“Darven isn’t the biggest monster in Darwanta Guesthouse.”
Savera pointed at Elvar first.
“He’s just someone who spent thirty-seven years making sure his younger brother wouldn’t remember what he really was.”
I looked at Elvar.
No.
I didn’t even know which part I was supposed to look at.
His face?
His hands?
His eyes?
Or whatever was supposedly hidden inside him for decades?
“Elvar.”
He didn’t answer.
His gaze was fixed on the mirror.
The first Savera stared back.
For a moment, they looked like two people who had been waiting far too long for this conversation.
“Don’t listen to her,” Elvar finally said.
I let out a short laugh.
Of course.
That line again.
“Seriously?”
“Savera.”
“Every time someone says something you don’t like, you tell me not to listen.”
“Because she isn’t you.”
I froze.
The reflection of the first Savera smiled faintly.
“Finally.”
I looked at Elvar.
“What do you mean?”
“She isn’t Savera.”
“Lirven said she was the first Savera.”
“Elvar,” Lirven interrupted softly, “I recognize that face too.”
“A face isn’t proof.”
The first Savera moved closer to the surface of the mirror.
“True.”
She touched the inside of the glass.
“So let’s start with something that can’t be faked.”
I clenched Vayra’s scrap of paper.
“Like what?”
“Memories.”
Elvar immediately said,
“Don’t.”
I looked at him.
The first Savera gave a quiet laugh.
“Are you afraid she’ll see?”
“I’m afraid the room will take them again.”
“Liar.”
Elvar stiffened.
The first Savera continued,
“You’re afraid she’ll see the night before 404 opened.”
I felt something move inside my head.
Pain.
Faint.
Like a door beginning to open from the inside.
I pressed my temples.
Elvar immediately noticed.
“Savera?”
“I’m fine.”
“Don’t force it.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
The first Savera looked at me.
“Because her memories really are starting to come back.”
Elvar moved toward the mirror.
“That’s enough.”
The reflection didn’t budge.
“If you really want to protect her, let her know.”
“I know what happens when she remembers too much.”
“What happens is that she stops trusting you.”
Elvar punched the mirror.
CRASH.
Taresa screamed.
Cracks spread from beneath his fist.
But the glass didn’t break.
The first Savera was still visible behind it.
Unhurt.
Not startled.
Just sad.
“Still quick to anger.”
Elvar pulled his hand back.
Blood ran from his knuckles.
I instinctively stepped forward.
He immediately hid his hand.
I stopped.
Why did I still instinctively care?
I hated that.
I was also starting to suspect that some of those feelings might not even be mine.
And that thought was more frightening than Darven.
I looked at the first Savera.
“If you really are the first Savera, answer one thing.”
“What?”
“Why did you create eleven versions after yourself?”
Lirven tensed too.
The first Savera didn’t answer right away.
I raised Vayra’s paper.
“Marjani said you asked to be remade until Elvar chose you again.”
Her smile vanished.
“She told you half the truth.”
“Of course.”
“I did ask for the cycle.”
“Why?”
“Not so Elvar would choose me.”
“Then what?”
“So Elvar would always have a reason to stay.”
I frowned.
“That’s the same thing.”
“No.”
She looked at Elvar.
“If I stopped coming back, he would leave.”
Silence.
I looked at Elvar.
He shook his head.
“I never knew that.”
The first Savera gave a bitter laugh.
“Because I deliberately kept it from you.”
I closed my eyes for a moment.
Everyone in this story was a liar.
Great.
“You imprisoned him?”
“Yes.”
“Because if he got out, everyone in the city would die?”
“Yes.”
“What is he?”
The question came out more softly.
The first Savera looked at me.
“What is Elvar really?”
There was no answer.
“Elvar?”
He turned his face away.
That was enough to make my chest sink.
The first Savera said,
“He isn’t a ghost.”
“I know.”
“He isn’t entirely human.”
I froze.
Taresa took a small step back.
Lirven gripped his knife.
Elvar closed his eyes.
I felt angry.
Not afraid.
Angry.
“Since when?”
The first Savera answered,
“Since before Room 404 existed.”
I looked at Elvar.
“You knew?”
He said quietly,
“Not all of it.”
