Darkness swallowed Ren whole before his body even hit the floor.
Not the soft darkness of sleep.
Not the gentle kind that wraps around tired limbs like velvet.
No...this one dragged him down by the throat.
He fell into it screaming without making a sound.
And in that free-fall, something cold brushed the side of his neck.
A fingertip.
A breath.
A whisper.
"Little prince…"
Ren's eyes flew open...
...but it wasn't the bedroom he woke to.
It wasn't anywhere he recognized.
A forest.
Black and silver.
Trees warped in impossible shapes, bending like dancers with broken spines.
Moonlight tore itself into sharp fragments, scattering across the ground like glass.
Ren pushed himself up with trembling hands.
His pulse hammered in his throat.
"Lian… Zhen…?"
His voice cracked.
A laugh answered him from between the trees.
Soft.
Warm.
Loved.
But wrong.
Ren staggered back.
"No...no, you're not..."
The laugh came again.
Too close.
Too cold.
Then the forest tore open.
And there he stood.
Lian Zhen.
Or the shape of him.
The ghost-version.
The memory-version.
The forest-version.
But now twisted.
His armor cracked like old porcelain.
His eyes glowing faint, moonlit white.
His hair floating as if underwater.
He reached out a hand, fingertips dripping shadows like ink.
"You came back to me."
Ren shook his head violently.
"This isn't real. This isn't real...!"
Lian Zhen smiled in that heartbreakingly gentle way he always did…
and the forest around them sighed in relief, like it had been holding its breath waiting for him.
Ren stumbled backward until his spine hit a crooked tree trunk.
"Stay away..."
"My little prince," ghost-Lian murmured, stepping closer, "why are you running from your own memories?"
His voice twisted on the last word, curling into Ren's ear like smoke.
Ren's breathing hitched.
"Stop… stop… please..."
A pale hand caught his chin.
Cold.
Too cold.
"You remembered enough to summon me," ghost-Lian whispered, his lips brushing Ren's temple. "But not enough to understand why you shouldn't have."
The forest trembled.
Ren shoved him.
Or tried to.
His hands passed through the figure...
but not completely.
Like pushing against fog that had teeth.
Ghost-Lian tilted his head, inhumanly slow.
"You're fading," he murmured.
"You don't know which world to belong to."
Ren wanted to scream, but his voice died in his throat as the ground beneath him cracked open...
and the forest warped...
shrinking...
distorting...
collapsing into itself...
until it became a black dot.
A pupil.
A human pupil.
Ren blinked...
...now staring directly into the eyes of the man in the black suit.
His real-world Lian Zhen.
Ren gasped so sharply his lungs burned.
He was lying on the bedroom floor.
The lights bright.
The air heavy.
The real Lian Zhen kneeling over him, his hands awkwardly on Ren's shoulders.
"Ren. Ren, hey...stay with me," the man said, voice steady but clearly shaken.
"You fainted. You were convulsing. Do you hear me?"
Ren's eyes darted around the room.
No ghost.
No forest.
No shadow armor.
He sucked in a trembling breath.
"…where… where is he?"
The man frowned.
"Who?"
Ren's voice strained, barely audible.
"Lian Zhen."
"I am Lian Zhen," the man said again, slower.
"This is the third time I'm telling you."
Ren shoved him away so forcefully the man nearly lost balance.
"NOT YOU!" Ren screamed, tears spilling in hot streaks. "Not you...not you... the other...my..."
His voice cracked violently.
"...my Lian Zhen."
The man froze.
"We need to get you to a hospital."
"No!" Ren clawed at the floor, dragging himself backward until he hit the wall.
"I'm not crazy...he was here...he touched me...he told me our past...he.."
The real-world Lian Zhen stared at him like he didn't know whether Ren needed medical attention or an exorcist.
"Ren…" he said softly, cautiously, like talking to something fragile and dangerous.
"This mansion isn't haunted. It's been empty for years. Completely empty."
"You're lying!"
"I'm not."
Ren grabbed the book...the stupid paperback novel...and hurled it at him.
"That book had a LOCK. And a PORTRAIT. And it CHANGED. Why can't you see it!?"
The man picked up the fallen book, flipped through it calmly, then held it out.
"It's just a normal fantasy novel."
Ren snatched it and tore through the pages...hands shaking, heart beating like a trapped animal...
But it was.
Just.
A.
Novel.
His vision blurred with tears.
"No… no… please...don't do this...don't make me doubt him...don't take him away from me..."
The man knelt again, slower this time.
"Ren," he said softly. "Tell me the truth. Are you hallucinating? Did you hit your head earlier? Are you on any medication you didn't tell me about?"
Ren pressed both palms against his ears.
"Stop. Stop talking like I imagined everything."
He curled into himself.
His shoulders shook violently.
"I felt him," he whispered.
"He held me. He fed me. He told me my past… the forest… the garden… the palace…"
His eyes squeezed shut.
"Why can't you remember…? Why are you pretending…?"
Something in the man's expression flickered.
Not recognition.
Not guilt.
Just… pity.
"You've had a traumatic shock," he said gently. "Your brain is trying to fill gaps...maybe the isolation here is getting to you."
"No…" Ren whispered, voice cracking.
"No, he was real. He was real."
But even as he said it…
A worm of doubt dug into his chest.
Because the fridge was empty.
The phone was gone.
The book changed.
The mansion was spotless.
And the ghost vanished like he'd never existed.
His memories...
those sweet, warm, heartbreaking memories...
suddenly felt like stories someone whispered into his dreams rather than events he lived.
His hands shook harder.
"I'm losing my mind…" he choked.
The man reached for him again, hesitating before laying a hand on Ren's shoulder.
"Do you still want to work here?" he asked softly.
Ren didn't answer.
Couldn't.
Because the shadows behind the man moved.
Ren's heart lurched.
A shape...tall, faint, ghostlike...stood behind the real-world Lian Zhen.
Same posture.
Same silhouette.
Same cold aura.
And slowly...
slowly...
its face lifted.
Two pale ghost-eyes stared straight into Ren's soul.
Ren's breath shattered.
"Lian… Zhen…" he whispered.
The man turned, confused.
"There's no one there."
But Ren wasn't looking at him.
He saw the ghost.
The real one.
The one from the forest.
The one he loved.
Standing in the dark corner.
Watching.
Silent.
Expression unreadable.
The room tilted.
Ren tried to stand, reaching toward the ghost...
And fainted again.
This time, his body hit the floor so hard the man flinched.
"Ren-!" he shouted, grabbing him.
But the ghost only watched.
Expression softening, almost fond...
before dissolving into smoke.
The last thing Ren saw…
before consciousness ripped away…
was a single whisper curling into his ear like a razor against silk.
"Little prince… you're remembering too fast."
Then silence.
END OF THE CHAPTER.