Chapter 140: A Girl That Never Changed

“That’s what you said when you killed me.”

The words settled over the clearing.

Nobody moved.

The Sasha standing beside Dillan had gone completely pale.

Across from them, the woman in white smiled with an expression that was unmistakably Sasha’s.

The same curve of the lips.

The same tilt of the head.

Even the tiny crease beside her left eye was identical.

But her eyes were different.

They held no warmth.

Only the exhaustion of someone who had waited far too long for an apology.

Dillan stepped between the two women.

“Nobody moves.”

The woman in white laughed softly.

“Still trying to protect everyone at once?”

“Who are you?”

“You’ve asked me that before.”

“I’ve never seen you.”

“That’s what you always say.”

She touched the scar across her throat.

“Especially when you want to believe you haven’t done anything wrong.”

Sasha grabbed Dillan’s sleeve.

“Don’t listen to her.”

The woman in white tilted her head.

“Interesting.”

Her gaze settled on Sasha.

“You still do that.”

“Do what?” Sasha demanded.

“Hold his sleeve whenever you’re afraid he’ll choose someone else.”

Sasha immediately released him.

The woman smiled.

“There. See? You remember.”

Dillan looked at the Witness Record.

It remained frozen on the same notification.

FOURTH ENTRY DETECTED.SUBJECT: THE FIRST COMPANION’S CREATOR.IDENTITY: SASHA RUREN.VERIFICATION: INCOMPLETE.

“Verification incomplete,” Dillan murmured.

He looked at the woman.

“The Record hasn’t confirmed that you’re Sasha.”

“How comforting.”

“Answer me.”

She sighed.

“Fine.”

She approached the oak tree and rested her palm against its bark.

“I am Sasha Ruren.”

Her eyes shifted toward the real Sasha.

“But I’m not the Sasha you know.”

The real Sasha stepped forward.

“Then what are you?”

The woman in white looked at her for a long moment.

“I’m the Sasha who died because you survived.”

The clearing fell silent.

Dillan felt Sasha’s fingers tighten around his wrist.

“What does that mean?” he asked.

The woman looked at him.

“Do you remember the Preservation Core?”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember entering it?”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember finding Sasha?”

Dillan hesitated.

The woman smiled bitterly.

“Of course you do. You remember the version where you saved her.”

She pressed her hand harder against the tree.

“But there was another version.”

The bark began to glow.

A memory appeared between the branches.

A white room.

The Preservation Core.

Young Dillan stood before a circular chamber, blood running down his forehead.

Sasha lay inside the chamber.

Her eyes were closed.

A crimson light pulsed beneath her skin.

And beside Dillan stood another girl.

Sasha.

Not the girl inside the chamber.

Not the woman in white.

A third version.

She wore a dark dress and held a broken bracelet in her hands.

Young Dillan looked at her.

“How do I save her?”

The third Sasha stared at the chamber.

“You can’t.”

“There has to be a way.”

“There isn’t.”

“Then I’ll change the rules.”

She shook her head.

“You always say that.”

Young Dillan grabbed her shoulders.

“Tell me what to do!”

The girl looked into his eyes.

For a moment, she seemed much older than him.

Then she whispered:

“Choose.”

Young Dillan froze.

“Choose what?”

“One Sasha.”

The chamber began collapsing.

Inside it, the unconscious Sasha opened her eyes.

The girl beside Dillan stepped away.

“One of us can survive.”

Young Dillan shook his head violently.

“No.”

“Then both of us die.”

“No!”

She reached up and touched his cheek.

“Dillan, listen to me.”

Her voice trembled.

“You don’t have to make everyone stay.”

Young Dillan began crying.

“I don’t want to lose you.”

The girl smiled.

“I know.”

Then she kissed his forehead.

And stepped into the chamber.

The crimson light swallowed her.

The other Sasha screamed.

Young Dillan reached for the disappearing girl.

But his hand passed through her.

The memory shattered.

Dillan stumbled backward.

“No…”

Sasha stared at him.

“What did you see?”

He couldn’t answer.

The woman in white watched him with tearful eyes.

“Now you remember a little.”

Dillan shook his head.

“That wasn’t real.”

“Wasn’t it?”

“The Core only had one Sasha.”

“According to the version of events you accepted.”

She approached him.

“Tell me something, Dillan. When you entered the Core, did you ever wonder why Sasha’s preservation was possible?”

He said nothing.

“Why the Core had enough emotional resonance to reconstruct her? Why the memories you recovered never quite explained the cost?”

The woman touched the scar on her throat.

“Because something was removed from the story.”

Sasha’s voice became sharp.

“You’re lying.”

The woman looked at her.

“Am I?”

“That memory never happened.”

