Chapter 250: Brother who stayed

I read the final sentence again.

Bring your brother.

The black book remained closed on the dining table.

I didn’t touch it.

I didn’t need to.

The message was clear enough.

Whoever had been sending me those notes wanted me to visit the old records office with my brother.

But which brother?

The Nameless?

Noah?

Or someone I hadn’t remembered yet?

I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my face.

"Why can’t anyone in this world just send a normal message?"

My phone vibrated.

For a moment, I expected another unknown number.

Instead, it was Noah.

Are you awake?

I stared at the screen.

Then replied.

Unfortunately. What’s up?

His answer came quickly.

Can we meet tomorrow? There’s something I want to talk about.

I frowned.

Something serious?

I think so.

I glanced toward the closed book.

Then typed.

Come over in the morning.

Alright.

The conversation ended.

I put my phone down and looked at the photograph again.

The boy in the picture.

The familiar eyes.

The smile.

The words written beneath it.

For Adrian, from the brother who stayed.

I couldn’t remember him.

But somehow, the idea of having forgotten him bothered me more than the mystery itself.

---

Noah arrived shortly after breakfast.

He looked tired.

Not physically exhausted, but distracted.

The moment I opened the door, he gave me a small nod.

"Morning."

"Morning. Come in."

He stepped inside and glanced toward the kitchen.

"Is Lena here?"

"She’s getting ready."

"Good."

I closed the door.

"What’s going on?"

Noah didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded photograph.

My expression changed.

Another photograph?

He placed it on the dining table.

"I found this yesterday."

I walked over.

The image showed an old room.

White walls.

A narrow window.

A wooden chair near the door.

The same room.

I looked at him.

"Where did you get this?"

"It was inside my belongings."

"What belongings?"

"Some old boxes my family kept in storage."

He unfolded the photograph completely.

There were three people in it.

A young boy standing near the window.

A second boy sitting on the floor.

And a woman standing behind them.

The first boy looked familiar.

The second...

I stopped breathing.

It was me.

Not Adrian Cross.

Not the version of me I knew now.

A younger version.

The woman behind them had one hand resting on my shoulder.

I recognized her immediately.

My mother.

I stared at the photograph for a long time.

"Where did you get this?"

"I told you. It was in an old box."

Noah looked uncomfortable.

"There were several other photographs, but this one was different."

He pointed toward the boy sitting beside me.

"Do you recognize him?"

I shook my head slowly.

"No."

"Neither do I."

He paused.

"But I found something written on the back."

I turned the photograph over.

There were three lines.

Aeris.

Noah.

And the one who stayed.

My stomach tightened.

Noah looked at me.

"Do you know what it means?"

Before I could answer, Lena entered the room.

She stopped when she saw the photograph.

For several seconds, she simply stared at it.

Then she approached.

"Where did you get that?"

Noah looked at her.

"You’ve seen it before?"

Lena shook her head.

"No."

She pointed toward the woman in the photograph.

"But I recognize her."

I looked at her.

"Who?"

"Your mother."

"Yes."

Lena’s gaze moved toward the boys.

"And I recognize the room."

Silence settled over the table.

Noah slowly pulled out a chair.

"Alright."

He looked between us.

"Can someone explain why everyone seems to know something I don’t?"

I almost laughed.

"Welcome to the club."

---

We spent the next hour examining the photographs.

Noah had brought four more.

All showed the same room.

In one, the three boys were sitting together on the floor.

In another, the woman was standing beside the window.

In the third, only the two boys remained.

The fourth was particularly strange.

It showed the empty room.

No people.

No furniture.

Just four white walls and a narrow window.

Yet someone had written beneath it.

He was still there.

Lena studied the photograph.

"Maybe the room wasn’t meant to hold people."

"What do you mean?"

She placed the picture beside the others.

"Look at this one."

She pointed toward the empty chair.

"In every photograph, there’s a chair near the door."

I nodded.

"Except this one."

"Exactly."

She looked at me.

"What if the chair wasn’t meant for someone who was already there?"

Noah frowned.

"Then who was it meant for?"

Lena looked at the empty room.

"Someone who hadn’t arrived yet."

I glanced at the photograph.

The words from the Archive came back to me.

The empty seat was never completed.

Its owner never arrived.

I slowly sat down.

"Could it be connected?"

Lena nodded.

"I think so."

Noah leaned forward.

"Then we should go there."

I looked at him.

"To the old records office?"

"Yes."

I hesitated.

The black book had specifically warned me not to bring the Publisher.

It had also told me to bring my brother.

Noah was my brother.

At least, one of them was.

But the photograph suggested someone else had been there before him.

Someone who stayed.

I looked toward Noah.

"Before we go, there’s something I need to ask."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Go ahead."

"Do you remember anything about the room?"

He studied the photograph.

Then slowly shook his head.

"No."

"But..."

He paused.

