The fog thinned as Lin Chen walked forward.
The road behind him did not fade—it folded into itself, like a memory he could no longer trace back to its beginning. Each step felt as though he were leaving the world he knew, even though the ground beneath his feet remained solid.
Ahead, rooftops emerged from the mist.
They were not ruins, yet they were not whole either.
A small town rested within a shallow valley, its walls cracked, its stone streets strangely clean. No banners fluttered above the gates. No signboard marked its name.
Lin Chen slowed his steps.
Every town had a name. If this one did not, then either its name had been erased… or it had erased itself.
He passed through the broken gate.
The streets lay silent.
Wind brushed dust across the stone road. Doors stood ajar. Cooking pots sat cold upon dead hearths. Inside several homes, bowls were neatly placed upon tables, the food within long since turned to ash-gray paste.
No bodies.
No traces of struggle.
Only absence.
A chill crept along Lin Chen's spine.
People did not simply abandon their lives like this.
Not without a reason.
He moved deeper into the town, peering into empty courtyards and silent rooms. In one house, wooden toys lay arranged in a careful circle, as if someone had placed them deliberately before leaving. In another, the bed was still neatly made.
At the center of the town stood a dry well.
The stones around its rim were worn smooth by countless hands.
Lin Chen approached slowly and leaned over the edge.
Darkness stared back at him.
Then the darkness rippled.
For an instant, the black surface reflected not the empty town, but a lively one.
Lantern light swayed in the night breeze.
People laughed and passed by. A banner hung above the well, bearing a name he could almost read.
Pain throbbed behind Lin Chen's eyes.
The reflection shattered.
He staggered back, breath uneven.
That was not memory.
That was the town remembering itself.
"This place…" Lin Chen murmured, pressing his fingers against his temple. "You're not empty. You're just… paused."
A faint sound reached his ears.
Footsteps.
He turned sharply, his body tensing.
At the far end of the street stood a girl of similar age to him. Her clothes were patched from travel, and a small pack hung at her side.
Her eyes were sharp, wary, yet alert.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then the girl relaxed slightly. "You're not one of them."
Lin Chen frowned. "One of who?"
She hesitated. "The ones who walk without shadows."
He glanced down.
His shadow still lay at his feet.
"…That's reassuring," he said quietly.
The girl let out a breath she seemed to have been holding. "Then you're real."
Lin Chen was not sure how comforting that was.
They kept a careful distance as they spoke.
Her name was Yun Qiao. She had come searching for her elder brother, who had entered this valley weeks earlier and never returned. The town had already been empty when she arrived.
"Sometimes, at night," she said softly, "I hear people talking. Laughing. It sounds like the town is alive again. Then it all goes silent."
Lin Chen listened, his expression growing heavier.
The road that had led him here.
The camp that had vanished in the fog.
This town that remembered what it had once been.
Nothing about his journey had been normal.
"So the road brought you here too," Yun Qiao said.
Lin Chen gave a tired smile. "It's terrible at giving directions."
Night fell far faster than it should have.
Mist gathered between the houses, curling like pale smoke along the streets.
Somewhere, a lantern flickered to life at the edge of Lin Chen's vision—though neither of them had lit one.
The well rippled once more.
Soft voices drifted upward from the darkness below.
They were not threatening.
They were not welcoming.
They simply sounded alive.
Yun Qiao's fingers tightened around the hilt of her short blade. "They're here again."
Lin Chen swallowed.
This town was not empty.
It was remembering.
The ground beneath them hummed faintly, as though something ancient turned in its sleep beneath the valley.
The nameless town, which had forgotten itself, was beginning to wake.