“Terrible answer.”
“I know.”
The first Savera continued.
“Darven believed a room could store human memories.”
“Yeah.”
“He was right.”
I swallowed.
“But?”
“He didn’t discover an empty room.”
Silence.
“Elvar discovered it.”
I stared at him.
The first Savera said,
“Because that space had been calling to Elvar since he was a child.”
I didn’t like that sentence.
Not one bit.
“Elvar.”
He still wouldn’t look at me.
“Since you were a child?”
“Sometimes I heard a sound.”
“What?”
“Knocking.”
The hairs on the back of my neck rose.
“Four times?”
He nodded.
“Oh my God,” Taresa whispered.
I looked at Elvar.
“Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
“Because I thought it wasn’t important.”
I laughed humorlessly.
“Of course. A mysterious voice since childhood obviously wasn’t important.”
“Savera.”
“Keep going.”
Elvar swallowed.
“Sometimes I woke up in different places.”
“Where?”
“The hallway.”
“Room 404?”
“It didn’t exist yet.”
“Then what?”
“There was a dark room.”
The first Savera cut in.
“The original space.”
I looked at the mirror.
“What is it?”
She said,
“Not a room.”
“Then what?”
“A mouth.”
The room immediately felt colder.
Taresa cursed under her breath.
I stared at the mirror.
“What kind of mouth?”
The first Savera looked at me for a long time.
“The city.”
I laughed nervously.
“Don’t talk in metaphors.”
“I’m not.”
She pointed at the floor.
“There’s something beneath the ground under Darwanta Guesthouse.”
“A creature?”
“I don’t know.”
“A spirit?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then what do you know?”
“It’s hungry.”
Silence.
I looked at Elvar.
The first Savera continued.
“Not hungry for flesh.”
I thought of the people who had been erased.
“Existence.”
“Yes.”
My heart began beating faster.
“And Elvar?”
“He was born as its door.”
I froze.
No one moved.
I looked at Elvar.
He finally looked at me.
His gaze was shattered.
“It wasn’t my choice.”
I knew.
But it was still hard to accept.
“A door?”
The first Savera nodded.
“Some people are born with a special connection to a particular place.”
“Why Elvar?”
“No one knows.”
She looked at him.
“Darven realized it first.”
I understood immediately.
“His experiments.”
“Yes.”
“Darven tried to use Elvar to open that space?”
“At first, he tried to seal it.”
I stopped.
“Darven?”
The first Savera smiled bitterly.
“He wasn’t a good person.”
“Obviously.”
“But he wasn’t a monster from the beginning, either.”
I felt the story shift again.
“Please don’t tell me Darven was a hero all along.”
“He wasn’t.”
“Good.”
“He was just an older brother who saw his younger brother beginning to change.”
I looked at Elvar.
“What changed?”
The first Savera answered,
“Elvar began forgetting humans.”
I froze.
“What?”
Elvar closed his eyes.
“Sometimes.”
I stared at him.
“Sometimes what?”
“I forgot faces.”
“Whose faces?”
“Everyone’s.”
My throat went dry.
“Even mine?”
“Back then.”
I fell silent.
He continued.
“Sometimes I woke up and didn’t know anyone.”
“For how long?”
“A few minutes.”
The first Savera said,
“At first.”
I looked at her.
“Then?”
“For hours.”
Elvar clenched his fists.
“Stop.”
“She needs to know.”
“I said stop.”
“Why?”
Elvar stared at the mirror.
“Because you’re only giving her the parts that make me sound like a monster.”
The first Savera smiled sadly.
“You were a monster once.”
I held my breath.
Elvar didn’t deny it.
My chest grew heavier.
“What did you do?”
He didn’t answer.
I waited.
“Elvar.”
“I killed someone.”
Silence.
No.
I already knew Elvar had killed before.
But the way he said it this time was different.
Not Savera.
Not because someone had asked him to.
Not in self-defense.
“Who?”
Elvar looked at the floor.
“A child.”
Taresa covered her mouth.
Lirven tensed.
I felt cold.
“Why?”
Elvar didn’t answer.
The first Savera said,
“Because he forgot that child was human.”
I stepped back.
Without realizing it.
Just one step.
But Elvar saw.
Pain appeared on his face.
