They ran through the fading street.
Rive's feet barely touched the ground.
Behind them, the convenience store disappeared.
Then the streetlight.
Then the entire building beside it.
Rive glanced backward.
"Vikram, the road is disappearing!"
"I noticed!"
"Just checking! Thought you might've missed the enormous reality problem!"
They turned into a narrow alley.
Three figures stood at the other end.
The Reapers.
Their black coats fluttered in a wind that didn't exist.
The leader raised its silver weapon.
"Stop."
Vikram immediately placed himself between the Reapers and Rive.
"Explain what happened."
The lead Reaper tilted its masked face.
"You are inside an unrecorded moment."
"That's not an explanation."
"Your charge has created an absence in the sequence of reality. The longer it remains, the greater the damage."
Rive raised a hand.
"Quick question. When you say your charge, do you mean me?"
"Yes."
"Follow-up question. Is there a way to fix this without killing me?"
The Reaper's weapon glowed.
"That depends on whether you can restore what you removed."
Rive stared at it.
"Restore what?"
"The missing second."
Vikram's voice lowered.
"How?"
The Reaper pointed toward Rive's chest.
"The moment was created by his soul. The moment must be returned by his soul."
Rive looked down.
The strange silver line between his eyes pulsed beneath his skin.
"And what happens if I can't?"
The Reaper didn't answer immediately.
Then it said something that made even Vikram go still.
"The missing moment will become a permanent wound in reality."
The alley trembled.
The Reaper continued.
"And everything connected to that moment will begin to disappear."
Rive remembered the ghost in the store.
The carved words.
I forgot her face.
His hands curled into fists.
"Then tell me how to fix it."
The Reaper lowered its weapon slightly.
"Find the point where the moment was removed."
"And where is that?"
The mask turned toward the end of the alley.
Beyond it stood a building Rive had never seen before.
A tall, narrow tower.
Its windows were completely black.
Its entrance bore no sign, no handle, and no visible door.
Yet from somewhere inside—
A clock was ticking.
TICK.
TICK.
TICK.
The lead Reaper spoke.
"The Archive of Unlived Moments."
Vikram's expression changed.
Rive noticed.
"You know that place?"
"I've heard of it."
"And?"
"And nothing that enters the Archive returns unchanged."
Rive sighed.
"Of course it doesn't."
He started toward the tower.
Vikram caught his arm.
"Rive, think carefully."
Rive looked back at him.
"Someone is losing pieces of their existence because of me."
"Your intentions don't make this safe."
"I know."
For once, Rive didn't make a joke.
"I don't want to become something everyone has to fear."
He looked toward the disappearing street.
"I'm already dead. I can handle that."
His voice grew quieter.
"But I don't want to be the reason someone else disappears."
Vikram studied him.
Then he released his arm.
"Stay close."
The lead Reaper watched them enter the tower.
For the first time since arriving, it didn't follow.
Instead, it whispered something into the silver light surrounding its weapon.
"Containment has failed."
A voice answered from somewhere beyond the rift.
"No."
The Reaper froze.
The voice continued.
"Containment was never the purpose."