LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 14: Chapter 12: The Door That Remembers
The city stretched endlessly.
Klein and Yeaia ran.
But distance was meaningless here.
The more they moved, the more the world twisted. The streets curved inward, bending toward unseen points in space. Buildings flickered between being real and being stories of things that had once existed.
Behind them, the Spiral loomed.
Not as a figure. Not as a presence.
But as an inevitable erasure.
---
"The Door Keeps Moving."
Klein's divine senses flickered.
The center of the Spiral—the door they were running toward—was shifting.
It never stayed in one place. It would exist for a moment, then fade, appearing somewhere else within the maze of forgotten streets.
The city itself was resisting them.
"It's trying to make sure we never reach it." Yeaia muttered, glaring at their surroundings.
Klein narrowed his eyes.
"Then we stop playing by its rules."
He lifted his hand.
The Gray Fog rippled.
For a brief second, he forced the world to become consistent.
The shifting streets froze. The flickering buildings stabilized.
And the door—
Remained in place.
"Now!" Klein yelled.
They ran.
But the Spiral had already noticed.
---
The Erasure That Follows
The city collapsed.
Not like a building crumbling. Not like a wave crashing.
But like a thought being erased mid-sentence.
A wave of nothingness swept toward them, devouring everything in its path.
Yeaia exhaled sharply.
"Oh, it's actually trying now."
Klein didn't reply. He didn't have time.
The Gray Fog surged, pressing against the wave of erasure—forcing reality to hold together for just a moment longer.
It wasn't enough.
The Spiral was too strong.
It wasn't a god. It wasn't a will.
It was a correction.
A force that didn't care about power. Didn't care about existence.
It simply removed what should not be.
And right now, it had decided that neither of them should exist.
"Klein!"
Yeaia grabbed his wrist.
For the first time, they pulled him forward.
"No thinking. Just move."
Klein let them.
And together—
They leaped through the door.
---
Falling Into the Past
The moment they crossed the threshold, Klein realized something was wrong.
There was no floor. No destination. No next step.
Only—
Falling.
Falling through memories.
Klein saw glimpses of things that had never been.
A child standing at the edge of an unfinished dream.
A book that had never been written.
A name that had never been spoken.
And at the center of it all—
A single question.
"What is Yeaia Nolas?"
Then—
Everything stopped.
---
The Place Where It Began
Klein landed on solid ground.
For the first time, the world around them was stable.
No shifting buildings. No spirals. No erasure.
Just a quiet, empty town.
The streets were lined with houses—familiar ones. The air smelled of salt, of the distant sea.
And standing beneath a streetlamp—
Yeaia froze.
"No."
Klein turned toward them.
Yeaia's mismatched eyes were wide. Their fingers trembled.
"This isn't real."
Klein followed Yeaia's gaze.
A small house. A door slightly ajar.
And inside—
A child's voice.
"Mama, where's big—"
The word warped.
It started as "brother"—but halfway through, it twisted, becoming something else. Something unfinished.
"Where's big—big…sis—?"
Like the memory itself couldn't decide.
Like Yeaia's very existence had been blurred.
Yeaia staggered back.
"No. No, no, no—"
Their breath hitched.
And for the first time since Klein had met them
—
They looked like they wanted to run.
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End of Chapter 12
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