# Chapter 8
Savera the Eleventh
“I came to make sure he’s the one who dies this time.”
The woman pointed at Elvar.
She wasn’t trembling.
She wasn’t hesitating.
She wasn’t crying.
She said it like someone who had repeated that sentence in her head so many times that all the pain had finally run out.
I stared at her face.
My face.
A version of me several years older.
Her cheeks were sharper. Her hair was longer. A thin scar ran from her right temple almost to her eyebrow.
And her eyes—
her eyes didn’t look like they belonged to someone who had survived.
They looked more like the eyes of someone who had held on for too long.
Elvar didn’t move.
“Savera.”
The woman let out a short laugh.
“Don’t call me that.”
I looked at Elvar.
“Why?”
He didn’t answer.
The woman stepped closer.
“Because he took that name from me.”
Elvar immediately said,
“I didn’t take it.”
“You let it be taken.”
“I tried—”
“Don’t.”
Savera the Eleventh raised a hand.
Elvar stopped.
I saw something on his face.
Guilt.
Again.
I immediately felt annoyed.
“Great,” I said. “Another secret.”
Savera the Eleventh turned to me.
She studied me for a long moment.
“I’d forgotten how annoying I was when I was still new.”
I frowned.
“New?”
“Newly made.”
“I’m not an object.”
“No.”
She sighed.
“But your cycle has only just begun.”
I hated the way everyone talked as if my life were nothing more than a repeat of their story.
“I’m not you.”
For the first time, her expression changed slightly.
Sadness.
“I said that once too.”
Silence.
Behind me, Taresa moved closer.
Jaresta was still holding his wound.
Mrs. Marjani stood by the door, her face tense.
Elvar remained silent.
I looked at Savera the Eleventh.
“If you really are the version before me, prove it.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
“Prove it.”
“What do you want?”
“Something only I would know.”
Savera the Eleventh almost smiled.
“You don’t even know much about yourself yet.”
“Try me.”
She looked at me.
Then she said,
“You have a small scar below your left knee.”
I went silent.
“Anyone could have that.”
“You got it when you were nine, climbing the back fence at school.”
My heart began beating faster.
I didn’t remember ever telling anyone that.
She continued.
“You lied to Mom and said you’d fallen off your bike.”
I stared at her.
“What else?”
“When you’re nervous, you bite the inside of your right cheek.”
I realized I was doing it.
I stopped immediately.
Taresa glanced at me.
I pretended not to notice.
Savera the Eleventh continued.
“And when you sleep too deeply, you always wake up around three in the morning because you’re dreaming about falling from the Fourth Floor.”
I froze.
I did dream about falling.
I had since I was little.
I’d never known where it came from.
“That’s enough.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
“If you’re me…”
I swallowed.
“Why don’t I remember ever being you?”
“Because you’re not completely me.”
I let out a harsh breath.
“Here we go again.”
“Listen until I’m finished.”
“Everyone says that.”
“This time, listen.”
Her tone changed.
It wasn’t loud.
But it made me fall silent.
“Every Savera carries the same fragments of memory. But not all of them.”
She pointed to her head.
“Some memories are transferred.”
Then to her chest.
“Some feelings come along with them.”
Then her hand dropped.
“But each person’s experiences remain different.”
I stared at her.
“So I’m not a copy.”
“No.”
“Not a reincarnation?”
“Not that either.”
“Then what am I?”
Savera the Eleventh looked at Room 404.
“A fragment.”
I gave a humorless laugh.
“That’s worse.”
“It is.”
Elvar finally moved.
“Savera, don’t stay outside your room too long.”
Savera the Eleventh immediately looked at him.
“Afraid I’ll remind her?”
“I’m afraid Darven will use this.”
“Darven always uses everything.”
“We’ve opened three doors.”
“I know.”
“Only one left.”
“I know that too.”
“If you really want to help—”
Savera the Eleventh laughed.
“Help?”
She walked toward Elvar.
“You still dare to use that word?”
Elvar tensed.
I watched them.
There was something between them.
Something far more complicated than an old version meeting the same person.
“What happened between you two?” I asked.
Savera the Eleventh didn’t look away from Elvar.
“He hasn’t told you?”
“Of course not.”
“Typical.”
Elvar said,
“Not everything has to be explained right now.”
I cut him off.
“Everything you hide always becomes a problem five minutes later.”
Taresa nodded.