I hated that.
I also hated myself for still feeling guilty when I saw it.
“Elvar.”
“I was seventeen then.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I know.”
“Why did you kill him?”
“He came near me.”
“And?”
“I heard a voice from underground.”
I hugged myself.
“What voice?”
“Hungry.”
I stared at him.
“And?”
Elvar said,
“I touched the child.”
He paused.
“Then he vanished.”
Not dead.
Gone.
I knew the difference now.
“Erased?”
“Yes.”
I felt sick.
The first Savera continued,
“That was the first erasure Elvar carried out.”
I looked at her.
“So the room wasn’t the first?”
“No.”
“Darven?”
“Darven covered it up.”
I remembered all the notes about the experiments.
All the victims.
“So he began the experiments because he wanted to understand what was happening to Elvar.”
“Yes.”
“And then he became part of the room.”
“Yes.”
I looked at the mirror.
“All of this started with Elvar.”
The first Savera nodded.
Elvar said,
“Yes.”
He didn’t defend himself.
For some reason, that made it even harder.
The piano played a single note.
We all turned.
The door to Room 404 appeared in the hallway.
Closed.
Its numbers were faint.
04:04 hadn’t arrived yet.
I looked at the clock.
03:52.
Twelve minutes left.
Lirven said,
“The room is reacting.”
The first Savera in the mirror looked panicked.
“Don’t let him go inside.”
I looked at Elvar.
“Why?”
“Because if all his memories come back—”
“He’ll change?”
“No.”
The first Savera looked at me.
“He’ll open.”
The hairs on the back of my neck rose.
“What’s the difference?”
“Elvar hasn’t been holding something inside his body all this time.”
She pointed at the floor.
“He’s been holding something beneath the city.”
I slowly began to understand.
“If Elvar gets completely out of 404...”
“The seal breaks.”
Taresa whispered,
“Then everyone in the city dies?”
The first Savera nodded.
“Not immediately.”
Great.
Even worse.
“Then what happens?”
“People start being forgotten.”
I froze.
“The whole city?”
“First, people who live alone.”
“Why?”
“Fewer anchors.”
I felt cold.
“Then?”
“People who aren’t remembered often.”
“And then?”
“Small families.”
She paused.
“Then everyone.”
I imagined an empty city.
Houses.
Campus.
Streets.
No corpses.
Just a world that forgot they had ever existed.
I looked at Elvar.
He looked sick.
“Why do you always try to get out if you know that?”
“I don’t know.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
He held his head.
“Every cycle, I always forget this part.”
The first Savera said,
“That’s why I created the cycle.”
I looked at her.
“So he’d keep falling in love with Savera?”
“So he’d have an emotional reason to keep returning to the room.”
I froze.
“Love as a chain.”
Her expression changed.
“Yes.”
I felt angry.
“So every Savera after you was created just to bind him?”
“At first.”
“At first?”
“The cycle changed.”
“Because of Darven?”
“Because the room learned.”
Of course.
Always the room.
“What did it learn?”
“That love isn’t the only thing that can bind someone.”
The first Savera looked at me.
“It can also make someone willing to open a door.”
I immediately remembered every choice.
Every sacrifice.
Every kiss.
Every version of myself willing to replace Elvar.
Damn it.
“The room used our relationship.”
“Yes.”
“So you lost control.”
“A long time ago.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Great.”
Elvar suddenly clutched his chest.
I moved immediately.
“Elvar?”
He bent over.
“What’s wrong?”
“Don’t come closer.”
“Why?”
“That voice.”
I stopped.
“Hungry?”
He nodded.
Taresa backed away.
Lirven immediately stood in front of her.
“Don’t touch anyone.”
“I know.”
“If you start losing faces—”
“I know!”
Elvar closed his eyes.
His hands trembled.
I saw the veins in his neck turning black.
No.
“Elvar.”
“Savera, back up.”
I didn’t.
“I said back up.”
“No.”
“Savera.”
“You’re always telling me not to decide my life for me.”
I stepped closer.
“So don’t decide how far away I stand.”
He looked at me.
His eyes changed.
Just a little.
The color seemed to drain from his irises.
I stopped.
“Elvar?”
He stared at my face.
Blank.
