---

Stepping out of the portal, Lucas stumbled forward, gasping as his surroundings shifted. His heart pounded against his ribs as he found himself back in his room, the air still and quiet, as if nothing had happened.

His eyes darted to his bed, where his cell phone lay flat on the sheets. The screen was lit up with almost twenty-five missed calls. His fingers trembled as he picked it up, scrolling through the names. His friends. Over and over again.

His body ached, drenched in sweat as though he had run a marathon with no rest. The weight of exhaustion pressed against his limbs. Without thinking, he hurried into the bathroom, stripping off his clothes and stepping under the cold shower. Water rushed over his skin, washing away the grime of whatever nightmare he had just escaped. He let out a slow, shaky breath, resting his forehead against the tiled wall.

After brushing his teeth and dressing up again, he reached for his school bag. Carefully, he placed Eli’s real journal beside the one he had found at the church. His hands lingered over the letter from Eli, its paper still slightly crumpled from when he first held it. His mind was still reeling from the incident earlier, but one thing was certain—he wasn’t going to face this alone.

As he slung his bag over his shoulder and stepped out of his room, he nearly stumbled down the stairs.

Because there she was.

His mother.

For a brief moment, a flicker of something unfamiliar ran through him—a remnant of the fear he had felt before. But then… he saw it. The gentleness in her eyes. A softness that reminded him of who she once was. Even if she had forgotten the truth, buried under the town’s influence, there was still something real in her. Something warm.

“Lucas, be careful on the stairs,” she said with concern, wiping her hands on a dish towel. “I wouldn’t like it if you got hurt.”

Lucas let out a slow breath, forcing a small smile. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll be fine.”

He sat at the dining table, inhaling the scent of freshly toasted bread, cinnamon rolls, and steaming spring tea. It felt... normal. Too normal. His mother placed the meal in front of him with a smile.

“I let you sleep in since it’s Saturday,” she said lightly.

Lucas almost burst into tears.

For a moment, he let himself pretend. Pretend that this was an ordinary morning. That there were no shadows watching, no missing memories, no cursed town keeping him prisoner. But deep down, he knew the truth.

He swallowed hard and forced the lump down his throat. “Thanks, Mom.”

After finishing his meal, he set his fork down. He needed to meet up with his friends. There were too many questions left unanswered, and they had to figure this out—before the town erased more of them.

Standing up, he turned to his mother. “I’m heading out.”

She nodded, still smiling, but when he hugged her, he felt her stiffen in surprise. He rarely hugged her before Riverside. They had fought so much before moving here, and now, everything between them was shifting into something unnatural.

The hug lasted longer than either of them expected. A full minute passed before—

His phone rang.

The sudden vibration in his pocket jolted him back to reality. He pulled away from his mother, waving at her before stepping out of the house.

He answered the call.

“Yo, bro, where the hell have you been?!” Caleb’s voice exploded through the speaker. “I’ve been calling you all night—what happened?”

Lucas pressed a hand against his temple, his head still pounding from everything that had happened. He exhaled sharply. “I… I can’t explain over the phone.”

Caleb was silent for a moment before sighing. “Fine. Where are we meeting?”

Lucas looked around, his eyes narrowing. “The school rooftop.”

---

Lucas climbed the stairs to the school rooftop, his pulse still racing from the conversation with Caleb. The moment he pushed open the door, a rush of cool air hit him, carrying the familiar scent of rain from last night.

Caleb, Ryan, and Tessa were already there, waiting. Their faces were a mixture of relief and frustration.

“Dude, what the hell?” Caleb demanded the second Lucas stepped forward. “We thought you—” He stopped himself, running a hand through his hair. “Where have you been?”

Lucas dropped his bag onto the ground, slumping against the railing. “I was… somewhere else.”

Tessa crossed her arms. “That doesn’t help.”

Lucas exhaled sharply. “Okay, listen. I don’t know how, but I got pulled into another place. Not a dream. Not a vision. A real place—a world filled with lost souls, twisted figures, people who weren’t supposed to be there.”

Ryan’s brows furrowed. “Lost souls?”

Lucas nodded. “Yeah. They were trapped. I think it was the real place where all the forgotten people of Riverside end up.” His hands clenched into fists. “And… I think Eli was there.”

The group fell silent.

