Chapter 166: Before Eden

The room was ordinary. That was the first thing Eden noticed. After everything he had seen, after the endless white spaces and impossible cities, after dying in worlds that should never have existed and meeting creatures that spoke as if reality were nothing more than a sentence waiting to be edited, he had expected something grand. A throne. A cathedral. A machine large enough to contain the universe. Instead, there was a desk.

A wooden desk with scratches along the edges and a small coffee stain near one corner sat beneath a lamp beside an open notebook. A glass of water had been left untouched long enough for condensation to disappear from its sides. Books were stacked against the wall, some neatly arranged, others leaning against each other as if whoever lived here had stopped caring about organization halfway through. Sitting behind the desk was a person.

Eden stared at him, and the man stared back. For several seconds, neither spoke. The strangest part was that Eden recognized the room. Not because he had been there, but because he had imagined it years ago, before Luna, before Aria, before the worlds, before he had even understood what he was doing. His eyes slowly moved across the desk, the lamp, the notebook, the cup, the chair, and the window. His breathing became shallow as he shook his head. "No."

The man behind the desk tilted his head. Eden stepped forward and insisted that it wasn’t real. The man calmly replied that it was. When Eden denied it again, the man remarked that he had said that before, usually right before something hurt. Eden’s eyes snapped toward him.

There was something wrong with the man’s face. Not physically. That would have been easier. It was the expression that bothered him. The tired eyes, the slight crease between the brows, and the way his mouth tightened whenever he was trying not to say something emotional. Eden knew that face. He had seen it in mirrors. He had hated it, missed it, forgotten it, and somehow, after everything, seeing another person wearing the same exhaustion made his stomach twist.

When Eden demanded to know who he was, the man looked down at the book and said he thought Eden already knew. Eden denied it and demanded that he say it. The man ran a finger along the edge of the page and explained that he was the person who opened the book. When Eden pointed out that it wasn’t an answer, the man replied that it was only the beginning of one.

The room remained quiet. Eden glanced toward the book lying open on the desk. Its pages were turning by themselves, slowly moving backward. Chapter after Chapter disappeared beneath the turning pages. Eden watched his own life unravel in reverse. The apartment, the first death, Luna, Aria, the worlds, the monsters, the white room, the boy—everything moved backward until even the first Chapter disappeared.

The pages finally stopped on a blank sheet. Eden frowned and asked if that was all. The man shook his head and rested his hand on the page, explaining that it was where Eden started. Eden asked what came before that, but instead of answering, the man reached beneath the desk and pulled out another book.

This one was smaller and older. Its cover was cracked, and the corners had been worn smooth from years of handling. There was no title and no author’s name. He placed it beside the first book. Eden immediately said it wasn’t his story. The man agreed and explained that it wasn’t the story Eden remembered. The words landed harder than they should have.

Eden slowly approached the desk and told him to open it. The man hesitated, explaining that once Eden saw what was inside, he wouldn’t be able to pretend he didn’t remember. Eden let out a humorless laugh. He reminded the man that he had spent his entire existence forgetting things, dying more times than he could count, watching people disappear, and even forgetting his own name. Leaning over the desk, he demanded that the man stop telling him he knew and instead tell him something he didn’t know.

For the first time, the man looked genuinely sad. Then he opened the smaller book. The first page contained a single sentence. Eden read it and forgot how to breathe.

Before Eden existed, there was a man who was afraid of losing everything.

The room seemed to tilt. Eden immediately denied it, but the man turned another page. His name was not Eden. Another page revealed that he had never created a world. Another said he had never met the Witnesses. Another declared he had never spoken to the Readers. Another revealed he had never died.

Eden’s heart hammered in his chest as he told him to stop, but the man continued. He was twenty-seven years old. The number struck Eden with strange familiarity. Not like a memory, but like a wound. Another page revealed a photograph.

A young man stood in front of a small house. He looked thinner, younger, and tired, but it was unmistakably him. Eden whispered in disbelief as his eyes shifted to the people beside him. Luna stood there smiling. Not the Luna from the story and not the woman who had walked through broken worlds beside him, but someone more alive than he had ever seen her. She wore an oversized sweater, her hair was messy, and one hand rested against the young man’s shoulder.

Between them stood a little girl. Aria.