“She has a point.”
Elvar closed his eyes.
I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
Savera the Eleventh walked to the table.
She picked up a pen.
Then she wrote something on her own palm.
I frowned.
“What’s that?”
She showed it to me.
One word.
LIRVEN
I didn’t recognize the name.
“What?”
“My name now.”
Silence.
I looked at her.
“You said not to call you Savera because that name was taken.”
“Yes.”
“Who gave you the name Lirven?”
“I did.”
I repeated it softly.
“Lirven.”
Strange.
Something about it felt familiar.
Elvar looked as if he’d been slapped.
I turned to him immediately.
“You know that name?”
Elvar shook his head too quickly.
Lirven gave a small laugh.
“Liar.”
“Elvar.”
He looked at me.
“Who is Lirven?”
There was no answer.
Lirven answered for him.
“The name he made for me.”
I froze.
“But you just said you named yourself.”
“I lied.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to see if he still remembered.”
I looked at Elvar.
His face had gone pale.
“And?”
Lirven smiled bitterly.
“He remembers.”
Something unpleasant shifted in my stomach.
“When did he give you that name?”
Lirven didn’t answer right away.
“After I lost Savera.”
I swallowed.
“What do you mean, lost?”
She looked at her palm.
“A name isn’t just a sound.”
Mrs. Marjani suddenly said,
“Don’t.”
Lirven turned to her.
“It’s too late to protect her.”
“Savera the Twelfth doesn’t need to know that part yet.”
I looked at Mrs. Marjani.
“Don’t call me Twelfth.”
She fell silent.
I looked at Lirven.
“Go on.”
Lirven nodded.
“Darven takes names gradually.”
“Taresa almost went through that too?”
“Yes.”
Taresa hugged her camera.
“First the reflection.”
“Then the photos.”
“Then other people’s memories.”
Lirven nodded.
“Finally, the name.”
I remembered Taresa asking me to memorize her identity.
“What happens when the name is gone?”
“The world has no way to call you back.”
I shivered.
“Then what about you?”
“I made it to the final stage.”
“But you’re still here.”
“Because Elvar gave me a new name.”
I looked at Elvar.
He lowered his head.
“Lirven.”
“Yes.”
“And it worked?”
“Partly.”
“Why only partly?”
“Because I stayed alive.”
Lirven lifted her face.
“But not as Savera.”
I didn’t know why that sentence felt so sad.
“Everyone forgot?”
“Everyone.”
“Mom?”
“She forgot.”
“The Taresa from that time?”
“She never existed.”
I swallowed.
“Elvar?”
Lirven looked at him.
“He remembers.”
Of course.
The anchor.
I looked at Elvar.
“You’re the only one?”
“Yes.”
Lirven let out a short laugh.
“And that was the beginning of the problem.”
I frowned.
“What?”
She walked around Elvar.
“Because as long as he remembers me, I still have a way back to the room.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Not if you want to leave.”
I began to understand.
“So you can’t be free because Elvar still remembers you?”
“Correct.”
I looked at Elvar.
“So what are you two going to do?”
Lirven stopped.
Her smile disappeared.
“I asked him to forget me.”
Elvar clenched his fists.
I saw it.
“And?”
“He refused.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Why?”
Lirven gave a humorless laugh.
“You really want him to answer?”
I looked at Elvar.
He couldn’t meet my eyes.
My chest felt strange.
I knew the answer.
But I didn’t want to admit it.
Lirven said,
“Because he loves me.”
Silence.
I turned away.
There was no reason for me to feel anything.
That wasn’t me.
That was Lirven.
The previous version.
But something still pierced me.
Idiot.
Lirven watched my reaction.
“You’re starting too.”
“What?”
“Jealousy.”
I immediately looked at her.
“I’m not.”
Taresa looked away.
Jaresta suddenly became very interested in the wound on his arm.
I pointed at them.
“Not a word from either of you.”
Lirven laughed for the first time.
Really laughed.
And strangely enough—
it sounded exactly like me.
That was terrifying.
“Relax. I don’t want him.”
“I don’t care.”
“Good.”
She turned to Elvar.
“I only want him dead.”
The atmosphere immediately turned cold again.
Elvar looked at her.
“I understand.”
Lirven froze slightly.
“What?”
“I understand why you hate me.”
“Don’t.”
“I should have let you go.”
“Shut up.”
“I thought if I kept remembering—”
“Shut up.”
