Chapter 1881

The knocking stopped.

For one impossible moment, the room became completely silent.

Then the woman screamed.

"Close it!"

Jude turned towards the doorway.

The darkness beyond it was folding inwards, but it was not disappearing. It was gathering itself, drawing the silver threads into a single enormous knot. The threads twisted around one another, forming shapes that looked almost like branches, almost like fingers, almost like the outlines of people standing very far away.

The two children moved towards the woman.

The smallest Sol grabbed Jude’s hand.

"Don’t let it come inside!"

"What is it?"

"I don’t know!"

"You said you knew the room!"

"I know the room. I don’t know what’s outside it!"

The child in the doorway suddenly began crying.

"Mother!"

The woman rushed towards him.

But the moment she crossed the threshold, the wooden floor split between her and the child.

A dark line appeared.

It stretched from one wall to the other, separating the room into two halves.

The woman stopped.

The child reached for her.

"Mother, please!"

She tried to step across.

The line widened.

Something beneath the floor moved.

The woman staggered backwards.

"Don’t cross that line!"

The child looked confused.

"But you came for us."

"I know."

"You said you would never leave again."

"I know."

"Then come."

The woman closed her eyes.

"I cannot."

The child lowered his hand.

The smallest Sol watched them silently.

Jude looked towards the doorway.

The darkness had become almost solid.

A vast shape stood behind the silver threads.

It was too tall to fit through the opening.

Its head was hidden somewhere beyond the ceiling of the room.

Its shoulders seemed to stretch across the darkness, and where its face should have been, there was only a pale circle.

A circle without eyes.

Without a mouth.

Without anything.

Yet Jude knew it was looking at him.

The voice came again.

"Open the room."

The wooden book on the table flew open.

Its pages turned rapidly.

Drawings appeared and vanished.

The island.

The village.

The northern mountain.

The first house.

The woman.

The two children.

The four Sols.

The fifth child.

The older Jude.

The twelve women.

Then every drawing disappeared.

A single word appeared.

BEFORE.

Jude stared at it.

"Before what?"

The smallest Sol looked towards the book.

"Before everything."

The child in the doorway shook his head.

"No. Before the room."

The woman turned towards him.

"Be quiet."

The child looked at Jude.

"You need to understand."

The older Jude’s voice suddenly came from behind them.

"Don’t listen to either child!"

Jude turned.

The older man stood at the entrance of the little room.

He had somehow crossed the staircase and reached them, but his clothes were torn, and silver threads were wrapped around his left arm.

He looked at the two children.

Then at the woman.

Then at the darkness.

His expression changed.

"You opened it."

The woman stared at him.

"You were supposed to keep the door closed."

"I tried."

"You were supposed to protect them."

"I did."

"You were supposed to bring the first child back!"

The older Jude looked towards Jude.

"I brought him back."

The woman shook her head.

"No. You brought the wrong one."

The older man looked at the smallest Sol.

Then at the child standing beyond the line.

His voice became very quiet.

"Which one did I bring?"

Neither child answered.

The older Jude approached the book.

He looked at the word on the page.

BEFORE.

Then he slowly stepped away.

"Oh."

Jude turned towards him.

"What?"

The older man looked almost frightened.

"We have been looking for the first house."

He glanced towards the doorway.

"But the first house was never the beginning."

The woman lowered her head.

Jude felt his stomach tighten.

"Then what was?"

The older Jude pointed towards the darkness.

"That."

The enormous shape moved.

The silver threads stretched.

And the voice spoke again.

"Open the room."

The older Jude grabbed Jude’s shoulder.

"We have to leave."

"Not until you tell me what’s happening."

"You don’t have time."

"I have been hearing that since the first day."

"Jude—"

"No. I’m finished being sent from one room to another without answers."

The older man stared at him.

Then he looked towards the two children.

"Do you want the truth?"

"Yes."

"Then listen carefully. There was no island before the tree. There was no tree before the first house. There was no first house before this room."

Jude looked around.

The little wooden table.

The two chairs.

The bed.

The window.

The door.

"This room?"

The older Jude nodded.

"But this room was not created by the woman. It was not created by the man. And it was not created by the children."

He looked towards the darkness.

"It was found."

The woman whispered:

"Don’t."

The older man continued.

"Something existed before the room. Something that had no shape, no name, and no memory. The room was the first place it could become something."

Jude stared.

"Who found it?"

The older Jude looked at the woman.

"She did."

The woman closed her eyes.

"And what did she find?"

The older Jude answered:

"A place where nothing could ever be lost."

The smallest Sol looked down.

The older Jude continued.

"She brought a seed into the room. A small seed. She planted it in the floor, and the first tree grew."

The wooden walls creaked.

"The tree remembered everything around it. Every voice. Every face. Every promise. It remembered things that happened and things that never happened."

Jude glanced at the book.

"And the house?"

"The house was built to protect the tree."

"And the island?"

"The island grew around the roots."

Jude looked towards the window.

The world beyond the room seemed to be changing.

The white structure was no longer visible.

Instead, there was a vast darkness filled with distant lights.

"And the people?"

The older Jude hesitated.

"They came later."

The woman looked at him.

"You are making it sound as if I created a prison."

"You did."