Too blank.
My heart stopped.
“Do you know who I am?”
There was no answer.
Lirven immediately pulled me back.
“Savera!”
I fought him.
“Elvar!”
He looked at me.
As if I were a stranger.
No.
No.
“Elvar.”
I raised my hand.
“My name?”
He didn’t answer.
The piano played again.
One note.
Then two.
Elvar clutched his head.
“I...”
“What?”
“I know your voice.”
My chest hurt.
“But?”
“I don’t remember your face.”
I held back my tears.
Not now.
“It’s okay.”
Lirven gave me a sharp look.
“Savera, don’t go near him.”
“I’m not going to touch him.”
Elvar looked at me.
“I know you.”
“Yes.”
“Name.”
He tried.
I waited.
“S...”
I smiled faintly.
“Take your time.”
“Savera.”
I almost cried with relief.
He’d done it.
But the next second—
The lights went out.
A sound came from beneath the floor.
Not knocking.
More like something scratching.
Long.
Heavy.
The entire building trembled.
The first Savera screamed from the mirror,
“It’s awake!”
I stared at the floor.
“What?”
“The seal is weakening.”
“Because of Elvar?”
“Because Darven entered his body earlier.”
Lirven cursed.
I looked at the clock.
03:54.
“How long?”
The first Savera looked at the door to Room 404.
“Less than ten minutes.”
“What do we do?”
“Put Elvar back inside.”
Elvar immediately shook his head.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“I remembered something.”
Everyone fell silent.
“What?”
He looked at the first Savera.
“If I go back to 404 now, the cycle repeats.”
I froze.
The first Savera didn’t answer.
Elvar smiled bitterly.
“Right?”
“Yes.”
I stared at the mirror.
“What does ‘repeats’ mean?”
“Elvar becomes the tenant again.”
“Then?”
“Savera Twelve—”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Savera now will begin to be erased.”
I froze.
Taresa said,
“Like what happened to me?”
“Faster.”
I looked at my hands.
They were still there.
“What’s the process?”
“Reflection.”
I immediately turned toward the mirror.
My reflection was still there.
The first Savera stood inside it.
But—
My face was slightly blurry.
No.
I moved closer.
“This is because of Elvar?”
“Because the room needs a replacement if he goes back.”
I stared at her.
“So the choice stays the same.”
“Yes.”
“Elvar goes back, and I go in.”
“Or he stays out and the city begins to be erased.”
Silence.
I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because I’d run out of other reactions.
“Nice choice.”
Elvar said,
“I’m not going back.”
I looked at him immediately.
“Then what about the city?”
“We’ll find another way.”
“In ten minutes?”
“Yes.”
“Are you insane?”
“Maybe.”
I was almost angry.
Then he smiled faintly.
Strange.
I knew that smile.
Even if he didn’t remember when he first fell in love.
I still knew it.
And that scared me.
Taresa suddenly said,
“Vayra’s film.”
I turned.
“What?”
She held up the short strip of negatives.
“We haven’t seen what’s on it yet.”
I froze.
Right.
We’d only read the paper.
The negative was still there.
“Can we see it now?”
Taresa raised the camera.
“Maybe.”
She opened the back.
Inserted the negative.
“I don’t know if this is the right way.”
“Try it.”
She closed the camera.
Click.
The camera took a picture by itself.
The flash went off.
The photo slid out.
We all moved closer.
The image slowly appeared.
It wasn’t us.
It wasn’t Room 402.
It was an old photograph.
An underground room.
Darven was there.
Elvar.
The first Savera.
Meraya.
Vayra.
And—
Someone was tied to a chair.
I stared.
“Who is that?”
Elvar went pale.
The first Savera in the mirror immediately said,
“Don’t.”
I brought the photo closer.
The person’s face was blurry.
Taresa shook it.
The image became clearer.
I stopped breathing.
The person in the chair—
Was Elvar.
I immediately turned to the Elvar beside me.
No.
The photo showed Elvar tied to a chair.
But there was also a man standing beside the first Savera, the man we had always thought was Elvar.
I felt the world tilt.
“What...?”
Lirven snatched the photo.
He froze.
The first Savera closed her eyes.
I looked at her.
“Explain.”
There was no answer.