“—you’d stay safe.”
Lirven moved quickly.
Then slapped Elvar.
Hard.
I went silent.
Elvar didn’t fight back.
Lirven drew a heavy breath.
“I don’t need to be safe.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I need to be free.”
Elvar lifted his face.
“I know that now.”
“Too late.”
“Yes.”
One word.
Lirven looked away.
There was something painful in the way they stood.
Like two people who had once loved each other and now had no way to become strangers again.
I didn’t like seeing it.
Not because I was jealous.
I just—
No.
Don’t start.
Taresa suddenly dropped her camera.
We all turned.
“What’s wrong?”
She held her head.
“It hurts.”
I immediately moved closer.
“Taresa?”
“There’s a voice.”
“What voice?”
She closed her eyes.
“Someone talking.”
“From where?”
“Inside the camera.”
We looked at the object on the floor.
There was no sound.
Taresa knelt and picked it up.
“He’s calling me.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Click.
The camera took a picture by itself.
The flash went off.
The photo came out.
Taresa picked it up with trembling hands.
We waited for the image to appear.
The hallway.
We were all there.
Lirven.
Elvar.
Me.
Taresa.
Jaresta.
Mrs. Marjani.
But—
something was wrong.
In the photo, I had no face.
The place where my face should have been was simply white.
Empty.
I immediately shivered.
“Why am I like that?”
Mrs. Marjani snatched the photo.
Her face went pale.
“No.”
Lirven moved closer.
She looked at the photo.
Then at me.
“The fourth door has started searching.”
I felt cold.
“But it hasn’t opened.”
“Not yet.”
“Then why is my face gone?”
“Because the replacement has already begun.”
Elvar stepped forward.
“That’s impossible. No one has chosen yet.”
Lirven looked at him.
“You forgot one thing.”
“What?”
“The door doesn’t always wait for a conscious decision.”
I froze.
“Explain.”
Lirven looked at me.
“You saved Taresa.”
“So?”
“You opened the second door.”
“I know.”
“And when you kissed Elvar, you remembered eleven lives.”
I swallowed.
“So?”
“Part of you has started merging.”
“With what?”
“With every Savera before you.”
I stepped back.
“No.”
“Elvar remembers too.”
She pointed at him.
“That means you meet the requirements for the third door.”
“We already opened it.”
“Now the room has two choices.”
I didn’t like that word.
“What choices?”
Lirven looked at Elvar.
“Making Savera Elvar’s replacement.”
Then she looked at me.
“Or making Elvar Darven’s replacement.”
Silence.
I thought about the four words from before.
Choice.
Desire.
Memory.
Replacement.
“If I replace Elvar?”
Lirven said,
“You become the tenant in Room 404.”
“And Elvar?”
“Leaves.”
“As a human?”
“Yes.”
I swallowed.
“And if Elvar replaces Darven?”
Lirven didn’t answer.
Elvar did.
“Darven goes free.”
I stared at him.
“And you?”
“I become the room.”
I froze.
“Wait.”
Elvar looked at me.
“My body remains, but it won’t belong to me.”
I felt suffocated.
“So both choices are equally terrible.”
“Yes.”
Taresa said,
“We don’t have to choose, do we?”
Lirven looked at her.
“If there’s no choice by 4:04—”
I looked at the clock.
3:59.
Five minutes.
“—the room will choose for itself.”
I swore.
“Based on what?”
Lirven looked at us.
“Whoever most wants to save the other.”
I froze.
No.
Darven had arranged all of this.
The first door opened because I chose Elvar.
The second because I wanted that kiss, even if only for a moment.
The third because we remembered.
And now—
the fourth door depended on who was more willing to sacrifice themselves.
I immediately looked at Elvar.
“Don’t.”
He said at the same time,
“You don’t.”
I let out a short laugh.
“Of course.”
“Savera.”
“If you try to sacrifice yourself—”
“You don’t either.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Lirven closed her eyes.
“This is exactly how it happens.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“Every cycle.”
She laughed bitterly.
“It always starts like this.”
“What happens?”
“Two idiots race to die.”
I didn’t find that funny.
“And who wins?”
Lirven looked at me.
“Usually you.”
I froze.
Elvar immediately said,
“Not this time.”
I looked at him.
“You don’t get to decide.”
“Neither do you.”
“My body.”
“Your life.”
I laughed in frustration.