Eden couldn’t move. The photograph trembled slightly in the man’s hand as he quietly reminded him that he remembered her. Something inside Eden broke. Aria had been six years old. Luna had been his wife. The words struck him harder than anything else.

Memories rushed forward in fragments. A kitchen. Rain against glass. Luna laughing because he had burned dinner. A tiny pair of shoes beside the front door. Aria sleeping on the couch with a stuffed rabbit tucked beneath her chin. A birthday cake. A hospital corridor. Luna crying. Eden making a promise. Then darkness.

Gripping the edge of the desk, Eden demanded to know what had happened. The man closed the book instead of answering. Eden asked again, but the man insisted that he wasn’t ready. Eden argued that he had been ready for a long time. The man calmly corrected him, explaining that he had only been surviving, and that there was a difference.

The photograph was pushed toward him. Eden picked it up, his thumb brushing across Aria’s face. Six years old. Missing front teeth. A crooked smile. She looked happy. Tears gathered in his eyes as he admitted that he remembered taking the photograph. The man nodded. Eden remembered Luna complaining because he didn’t know how to use the camera. A faint smile appeared on the man’s face as he pointed out that he still didn’t.

Eden laughed, though it came out broken. A tear landed on the photograph as he whispered that he remembered his daughter. Another tear followed as he admitted he remembered his wife. Pressing the photograph against his chest, he finally asked the question that had haunted him for so long. Why had he forgotten?

The man stood and walked toward the window. Outside was an ordinary street with trees, apartment buildings, passing cars, and people going about their lives. The normality of it all felt painful. Looking out at the world, he explained that the human mind had limits. Eden told him not to give him some philosophical answer, but the man insisted he wasn’t.

Sometimes forgetting wasn’t a failure of memory. Sometimes it was mercy.

Eden narrowed his eyes and demanded to know who had decided he needed mercy. The man looked directly at him and answered that Eden himself had. The revelation left him frozen. He insisted he would never have forgotten Luna. The man reminded him that he had. He insisted he would never have forgotten Aria. The answer was the same.

When Eden finally demanded to know why, the man lowered his eyes and explained that he couldn’t survive remembering them. He had begged for another life. He had begged for another story. He had begged for a world where they were still alive. And when even that wasn’t enough, he had begged to forget why he needed it.

The pieces began connecting. The worlds, the deaths, the stories, and the endless restarting. Every life had been built around something missing. He had spent countless lives searching for a warmth, a voice, a face, and a home. He had believed the search was the point. It wasn’t. The search had been the punishment because somewhere beneath every world, he had always known exactly what he had lost.

Lowering himself into the chair, Eden covered his face with his hands. The man waited patiently. Eventually, Eden asked whether he had created all of it. Some of the worlds, yes. Some of the monsters, yes. The Witnesses, no. The Readers, no. The boy, also no.

That answer made Eden slowly lift his head. If he hadn’t created them, then who had?

The man smiled sadly and explained that it was the question Eden had never been supposed to ask. When Eden demanded to know why, the man replied that the answer was worse than loneliness.

The lamp flickered once, then twice. The room changed. Not physically, but something deeper shifted. The walls seemed farther away. The window disappeared. The desk stretched into darkness. Behind the man, a door appeared where none had existed before.

Eden stared at it and asked what it was. The man turned toward it and explained that it was the place before the story. There was no handle, only an inscription carved into the wood. As Eden stepped closer, the words became clear.

THE FIRST PAGE WAS NOT WRITTEN BY EDEN.

A second sentence slowly appeared beneath it.

EDEN WAS WRITTEN BY SOMEONE WHO HAD ALREADY LOST HIM.

His blood ran cold. Turning toward the man, he demanded to know who it was. The man didn’t answer.

The door opened by itself.

Beyond it was darkness. Not empty darkness, but a darkness filled with thousands of voices whispering, reading, and remembering. For the first time since entering the room, the man looked afraid. He warned Eden not to answer anything he heard.

Eden looked into the darkness. One voice rose above the others. A child’s voice. Familiar. The little boy. The First Reader. The voice laughed softly and greeted him, saying that he had finally come back.

Then another voice spoke.

Older.

Colder.

A voice Eden had never heard before, yet somehow recognized immediately.

It told him that he had taken long enough.

The darkness shifted. Something opened its eyes beyond the door. In that moment, Eden realized the terrible truth. The story had never been trying to keep him inside.

It had been hiding him from what was outside.