“EXPLAIN.”
Elvar took the photo.
The color drained from his face.
“I don’t remember this.”
I looked at the mirror.
The first Savera said softly,
“Because the person standing beside me wasn’t Elvar.”
Silence.
I couldn’t breathe.
“Who was he?”
The first Savera looked at the man beside me.
Then at the photo.
“Darven.”
I froze.
No.
That was impossible.
“But Darven and Elvar were twins.”
“Yes.”
“Then...”
I looked at the photo.
The real Elvar was tied to the chair.
Darven stood free.
Beside Savera.
I looked at the man beside me.
He looked more frightened than anyone else.
“Who am I?”
The question came from his own mouth.
No one answered.
He looked at the first Savera.
“Who am I?”
The first Savera began to cry.
That was her answer, before the words came out.
“For thirty-seven years...”
She sobbed.
“...you all thought the one trapped in Room 404 was Elvar.”
I felt cold to the bone.
“Then?”
The first Savera looked at the man in front of me.
“The one who was really trapped was Darven.”
I stepped back.
Taresa covered her mouth.
Lirven looked like he’d lost his balance.
The man I had called Elvar didn’t move.
I stared at the photo.
“If Darven was the one trapped...”
I couldn’t finish.
The first Savera did it for me.
“The real Elvar is beneath Darwanta Guesthouse.”
I remembered the empty coffin.
The first corpse.
There was no corpse.
“Is he still alive?”
The first Savera shook her head.
“Not like a human.”
I felt sick.
“Then everything we thought was Darven...”
She looked at the floor.
“Was Elvar.”
The world stopped.
I remembered everything.
The figure we called Darven trying to get out.
Taking over a body.
Calling the man beside me his younger brother.
Saying the room had fabricated the story.
No.
It was too much.
I looked at the man in front of me.
He whispered,
“I’m Darven?”
The first Savera cried.
“Yes.”
He took one step back.
His face went blank.
I felt something shatter inside my chest.
No.
All the kisses.
All the memories.
All the versions of Savera.
I loved—
Darven?
He looked at me.
“Savera.”
I immediately stepped back.
He stopped.
Pain appeared on his face.
But now I didn’t know whether that pain was real.
I didn’t know anything.
Taresa whispered,
“If he’s Darven...”
I turned to her.
“Then what entered his body earlier?”
The first Savera looked at us.
“Not Darven.”
I felt cold again.
“Who?”
She looked at the floor.
The scratching stopped.
Silence.
Then—
Knock.
From below.
Knock.
A second.
Knock.
A third.
I held my breath.
The fourth knock.
Knock.
The floor of Room 402 cracked.
A man’s voice rose from beneath it.
Deep.
Distant.
And very similar to the voice of the man beside me.
“Elvar.”
The man I now knew might be Darven froze.
The voice called again.
“Darven.”
I looked at him.
His face crumpled.
The voice from below gave a quiet laugh.
“Finally, you remember your own name.”
The crack in the floor widened.
Black air spilled out.
The first Savera screamed,
“Don’t let the real Elvar get out!”
I stared at the mirror.
“I thought he was the victim!”
“Once.”
“What do you mean, once?”
The first Savera’s face was filled with fear.
“Darven wasn’t the one who became the door.”
She pointed at the floor.
“The real Elvar did it on purpose.”
I felt my blood stop.
“Why?”
“Because he didn’t just want to open Room 404.”
The crack grew wider.
The air grew darker.
The first Savera screamed,
“He wants to open every door in the city!”
The floor broke apart.
A hand emerged from the darkness.
Pale.
Covered in black lines.
A ring was on its ring finger.
The same ring.
I stared at it.
No.
The first Savera whispered,
“That’s why I locked Darven inside 404.”
I turned to her.
“What?”
“Darven is the only person who can hold Elvar back.”
The man beside me—Darven—looked at me.
Tears fell.
“I don’t remember.”
The first Savera said,
“Because I made you forget.”
She closed her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
From beneath the floor—
The real Elvar began to laugh.
And that voice made every light in Darwanta Guesthouse go out at once.
Then he said,
“Savera.”
I froze.
“This time...”
His hand gripped the edge of the floor.
“...don’t choose my brother again.”