"There’s something strange."

"What?"

"When I look at the boy sitting beside you..."

He pointed toward the first photograph.

"...I feel like I should know him."

I waited.

Noah frowned.

"It’s not a memory."

"It’s more like..."

He searched for the right words.

"...I’m remembering that I forgot him."

That sentence made my stomach twist.

---

Detective Hale arrived shortly before noon.

He had brought a folder containing the property records and the maintenance report.

He looked at the photographs spread across the table.

"Where did these come from?"

"Noah found them."

Hale picked up the first one.

His expression changed almost immediately.

"That’s you."

He pointed toward the younger version of me.

I nodded.

"And that’s your mother."

"Yes."

He examined the boy beside me.

"Who’s this?"

"That’s what we’re trying to find out."

Hale turned the photograph over.

He read the writing.

Then looked at Noah.

"You’re listed here too."

Noah nodded.

"Apparently."

The detective placed the photograph down.

"There’s something else."

He opened the folder.

"The maintenance report from last month wasn’t the only recent record."

He pulled out another document.

"This one was filed three days ago."

I frowned.

"By whom?"

"An individual using the name Adrian Cross."

I stared at him.

"What?"

Hale nodded.

"The report requested access to the underground entrance beneath the old records office."

"Who submitted it?"

"That’s the problem."

He placed another sheet on the table.

"The signature matches yours."

I looked at the document.

It was my handwriting.

Or something close enough to fool anyone.

But I hadn’t written it.

Lena leaned over my shoulder.

"Could someone have copied your signature?"

"Possibly."

Hale shook his head.

"Not the important part."

He pointed toward the bottom of the page.

A handwritten note appeared beneath the signature.

The room must remain open until all three brothers return.

Noah slowly straightened.

"Three brothers?"

I looked at the photographs again.

Aeris.

Noah.

And the one who stayed.

There were three names.

Three boys.

One of them was me.

One was Noah.

The third...

I couldn’t remember.

The detective closed the folder.

"We’re going to the site."

He looked at me.

"But I want everyone to understand something."

"This is not an official investigation."

"We’re not entering an unsafe building without checking the structure first."

"Understood?"

I nodded.

Noah agreed.

Lena did too.

Hale looked toward the photograph one last time.

"Let’s find out who the third boy is."

---

The old records office had been replaced by a small public garden.

Most of the original building was gone.

A paved walkway crossed the property, connecting the nearby residential streets to the main road. Several benches stood beneath the trees, and a small fountain occupied the center of the garden.

People walked through without paying much attention to the ground beneath their feet.

Hale checked the maintenance report.

"The entrance should be near the eastern side."

We walked toward the oak tree.

The same tree that had appeared in the old photograph.

Lena stopped first.

"Here."

She pointed toward the ground.

There was a small metal plate beneath a layer of fallen leaves.

Hale crouched and brushed them aside.

A symbol appeared.

Half of a pocket watch.

I felt the brass key in my pocket grow warm.

I pulled it out.

The moment I held it above the plate, a faint click echoed beneath the ground.

A narrow line appeared in the pavement.

Then another.

The outline of a door.

No handle.

No visible lock.

Just a rectangular opening that hadn’t existed a moment earlier.

Noah stared.

"That’s definitely not normal."

Hale looked around.

Nobody nearby seemed to notice.

He examined the edges carefully.

"There’s a staircase beneath it."

Lena looked at me.

"Are you ready?"

I wasn’t.

Not even close.

But I nodded.

Hale opened the hatch.

Cold air rose from below.

It carried the smell of old paper.

The same smell I’d encountered in the Archive.

We descended carefully.

The staircase wasn’t particularly long.

After a dozen steps, it opened into a narrow corridor.

White walls.

A small window at the far end.

And a wooden chair beside the entrance.

My heartbeat quickened.

We had found the room.

Or at least...

The place that had once been the room.

Noah stepped forward.

"There’s something written here."

He pointed toward the wall.

Three names had been carved into it.

Aeris.

Noah.

ECHO.

I stared.

Echo.

The third brother.

The one who had stayed.

And beneath the names, a final sentence had been carved into the wall.

WELCOME HOME.

Before anyone could speak, the chair moved.

Not much.

Just a few centimetres.

As though someone had stood up.

A voice came from the far side of the room.

"You’re late."

I turned.

A young man stood beside the window.

Dark hair.

Familiar eyes.

A gentle smile.

He looked at me first.

Then Noah.

Finally, he glanced toward Lena.

"Hello."

His smile widened.

"I was beginning to think you’d forgotten me again."

My throat tightened.

I knew that face.

Not from the photographs.

Not from the Archive.

I knew him because I had once given him a name.

"Echo..."

The young man nodded.

"That’s right."

He looked toward the empty chair.

Then back at me.

"Now..."

He smiled faintly.

"Are you going to sit down, or are we going to pretend this is another visit?"