Tessa hesitated before asking, “And…?”

Lucas swallowed hard. “He was already gone by the time I got there.” His voice tightened. “I was too late.”

No one spoke for a moment, the weight of his words sinking in.

Then Ryan cleared his throat. “Okay. I hate everything about this, but… what do we do now?”

Lucas hesitated before reaching into his bag. He pulled out the letter Eli had left him. “We open this.”

Everyone exchanged uneasy glances before crowding around him as he carefully unfolded the letter.

Dear Seeker,

If you are reading this, then the truth is clawing its way toward you, just as it did with me. The town does not move forward. The people do not grow old the way they should. Riverside has been frozen in time for over twenty years.

For two decades, this town has existed in a loop. A cursed cycle that resets over and over, wiping memories, replacing truths with lies, making sure no one ever escapes.

The truth is locked away. A place hidden, forbidden—a room that should not exist.

Find it. But be warned… opening that door will mean facing everything that was meant to be forgotten.

Eli

The rooftop was silent.

Tessa took a shaky breath. “A loop…? For twenty years?”

Ryan backed away, his face paling. “That’s impossible.”

Lucas reread the words, his heart thudding painfully in his chest. It explained too much. The weird way people acted. The fact that some people recognized him in ways they shouldn’t. The way his mother seemed to love him but didn’t fully remember him.

“We have to find that room,” Lucas said, his voice firm. “If we don’t… we’ll never get out of this.”

Caleb crossed his arms. “And where the hell do we even start?”

Lucas looked back at the letter, his eyes narrowing.

“There’s a place in town. A forbidden room. A locked place that holds the truth.”

He raised his gaze to his friends.

“That’s where we’re going next.”

---

Ryan took a step back, shaking his head. “No. No way. This has to be wrong.” He gestured wildly at the letter in Lucas’s hands. “Twenty years? A loop? How would we not notice?!”

Tessa wiped at her eyes, her voice breaking. “I—I moved here when I was ten. I turned fifteen, and that’s when things started feeling different, but…” She trailed off, her breath hitching.

Her hands began to shake as she whispered, “Does that mean I’m not really sixteen? Does that mean I’m supposed to be—” she swallowed hard, the words tasting like poison, “—thirty-five?”

Silence.

Lucas’s stomach twisted as he watched her break down, the weight of the truth crushing her.

“No. No way.” Caleb ran a hand down his face, his voice hoarse. “That’s impossible. We’re kids. We’re just—” He stopped, as if his own words didn’t feel real anymore.

Lucas clenched his jaw. He felt the doubt creeping into his own mind, trying to infect him. He had memories—birthdays, school years, normal days that felt real. But were they? Were they planted? What if this town had stolen everything from them?

Ryan let out a shaky breath. “So what, man? What does this even mean for us?”

Lucas lifted his gaze. “It means if we don’t break this curse… we’ll never know who we were supposed to be.”

The wind howled around them.

No one spoke.

Then, Tessa whispered, “We have to find that room.”

Lucas turned the book toward Caleb, who leaned in, his brows furrowing as he studied the faded map. He traced a finger along the lines, murmuring to himself as he made sense of it.

“Town Square… Rhythm Shop… Cross Verb Place…” he muttered, pinpointing familiar locations. His voice was steady, confident—until his finger hovered over the black ‘X’.

Caleb frowned. “This place doesn’t exist.”

The others stiffened.

“What do you mean?” Ryan asked, crossing his arms.

“I mean, I know every part of this town. I’ve studied it—maps, history, layouts. But this?” Caleb tapped the spot again. “I don’t recognize it. It’s like… it was erased.”

A heavy silence fell over them.

Tessa’s voice was shaky. “But… that doesn’t make sense. If it’s on this map, it has to be real.”

Caleb chewed his lip, then exhaled sharply. “I think it’s somewhere close to the seams or the barns. Look—” He pointed to the barely visible outlines of roads. “It’s in between them. That means no one really goes there. Which means we’re in luck.”

Lucas stared at the marked spot. It felt like the answer had been right in front of them all along, hidden in plain sight.

And now… they were going to find it.
Lucas exhaled slowly, gripping the letter in one hand, the weight of it pressing down on him. His friends looked shaken, unsure of what was real anymore. If they lost themselves to the doubt, they might never move forward.