Chapter 23
The Voice Behind the Door.
Aira stood completely still.
Her sister's voice came from the darkness beyond the seventh door.
“Aira…”
Ren tightened his grip on her hand.
“Don't go.”
Aira looked at him.
“It sounds like her.”
“I know.”
“What if it really is?”
Ren looked toward the darkness.
“Then she can come to us.”
The voice came again.
“Aira, please.”
Aira's eyes filled with tears.
Her sister had never sounded afraid before.
Not even when she had disappeared.
Aira took one step forward.
The mysterious man suddenly spoke.
“Don't listen to it.”
Aira turned.
“You said you were there when the first person disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“Then you know what's behind that door.”
His face became serious.
“I know what it wants you to believe.”
“What does it want?”
“To make you open the door.”
Aira looked back.
The darkness seemed to move.
Then she heard her sister whisper her name again.
This time, Aira noticed something.
Her sister always called her by a childhood nickname.
Never her full name.
Aira stepped back.
“That isn't her.”
Ren looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“My sister wouldn't call me Aira.”
The voice stopped.
The corridor became silent.
Then something laughed.
It was a quiet, distorted sound.
The mysterious man looked toward the seventh door.
“You understand now.”
Aira nodded.
“It's using our memories.”
“Not just memories.”
He looked at Ren.
“Your love.”
Aira's expression changed.
“What?”
“It knows what you would do for each other.”
The door began to open wider.
Inside was a room filled with photographs.
Aira saw herself.
Ren.
Her mother.
Her sister.
Yuto.
Haru.
Every person she had ever loved.
Every photograph showed a different moment.
Some were real.
Some were impossible.
In one, Aira was an old woman.
In another, Ren was standing alone.
In another, her sister was alive and smiling.
Aira felt tears forming.
“It's showing us what we want.”
“Yes.”
Ren looked at one photograph.
It showed Aira and Ren together years in the future.
They were older.
Happy.
A child stood between them.
Ren stared at it.
Aira noticed.
“Don't.”
He looked at her.
“I know.”
He turned away.
The mysterious man stepped toward the door.
“I made the mistake of opening it once.”
Aira looked at him.
“What happened?”
“I saw everything I wanted.”
“Then why did you leave?”
“Because none of it was real.”
He looked at the photographs.
“I spent years trying to return.”
Aira understood.
“You caused the disappearances.”
His eyes lowered.
“I brought people here.”
“Why?”
“To find someone I lost.”
Aira's anger softened.
“Who?”
“My daughter.”
The corridor fell silent.
“She disappeared before I understood what this place was. I thought if I brought enough memories here, I could make the door give her back.”
Aira looked at the photographs.
“And did it?”
“No.”
The man looked at her.
“It only gave me copies.”
Aira's heart tightened.
“Copies?”
“People who looked like the ones I lost. Memories without souls.”
Ren looked toward the seventh door.
“So that's what happened to the people who disappeared.”
“Some became trapped memories. Others became part of the station.”
Aira looked at the photographs.
She finally understood why the Keeper had always warned them.
The station didn't simply erase people.
It could imitate them.
The voice behind the door returned.
This time, it sounded like Yuto.
“Ren.”
Ren closed his eyes.
Aira took his hand.
“Don't listen.”
Yuto's voice became softer.
“You promised me.”
Ren's face tightened.
The voice continued.
“You promised you'd bring me home.”
Ren whispered,
“I did.”
The door shook.
Aira looked at him.
“You kept your promise.”
Ren opened his eyes.
The voice disappeared.
The seventh door began closing.
The mysterious man watched it.
Then he said something Aira didn't expect.
“I'm afraid of you.”
Aira stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because you can remember without belonging to it.”
The door slammed shut.
The corridor became still.
Aira looked at Ren.
“What do we do now?”
The mysterious man turned away.
“We find the first memory.”
“Where?”
He looked back at her.
“Not beneath the station.”
Aira frowned.
“Then where?”
He pointed toward the ceiling.
“Where the first promise was made.”
Aira understood.
The river.
But before they could leave, the seventh door opened a tiny crack.
A child's voice whispered from inside.
Not Yuto.
Not Haru.
Aira.
Her own childhood voice.
“Don't forget me.”
Aira froze.
Ren looked at her.
And for the first time, Aira realized the door wasn't trying to show her someone she had lost.
It was showing her the person she had forgotten most completely.
Herself.