“Then why are you crying?”

Sasha touched her face.

Her fingertips came away wet.

She stared at them in disbelief.

The woman in white closed her eyes.

“Because you remember.”

The Witness Record suddenly flickered.

MEMORY CONFLICT DETECTED.SASHA RUREN: PRIMARY INSTANCE.SASHA RUREN: SECONDARY INSTANCE.RELATIONSHIP: UNRESOLVED.

Dillan stepped toward the woman in white.

“If you died, how are you standing here?”

She looked at him.

“Because you never let me die.”

He frowned.

“You just said I killed you.”

“I did.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Neither does keeping someone’s existence alive while removing every memory that proves they existed.”

She pointed at the oak tree.

“Look at the names.”

Dillan turned.

Sasha.

Aurelia.

Alina.

Dana.

Lyra.

Evelyn.

His own name.

And beneath them, faintly carved into the wood, was another name.

SASHA RUREN.

It appeared twice.

One inscription was deep and clear.

The other was almost invisible.

Dillan approached the tree.

He touched the faint inscription.

The bark split beneath his fingertips.

A small black envelope fell to the ground.

On its surface, in his own handwriting, were seven words.

DO NOT RESTORE THE SECOND SASHA.

Dillan opened it.

Inside was a single sheet of paper.

He read the message.

Then read it again.

His face drained of color.

Sasha approached him.

“What does it say?”

Dillan didn’t answer.

She took the paper from his hand.

Her eyes moved across the writing.

And stopped.

The message contained only one sentence.

THE SECOND SASHA IS THE ONE WHO CHOSE TO DIE.

The woman in white began to cry.

“Now you understand.”

Dillan looked at her.

“Why did I erase you?”

She shook her head.

“You didn’t erase me.”

She pointed at the Sasha beside him.

“She did.”

Sasha stepped backward.

“No.”

The woman in white looked directly at her.

“You chose to forget the version of yourself who wanted to die.”

Sasha’s breathing became uneven.

“Stop.”

“You buried her because you wanted Dillan to remember you as the girl who survived.”

“Stop!”

“And Dillan helped you.”

The woman in white’s expression softened.

“Because he thought forgetting was the same as healing.”

Dillan looked between them.

He remembered the System.

The Core.

The Second Choice.

The memories he had recovered.

But something was missing.

Not a name.

Not a face.

A decision.

Who had actually chosen to erase the second Sasha?

The Witness Record answered before he could ask.

FOURTH ENTRY: MEMORY ACCESS GRANTED.SUBJECT: SASHA RUREN.RESTRICTED EVENT: SECOND SASHA ERASURE.CONSENT STATUS: DISPUTED.

The woman in white held out her hand.

“Ask me what happened after I entered the Core.”

Dillan stared at her.

“What happened?”

She smiled sadly.

“I woke up.”

The clearing darkened.

“I was alone.”

The oak tree groaned.

“And someone was standing outside my chamber.”

Her eyes shifted toward Sasha.

“Someone who looked exactly like me.”

Sasha stopped breathing.

The woman in white whispered:

“And she was holding a knife.”

A sharp crack split the oak tree.

The Witness Record flashed crimson.

MEMORY RESTORATION INTERRUPTED.EXTERNAL INTERFERENCE DETECTED.SOURCE: SASHA RUREN.

Dillan turned toward Sasha.

She stood completely still.

Her face was white.

Her hands trembled.

Then, slowly, she looked at him.

“Dillan…”

Her voice broke.

“I think…”

She swallowed.

“I think she’s telling the truth.”

The woman in white closed her eyes.

And smiled.

“Thank you for remembering me, Sasha.”

Then she vanished.

Leaving behind the black envelope.

And one final line of writing that had not been there before.

THE SECOND SASHA DID NOT DIE IN THE CORE.

SHE IS STILL INSIDE SOMEONE.

The clearing remained silent long after the woman in white disappeared.

Dillan stared at the black envelope.

SHE IS STILL INSIDE SOMEONE.

Fourteen words had never felt so threatening.

Sasha stood beside him, staring at her own hands.

“Dillan?”

He looked up.

“Tell me what you’re thinking.”

She swallowed.

“I’m afraid to answer.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t know whether the answer will come from me.”

Dillan said nothing.

For once, he didn’t reach for her.

He didn’t promise that everything would be fine.

He simply waited.

Sasha slowly raised her eyes.

“What if she isn’t another version of me?”

“What do you mean?”

“What if she’s something I became?”

The wind stirred the white leaves above them.

Sasha pressed a hand against her chest.

“What if I didn’t just forget her? What if I pushed her somewhere inside myself because I couldn’t bear what she wanted?”

Dillan looked at the sentence on the paper.