“That’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever said.”
“Good.”
“What?”
“That means you heard me.”
I almost hit him.
Lirven said,
“Stop.”
We turned.
She pointed at the clock.
4:01.
Three minutes.
Mrs. Marjani hurried to the door.
“There is one way.”
Everyone looked at her.
I said,
“Why are you only telling us now?”
“Because it could be worse.”
“Of course.”
“What?” Elvar asked.
Mrs. Marjani took the number four pendant from around her neck.
She placed it on the floor.
“The guardian can take over one choice.”
I looked at her.
“So you can choose the replacement?”
“Once.”
“Choose Darven.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“It has to be someone bound to the room.”
I knew immediately.
Mrs. Marjani.
“Elvar,” I said.
He realized it too.
“Don’t.”
Marjani smiled faintly.
“So you still care after all.”
Elvar stiffened.
“No.”
“I’ve lived too long.”
“Marjani.”
“Ninety-two years.”
She looked at each of us.
“Most of them because I was afraid to die.”
Then she smiled sadly.
“And the rest because I was waiting for Meraya.”
I remembered their relationship.
Sisters.
“Mrs. Marjani, if you become the replacement?”
“You’ll gain some time.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“And you?”
“My name will disappear.”
I didn’t like that.
“No.”
Marjani looked at me.
“Savera.”
“No.”
“This isn’t your decision.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Everyone really loves saying that to me.”
4:02.
The sound of a piano came from the hallway.
One note.
Two.
Three.
Room 404 began appearing again.
Darven stood in its doorway.
His body was almost whole.
“Beautiful.”
I hated him.
He smiled.
“Everyone’s gathered.”
Lirven stepped forward.
Darven saw her.
“Oh.”
His smile changed.
“Eleven.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Lirven.”
She tensed.
Darven gave a soft laugh.
“You think a new name saved you?”
Lirven pulled something from her dress.
A knife.
I froze.
Elvar moved immediately.
“Don’t.”
Lirven pointed it at Darven.
“I didn’t come here to talk.”
Darven smiled.
“You’ve already tried to kill me.”
“Not the right way.”
“Do you know the right way now?”
Lirven didn’t answer.
Darven studied her for a long moment.
Then his expression changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
Darven was worried.
I realized it immediately.
“Lirven.”
She didn’t look at me.
“You know how?”
Silence.
Elvar looked at her.
“How to kill Darven?”
Lirven remained silent.
I moved closer.
“Sav—”
She turned sharply.
I corrected myself.
“Lirven.”
Her gaze softened slightly.
“You know?”
“Yes.”
Everyone froze.
Darven stopped smiling.
I could hardly believe it.
“Why didn’t you say so sooner?”
“Because it requires something you don’t have.”
“What?”
Lirven looked at me.
“The First Savera.”
I let out a frustrated breath.
“She’s dead.”
“Her body is.”
“Her memories?”
Lirven nodded.
“One part of her memory didn’t pass into the next cycle.”
“Where is it?”
“Hidden.”
“In Room 401?”
Lirven shook her head.
“Closer.”
I frowned.
She pointed at Elvar.
“Inside him.”
Elvar froze.
I stared at him.
“What?”
Lirven walked closer.
“Darven erased the First Savera’s memories before she died.”
“Yes.”
“But Elvar managed to take one part.”
Elvar looked confused.
“I don’t remember.”
“Because you kept it somewhere even Darven couldn’t access.”
“Where?”
Lirven looked at his chest.
“The memory of why Savera loved you.”
I fell silent.
So did Elvar.
Lirven continued.
“Darven can change fear.”
“Memories.”
“Names.”
“Faces.”
“But he’s never managed to erase one thing.”
I knew before she said it.
“Love.”
Lirven nodded.
Darven immediately said,
“Nonsense.”
Lirven looked at him.
For the first time, she smiled.
“If it’s nonsense, why are you afraid?”
Darven stopped.
4:03.
One minute.
Mrs. Marjani said,
“We’re out of time.”
Lirven looked at Elvar.
“You have to give her that memory.”
I immediately frowned.
“How?”
No one answered.
I looked at Lirven.
Then Elvar.
Then—
“Oh, don’t tell me.”
Taresa covered her mouth.
Jaresta sighed.
Elvar looked genuinely panicked.
“No.”
Lirven said,
“Kiss him.”
I closed my eyes.
