stones and collection please