THE SECOND SASHA DID NOT DIE IN THE CORE.

“Then we’ll find out what happened.”

Sasha flinched.

“And if I hurt someone?”

“Then we’ll face what you did.”

“And if I hurt you?”

Dillan met her eyes.

“That doesn’t give me the right to decide what you deserve.”

Her lips trembled.

For a moment, she looked as though she wanted to embrace him.

Instead, she stepped away.

“Don’t follow me.”

Then she walked toward the oak tree.

Dillan let her go.

But the moment Sasha touched the bark, the Witness Record appeared.

FOURTH ENTRY: REACTIVATED.SUBJECT: SASHA RUREN.INTERNAL ANOMALY DETECTED.LOCATION: EMOTIONAL MEMORY.WARNING: THE SUBJECT IS NOT ALONE.

Sasha froze.

Dillan immediately approached.

“What is it?”

She didn’t answer.

Her reflection had appeared on the tree’s polished surface.

But the reflection wasn’t copying her movements.

Sasha lifted her right hand.

The reflection kept both hands at its sides.

Then it smiled.

Sasha stumbled backward.

“No.”

The reflection leaned toward the surface.

Its lips moved.

Dillan couldn’t hear the words.

But Sasha could.

Her face crumpled.

“Please don’t.”

The reflection placed a hand against the other side of the bark.

Then it mouthed four words.

YOU PROMISED TO CHOOSE ME.

The oak tree split open.

And Sasha disappeared.

She fell into darkness.

There was no ground beneath her.

No sky above her.

Only a long corridor lined with mirrors.

Each mirror showed a different Sasha.

A little girl crying beneath the oak.

A teenager watching Dillan from across a classroom.

A young woman standing inside the Preservation Core.

A Sasha smiling beside Dillan.

Another turning away from him.

Another holding a knife.

Sasha covered her ears.

“Stop!”

The mirrors continued whispering.

You wanted him.

You feared losing him.

You made yourself indispensable.

You chose him.

You chose him.

You chose him.

Sasha ran.

At the end of the corridor stood a small white door.

She reached for the handle.

A voice spoke behind her.

“Where are you going?”

Sasha stopped.

She knew that voice.

She had heard it in dreams.

In memories.

In the spaces between thoughts she had always dismissed as her own.

Slowly, she turned.

A girl stood beneath the nearest mirror.

She looked about Sasha’s age.

Her hair was identical.

Her face was identical.

Even the tiny scar near her eyebrow matched.

But her eyes were empty.

Sasha whispered, “Who are you?”

The girl looked offended.

“You’re still asking that?”

“Are you the second Sasha?”

The girl laughed.

“No.”

She stepped closer.

“I’m the Sasha you buried before the second Sasha ever existed.”

Sasha’s heart hammered.

“What does that mean?”

“It means you keep looking for another person to blame.”

The girl pointed at the mirrors.

“Every time you were afraid Dillan would forget you, you made another promise. Every time you wanted him to choose you, you imagined what you would sacrifice to make it happen.”

She stepped closer.

“And every time you hated yourself for it, you buried the feeling.”

Sasha shook her head.

“Those were just thoughts.”

“Of course.”

The girl smiled.

“That’s what you called them.”

The mirrors went dark.

A single memory appeared.

Young Sasha sat beneath the oak tree.

Young Dillan sat beside her.

He was crying.

She held his hand.

“If I disappeared, would you remember me?”

Young Dillan nodded furiously.

“Forever.”

Young Sasha smiled.

“Even if you met someone else?”

“Yes.”

“Even if you loved someone else?”

He hesitated.

It was only a second.

But young Sasha noticed.

The memory froze.

The girl standing before Sasha spoke quietly.

“That’s when it started.”

Sasha stared at the image.

“No…”

“You were a child. You didn’t understand what love meant. You only understood that someone could promise you forever and still hesitate.”

The girl’s expression softened.

“So you made another promise.”

Sasha’s voice shook.

“What promise?”

The girl leaned close.

“If he ever forgot you, you would make him remember.”

The corridor trembled.

Sasha stepped backward.

“I never wanted to control him.”

“I know.”

“I wanted him to love me.”

“I know.”

“Then why are you doing this?”

The girl looked at her sadly.

“Because you keep pretending those two things could never become the same.”

Silence.

Sasha began crying.

The girl didn’t embrace her.

She didn’t offer comfort.

She simply waited until Sasha could look at her again.

Then she asked a question.

“If Dillan chooses a life without you, what will you do?”

Sasha opened her mouth.

No answer came.

The girl nodded.

“That’s why I’m here.”

She pointed toward the white door.

“Behind that door is the memory you removed.”

Sasha stared at it.

“What memory?”