“Of course.”
“Savera.”
I pointed at Elvar.
“Don’t start.”
Lirven continued,
“Not an ordinary kiss.”
“Great. It gets worse.”
“You have to let him show you everything.”
I looked at her.
“Everything what?”
“Why the First Savera loved him.”
Darven began walking toward us.
“Don’t listen to her.”
Lirven raised the knife.
“Afraid?”
Darven didn’t answer.
I looked at the clock.
4:03:31.
“Elvar.”
He looked at me.
“Is there a risk?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“If too many memories enter at once, you could lose the boundary between yourself and the First Savera.”
I sighed.
“Meaning?”
“You might forget which life is yours.”
That was bad.
“And if I don’t?”
Elvar looked at the clock.
“The room chooses.”
Worse.
I moved closer.
Elvar backed away.
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“I don’t want you to lose yourself.”
“I don’t want you to turn into the room either.”
“Savera.”
“Shut up.”
I moved even closer.
He looked at me.
“If you tell me to stop—”
“I know.”
That sentence again.
From another memory.
Maybe that was why every Savera fell in love with Elvar.
Not because of his face.
Not because of his mystery.
But because in all this madness—
he always waited for permission.
Even when time was almost gone.
I hated that I was realizing it now.
4:03:44.
Twenty seconds.
Darven laughed.
“You’re too late.”
Lirven shouted,
“NOW!”
I grabbed Elvar by the collar.
And kissed him.
The world shattered.
Not one memory.
Hundreds.
The First Savera sitting on the stairs with Elvar.
They ate instant noodles from one pot because they were too lazy to wash bowls.
Elvar laughed because Savera mispronounced a book title.
Savera got angry because Elvar forgot to bring an umbrella.
Elvar waited two hours outside the university because Savera was late.
Savera fell asleep on his shoulder in the library.
Elvar secretly kept a tiny flower that had fallen from Savera’s hair.
Not rituals.
Not blood.
Not the room.
Ordinary things.
Small things.
Human things.
Then one memory appeared with perfect clarity.
The First Savera stood on a balcony.
There was no rain.
No death.
Only dusk.
Elvar asked,
Why me?
Savera laughed.
What?
Why do you like me?
I don’t know.
That’s a terrible answer.
Fine. Because when I’m with you, I don’t have to be anyone except myself.
Elvar smiled.
Savera continued,
And if I ever forget everything, remind me of this part.
The memory stopped.
I opened my eyes.
Tears streamed down my face.
Elvar was crying too.
I knew something now.
Not that I was the First Savera.
I wasn’t.
Not that I had to love Elvar because all the versions before me had.
I didn’t have to.
But—
I understood why they did.
And inside that final memory was something else.
A sentence.
A code.
The First Savera whispered into Elvar’s ear.
Darven only exists as long as someone remembers him as Darven.
I jerked back.
Lirven immediately looked at my face.
“You got it?”
I nodded.
Darven stopped.
“What?”
I looked at him.
Now I knew.
Not his body.
Not his heart.
Not the room.
His name.
Memory.
The anchor.
I smiled.
Darven immediately grew angry.
“Don’t.”
I looked at everyone.
“Elvar.”
He understood.
“Yes.”
“Mrs. Marjani.”
She froze.
“Yes.”
“Jaresta.”
He looked at me.
“Taresa.”
“What?”
“Lirven.”
She smiled.
I turned back to Darven.
“If everyone stops remembering who you are…”
His face changed.
“Shut up.”
“…you disappear.”
Darven rushed forward.
Elvar stood in front of me.
“Don’t touch her.”
Darven shouted,
“YOU CAN’T FORGET ME!”
I smiled.
“We can.”
“You don’t even know how.”
I remembered the final part of the memory.
The First Savera had prepared something.
“Not ordinary forgetting.”
Lirven understood first.
Her eyes widened.
“A new name.”
I looked at her.
She nodded.
Just as Elvar had done for her.
A name was an anchor.
If everyone replaced Darven’s identity—
not forgot that he existed,
but forgot who he was.
I looked at Elvar.
“Don’t call him Darven again.”
His brother’s face changed.
Elvar understood.
Taresa asked,
“Then what do we call him?”
I looked at the figure before us.
A monster.
The room.
A shadow.
But we couldn’t use his real name.
I said,
“We don’t have to call him anything.”
Darven screamed.
The walls cracked.
The clock changed.
