Lina's hand gripped the red book — Her Love That Saved the World.
The instant her fingers touched the cover, the obsidian one burst into black flames, curling into ash midair without ever making a sound. Ariadne smiled, faint and unreadable.
"So you chose love," she whispered. "Now let's see what the world does with it."
The stage beneath Lina shattered like glass. She fell—endlessly, soundlessly—until her body struck ground.
But she wasn't bruised. She wasn't hurt.
She was in her bedroom again.
Or something pretending to be.
The walls were too clean. The books were all perfectly lined up. And on the bed lay Mikael—still unconscious, but breathing. The stitched pages were gone from his mouth.
Lina ran to him. "Mikael! Wake up. Please!"
He stirred slightly. Then his eyes opened—and something in them had changed.
"I… saw you," he said, voice hoarse. "You made the choice."
"I did."
"Then why do I feel like something's missing?"
Before Lina could answer, the mirror across the room cracked.
From its center, black ink began to drip down like blood.
A figure stepped out—her face familiar.
Elise.
But her eyes were glass.
"You burned my story," she said coldly.
"Elise?" Lina stood up slowly.
"I was the other ending," she continued. "I was the one who would've saved him differently. With sacrifice, not love."
"Elise, I—"
"You didn't just choose Mikael. You chose me to die."
The room shuddered. Pages flew from the bookshelves, spinning around Elise like a storm. Her dress melted into threads of narrative, and the dollhouse returned behind her, growing from the floor like roots.
"Lina," Mikael said, trying to stand. "She's not Elise anymore."
"No," Lina whispered. "She's what's left of the story I didn't choose."
Ariadne's voice echoed faintly, distant but present.
"Every choice has a ghost."
The ink bled through the walls.
And Elise—the broken version—stepped forward with vengeance in her eyes.