“The moment you decided that loving Dillan mattered more than knowing who you were without him.”

Sasha’s breathing became uneven.

“I don’t want to see it.”

“Then don’t.”

The girl stepped aside.

“You can leave.”

Sasha looked at the door.

Then at the girl.

“What happens to you if I leave?”

The girl smiled faintly.

“I remain the thing you don’t want to remember.”

Sasha closed her eyes.

For the first time, nobody was threatening her.

Nobody was forcing a sacrifice.

Nobody was demanding that she choose between Dillan and herself.

She could walk away.

She could open the door.

She could even refuse to answer.

And that freedom terrified her more than any nightmare.

Finally, Sasha reached for the handle.

The door opened.

Inside was the Preservation Core.

But it wasn’t the place she remembered.

The chamber was empty except for two chairs.

One held Sasha.

The other held Dillan.

Both appeared unconscious.

Between them stood a younger Sasha, holding a knife.

Her hands were trembling.

Tears streamed down her cheeks.

She looked toward the unconscious Dillan.

Then toward the other Sasha.

“I can’t let him remember.”

The younger girl raised the knife.

Sasha gasped.

“No!”

She rushed forward.

But her hands passed through the scene.

It was a memory.

She could witness it.

Nothing more.

The younger Sasha placed the knife against the chamber’s control panel.

A voice spoke from the darkness.

“If you remove the memory, he will survive.”

The younger girl sobbed.

“And her?”

“She will cease to exist as a separate identity.”

The knife trembled.

Sasha watched in horror.

The girl in the memory looked at Dillan.

Then at herself.

“I’m sorry.”

She drove the knife into the panel.

The Core erupted with crimson light.

The second Sasha screamed.

And the memory shattered.

Sasha fell to her knees.

She understood now.

The woman in white hadn’t been lying.

But something about the memory was wrong.

The younger Sasha had been crying.

She had been terrified.

Yet just before the knife struck the panel, she had looked directly toward the place where the observer stood.

Toward Sasha.

And her lips had moved.

Three words.

I KNOW YOU’RE HERE.

The Witness Record appeared.

FOURTH ENTRY: MEMORY FRAGMENT RESTORED.EVENT: SECOND SASHA ERASURE.ACTION PERFORMED BY: SASHA RUREN.MOTIVE: PROTECT DILLAN RUREN.ADDITIONAL FACTOR: WITHHELD.

Sasha stared at the final line.

“Withheld?”

The lights flickered.

A new message appeared.

WARNING: MEMORY CONTAINS AN UNAUTHORIZED PARTICIPANT.

The chamber’s doors slammed shut.

A shadow appeared behind the younger Sasha.

Tall.

Motionless.

Its face was hidden.

Sasha couldn’t breathe.

The shadow leaned toward the younger girl’s ear.

And whispered something the Record refused to transcribe.

The younger Sasha’s expression changed.

Her fear vanished.

She looked at the second Sasha.

Then she smiled.

Not with love.

Not with regret.

With recognition.

As though she had finally understood who had been standing behind her all along.

The memory went black.

Beneath the oak tree, Dillan staggered.

The tree had stopped glowing.

Sasha’s name appeared across its bark, then vanished.

Aurelia rushed toward him.

“Where did she go?”

“I don’t know.”

Dillan pressed his hand against the tree.

He could feel something on the other side.

A heartbeat.

Two rhythms.

One familiar.

One painfully faint.

Then the Witness Record appeared.

SUBJECT: SASHA RUREN.INTERNAL MEMORY ACCESS: ACTIVE.UNAUTHORIZED PARTICIPANT: DETECTED.IDENTITY: UNRESOLVED.

Dillan’s expression hardened.

“Whoever you are, listen carefully.”

He pressed his forehead against the bark.

“I’m not going to force Sasha to come back.”

The heartbeat faltered.

“But I’m not going to abandon her, either.”

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then a small handprint appeared beneath his palm.

A child’s hand.

Dillan stared at it.

A voice whispered through the tree.

Not Sasha’s.

Not the second Sasha’s.

A third voice.

“You still don’t understand, Dillan.”

The bark split.

One crimson eye opened inside the trunk.

“I never wanted Sasha to disappear.”

Dillan went cold.

The eye narrowed.

“I wanted you to forget that I existed.”

The Witness Record flashed.

UNAUTHORIZED PARTICIPANT IDENTIFIED.

A pause.

Then the name appeared.

SUBJECT: DILLAN RUREN.

Dillan stared at the notification.

His own name.

His own identity.

And beneath it, a final message.

MEMORY OWNER: NOT THE CURRENT HOST.

The eye closed.

From somewhere inside the oak, a child began to cry.

“Please don’t remember what you did to me.”