EPISODE 2 — THE SKY CHANGED
The morning felt heavier than usual.
I dragged myself out of my room, feet shuffling across the wooden floor, my mind still trapped inside last night's dream—the chains, the tower, and those two silent versions of me staring into the void.
The house was unusually quiet.
I checked the kitchen. Empty.
The living room. Empty.
My mother wasn't humming, my sister wasn't demanding breakfast. For a moment, the silence felt unnatural.
I finally found my father in the backyard, watering the flowers with his usual calm expression. The sun reflected off the droplets, turning them into tiny sparks—beautiful, peaceful… normal.
I walked straight up to him, not bothering with greetings.
"Dad," I said sharply, "is there any world apart from Earth?"
The watering can froze mid-air.
For a split second, the color drained from his face.
It was tiny—something most people would miss—but not me.
My memory wasn't the only thing the scroll sharpened. It sharpened my perception too.
He recovered almost instantly, letting out a forced chuckle.
"What kind of question is that, Tian? You and your crazy stories again."
He looked away too quickly.
The laugh was too thin.
He knew something.
And he didn't want to say it.
I stared at him, waiting—but he kept watering the flowers as if nothing happened.
That was all I needed to confirm the truth.
Without another word, I turned and stormed out of the house.
---
THE FIELD
There was a field not far from home—a quiet, lonely patch of grass where the wind always felt cool and the birds never shut up. I'd go there whenever my head felt too heavy with questions books couldn't answer.
I lay down on my back, staring at the sky.
Birds chirped. Leaves rustled. The world felt like it wanted me to relax.
But my heart wouldn't.
Was I really from Earth?
Was my body a mistake? A seal? A secret?
Were the twins in my dreams… memories?
My thoughts spiraled—
Until the sky changed color.
From blue to violet. Then crimson. Then a shade of silver I'd never seen in my life.
The wind stilled.
The birds went silent.
Then—
CRACK!
A streak of lightning tore across the sky, jagged and violent, but completely silent—like lightning that belonged to a world without sound.
My chest vibrated.
No—something inside me vibrated.
A pulse shot through my spine.
My limbs trembled.
My bones felt like they were melting and reforging at once.
"Agh—!"
I curled forward, clutching my chest as another pulse slammed through me like a hammer. The world blurred, twisted—and then snapped into clarity.
It was over in seconds.
But when I looked at my hands…
They weren't small anymore.
I stood. My clothes felt tight.
I ran—stumbled—to the river at the edge of the field and leaned over the water.
The reflection staring back at me was—
Me. But eighteen.
Tall. Lean. Beautiful in a way that didn't feel human.
White hair falling down my back.
Eyes sharp enough to cut the sky.
For a long moment, I just stared.
Then I laughed. Loud. Unrestrained.
"Hahaha! I'm not small anymore!"
The joy hit me like a flood—the weight of thirteen years of humiliation evaporating into the wind.
---
THE NIGHT OF CELEBRATION
Swept up in excitement, I ran straight into town and checked into a small hotel restaurant. I ordered wine I'd never been allowed to drink before and spent the entire day celebrating the body I'd dreamed of for years.
Evening rolled in, and lanterns lit the hallways with warm golden light. I stepped out of my room, slightly unsteady from the wine, humming to myself like an idiot.
As I passed a door in the hallway—
a soft hand reached out.
Before I could react, I was pulled inside and the door clicked shut.
A woman stood there.
Beautiful—so much so that the dim lamplight almost avoided her face out of respect. Her cheeks were red from drink; her eyes half-lidded.
She stepped closer, breath warm.
"You… you're handsome… when did this place get someone like you…" she murmured.
I opened my mouth to protest, but she pressed a finger against my lips, then kissed me.
My mind exploded in panic and instinct at the same time.
I tried to pull back.
Tried to think.
Tried to calm the storm surging in my blood.
But I was eighteen for the first time in my life… and human will wasn't enough to stop what followed.
The night blurred into warmth and softness.
Fade.
By the time my mind cleared, the woman was fast asleep beside me, breathing quietly like nothing strange had happened at all.
I sat up, rubbing my temples, letting out a long sigh.
"That… escalated quickly."
I reached for my shirt.
And then—
the entire room trembled.
A deep hum tore through the air.
The walls flickered like images on a broken screen.
I turned—
And a black hole the size of a doorway appeared beside the bed.
Not a void.
Not an illusion.
A true rupture—
a rift of swirling darkness, rotating like a slow, colossal eye opening for the first time.
My entire body tensed.
"What… is that?"
I stepped closer without thinking, drawn by a pull I couldn't resist.
The air around the rift felt heavy and ancient, like the pressure of a thousand unseen worlds.
Something inside me—whatever changed earlier—reacted violently, pulling me toward it.
I reached out a hand.
Just one step.
Just one touch.
I didn't know then…
That this would be my last night on Earth.
And that the real story—
the one buried deep in the nightmares and the scroll—
was finally opening its first page.
---