The sun hadn't quite risen.
A thin, ghost-pale mist clung to the town’s edges like an old cobweb. Jay stood at the threshold of the inn, staring at the empty street. He could still feel the bell tower’s cold breath on the back of his neck—even though they'd left it hours ago.
System 000 hovered silently by his shoulder, unusually quiet.
“I… don’t remember that window being cracked,” Jay muttered, pointing toward the bakery across the street.
000 blinked, static flickering in his speech bubble.
"C̛͍o̘n̪͜f̡̪͚i͔̼͠r͔̰m̠͍̳ing... e̱͓̖͉͡r̛͓r̲̯̮̖͎̫͚ó͇̞͙r. D-data mismatch."
Jay turned to him sharply. “You're glitching.”
"I'm f̨͍i̖̮n̬̖e."
He wasn’t.
Back inside the inn, the world felt... different.
Jay noticed it in small ways—the scratch on the counter that hadn’t been there, the new name in the guest book: Marlenne G., Room 3.
There was no Room 3. Only two rooms existed upstairs.
When Jay rubbed his temples, he felt a sting. A thin scar ran across his temple.
“I didn’t have this,” he whispered.
He checked the mirror. The scar was there—like an echo of a wound he hadn't earned.
A knock at the door.
On the step: a red ribbon, tied around a small, brittle bone.
Jay stared at it.
000 hovered beside him, his voice low and static-laced.
"Quest update. Title: 'T-The Girl Who Remembers.' No registered giver."
Jay picked up the bone. There was a note, written in a child’s uneven hand.
“She walked the dark before the bell stopped.
She still remembers.
Find her before sunset, or she will find you.”
Jay didn’t ask questions. He packed a lantern, tucked the note in his pocket, and set out.
Clues were scattered like mismatched puzzle pieces—drawings in alleyways, the word “RING” scratched beneath a window, a faded lullaby stuck in a spinning music box left outside the blacksmith’s.
When Jay ran into Elyse near the town well, she didn’t greet him. She only held out a fragment of a cracked mirror.
“It’s an anchor,” she said. “For when the world shifts. Don’t lie while holding it.”
Jay blinked. “Why not?”
“Because the mirror breaks with lies. And if it breaks while you’re inside… she’ll keep you.”
At twilight, Jay found it: an alley that hadn’t existed yesterday, lit with a bleeding red glow.
The air was still. No wind. No bugs. No birds.
She stood at the end of the alley.
The Girl in Red.
Barefoot. Skin like shadow. Her face shimmered like static—always shifting, like trying to remember a dream.
She hummed. Backwards.
“Who are you?” Jay whispered.
The girl tilted her head. Her voice was wrong. Too loud for her body.
“You aren’t real. But you’re trying so hard.”
000 flickered, error symbols spinning across his interface.
"H̘̼̻̦̕e̠͕̤̜̺r͈̹ presence — impossible. This entity is not mapped."
Her gaze snapped to him. Her mouth didn’t move, but her voice wrapped around them like smoke.
“You weren’t born. You were built. But you were built from us.”
Jay stepped closer, gripping the mirror shard.
“Who are you talking about? What happened here?”
The alley deepened, stretching into something older. Stone turned to black wood. Fog rolled in, thick and warm.
“I can show you,” she said. “But you can’t come back the same.”
Jay hesitated.
000 buzzed furiously.
"Jay, do not engage. Visual data is unstable. Do not follow her."
Jay stepped forward anyway.
He saw it.
The town—bright, alive. Children laughed. The bell rang at noon.
No mist. No silence.
The Girl in Red watched from the shadows.
Then fire. Screaming. The bell—ringing endlessly until the sound cracked open the sky.
Parents forgot their children mid-sentence.
Children faded from photos. From stories. From memories.
“They rang it to forget,” she said.
“If it rings again, they’ll all remember.”
Jay blinked.
He stood outside the inn. The ribbon was still in his hand.
Sunset had passed.
Inside, 000 was slumped in the corner, sparking gently. “You—left system range—too long,” he murmured. “I couldn’t follow…”
Jay crouched beside him. “I’m sorry. But I had to see.”
From the corner of the inn, the quest board flickered.
[Main Quest Unlocked: Ring the Bell Before the World Ends — 0/3 Echoes Freed]
Jay closed his eyes, fingers tightening around the red ribbon.
Tomorrow, he would find the next Echo.
Before the world forgot itself completely.
End of Chapter 4
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