4:04.
The fourth door began to open.
Black light spilled from the floor.
Mrs. Marjani fell.
Taresa screamed.
Lirven threw her knife.
Not at Darven.
At the 404 on the door.
The knife struck the zero dead-center.
The number cracked.
Darven screamed.
I clutched my head.
The voice in my mind tried to repeat his name.
Darven.
Darven.
Darven.
No.
I refused.
I looked at Elvar.
“Who is your brother?”
He looked at the figure.
Tears fell.
“I…”
The creature screamed.
“Elvar!”
Elvar closed his eyes.
“I don’t have a brother.”
The creature’s body cracked.
Mrs. Marjani cried.
She whispered,
“Who made the pact with me?”
I looked at her.
She drew a breath.
“No one.”
The cracks widened.
Jaresta said,
“I don’t know who he is.”
Taresa raised her camera.
Click.
The flash went off.
The photo came out.
She looked at it.
A smile appeared.
“He’s not in the photo.”
The creature shrieked.
I looked at Lirven.
She was crying.
“Who took your name?”
Lirven looked at the figure.
Then smiled.
“I don’t remember.”
Its body began collapsing into shadow.
I almost believed we’d succeeded.
Then the creature looked at me.
Not Elvar.
Not Marjani.
Me.
And it smiled.
“There’s one more person.”
I froze.
“What?”
It pointed at my head.
“The First Savera still remembers me.”
No.
I had just received her memories.
That meant—
I now held the final anchor in its entirety.
The creature laughed.
“You.”
My blood turned cold.
Lirven screamed,
“SAVERA, DON’T SAY HIS NAME!”
I didn’t.
I tried.
But the voice in my head kept repeating it.
Darven Sadyaka.
Darven Sadyaka.
Darven—
I pressed both hands over my ears.
“Get out.”
The creature began reassembling its body.
A little at a time.
Enough.
Elvar held my face.
“Look at me.”
“I still remember.”
“Look at me.”
“I can’t forget.”
“You don’t have to forget.”
I looked at him.
“Then what?”
“Give the memory to me.”
I froze.
“No.”
“Savera.”
“No.”
“I’ve been an anchor before.”
“That’s exactly why.”
“My body can hold it.”
“And if you take it?”
Elvar didn’t answer.
I knew.
Darven could take his body.
The fourth door.
Replacement.
“No.”
Elvar smiled.
Softly.
Infuriatingly.
“Savera.”
“Don’t.”
“For once—”
“DON’T.”
He kissed my forehead.
Only for a moment.
But something was pulled from inside my head.
Memory.
Name.
Face.
I panicked.
“Elvar!”
I tried to push him away.
Too late.
The creature screamed with delight.
Elvar dropped to his knees.
I caught him.
“Elvar!”
He lifted his face.
His eyes had turned red.
His smile—
wasn’t his.
“Thank you.”
I froze.
That wasn’t Elvar’s voice.
The creature before us vanished completely.
Elvar’s body slowly rose into the air.
He looked at me.
A foreign smile.
Lirven whispered,
“Oh no.”
I backed away.
“Elvar?”
His head tilted.
Then he laughed.
Darven’s voice.
“Now…”
His hand touched his own face.
“…I have a body.”
The door to Room 404 opened completely.
And from inside the room—
came Elvar’s voice.
Weak.
Distant.
“Savera.”
I turned.
Room 404 was dark.
There was no one inside.
But his voice came again.
“Please.”
I looked at Elvar’s body, now occupied by something else.
Then at Room 404.
And finally understood.
Elvar hadn’t disappeared.
They had switched places.
Darven had gotten his body.
Elvar had become the tenant in the room.
The fourth door had opened.
Lirven gripped my arm.
“Don’t go near him.”
I looked at Elvar’s body.
The creature inside smiled.
Then it looked at me like someone who had finally won a very long game.
“Choose now.”
I froze.
It pointed at Room 404.
“Save Elvar…”
Then it pointed at itself.
“…or kill his body before I fully merge with it.”
I couldn’t breathe.
Its smile widened.
“You have four minutes.”
The clock on the wall suddenly went back to—
3:44.
I stared at it.
No.
Twenty minutes earlier.
The entire time cycle on the Fourth Floor had just restarted.
And this time—
Elvar was inside Room 404.
While Darven stood before me, wearing the face of someone I had just realized I didn’t want to forget.