Chapter 16
The First One.
Aira couldn't stop looking at the photograph.
The boy in the picture stood between her and Ren, smiling as though they had been friends forever.
But Aira had never seen him before.
At least, she thought she hadn't.
Her mother sat quietly across from them.
“What was his name?”
Her mother's eyes filled with tears.
“Yuto.”
Aira whispered the name.
Something inside her reacted to it.
Not a memory.
Not yet.
Just a feeling.
Ren noticed.
“You know him.”
Aira shook her head.
“I don't remember him.”
Her mother looked down.
“That was the problem.”
Aira frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“After Yuto disappeared, everyone slowly forgot him.”
“Everyone?”
Her mother nodded.
“Your father. Your sister. Me.”
She looked at Aira.
“Everyone except you.”
Aira stared at her.
“But I was just a baby.”
“You were three years old.”
Her mother took a breath.
“You kept saying his name.”
Aira's heart began beating faster.
“What did I say?”
Her mother closed her eyes.
“You kept saying, ‘Yuto is waiting at the station.’”
The room seemed to become colder.
Ren looked toward the window.
“That's the station we've been seeing.”
Aira nodded.
Her mother continued.
“Your sister believed you.”
“Did she go looking for him?”
“Yes.”
Aira's hands tightened around the photograph.
“That was why she found the train.”
Her mother nodded.
“And when she came back, she told me something strange.”
“What?”
“She said Yuto wasn't trapped on the train.”
Aira looked at Ren.
“Then where was he?”
Her mother shook her head.
“She never told me.”
A sudden sound came from upstairs.
A door closing.
Aira stood.
“Did you leave anyone upstairs?”
Her mother shook her head.
“No.”
Ren stood beside Aira.
They slowly climbed the stairs.
The hallway was dark.
Aira's old bedroom door was open.
She hadn't opened it since returning home.
Ren whispered,
“Stay behind me.”
Aira nodded.
They entered.
Everything looked untouched.
Her old books.
Her childhood toys.
The small wooden shelf beside the window.
Then Aira saw it.
A drawing on the wall.
Three children holding hands.
She walked closer.
Her breath caught.
She recognized herself.
Ren.
And Yuto.
Below them was a train.
But the train had no tracks.
Aira touched the drawing.
A memory exploded into her mind.
She was standing at the station.
Yuto was holding her hand.
Ren was crying.
Her sister was shouting at someone.
A man stood across the tracks.
The same man from the photographs.
Aira heard his voice.
“Give me the child.”
Her sister screamed,
“No.”
The memory vanished.
Aira staggered backward.
Ren caught her.
“What happened?”
“Yuto…”
She looked at him.
“He wasn't taken.”
Ren waited.
“He chose to go.”
“Why?”
Aira looked at the drawing.
“To save me.”
Silence.
Aira remembered more.
Yuto had been afraid.
But he had still walked toward the train.
He had turned back once.
He had smiled at her.
And he had said something.
Aira whispered,
“He told me not to follow.”
Ren's expression changed.
“That sounds familiar.”
Aira looked at him.
“Because my sister told me the same thing.”
They suddenly understood.
The people who disappeared weren't being randomly chosen.
They were protecting someone.
Yuto had protected Aira.
Her sister had protected Aira and Ren.
The Keeper had protected them from something worse.
The mysterious man wasn't trying to save anyone.
He had been the one taking people.
Aira looked toward the window.
The man was standing across the street.
Watching.
This time, she wasn't afraid.
She opened the window.
“Why are you doing this?”
He looked up at her.
“Because you remembered him.”
“Who are you?”
He smiled.
“Ask your sister.”
Aira's heart tightened.
“My sister is gone.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“She is waiting.”
“Where?”
He pointed toward the old station.
Then he disappeared into the darkness.
Aira closed the window.
Ren looked at her.
“We're going back.”
Aira nodded.
But before they left, she looked once more at the drawing.
Something had changed.
Yuto was no longer holding Aira's hand.
He was holding the hand of another child.
Aira stared.
“Ren…”
He looked at the drawing.
There was a fourth child.
A boy standing beside Yuto.
And beneath him were two words.
THE NEXT ONE.