The zoo was gone.
In its place stood a hallway—endless, spiraling, slick with something that glistened under a lightless sky. The walls pulsed with breath. Not air, but memory. I could hear whispers in the drywall, murmuring things I had tried to forget. Each whisper came from a different voice. Some were mine. Some were Anya's. Some... were older.
Li stood beside me, hands clasped behind his back like a museum curator showing off his favorite exhibits.
"Seven doors," he said. "Seven shards. One Anya."
I looked at the doors. They were not uniform. Each was carved from something different:
One of bone.
One of obsidian.
One of mirrored glass.
One of children's teeth.
One of blood-soaked wood.
One of white porcelain.
One of raw, flayed skin.
Each pulsed faintly. Each whispered.
"You can only enter one at a time," Li said. "But be warned: each shard thinks it's the real Anya. Some might try to convince you. Some might try to kill you. Some... might beg."
He handed me a key. It was made of memories.
---
Door One: The Assassin
The room was red. Not painted. Blood. It dripped from the ceiling like rain.
Anya stood over a table, surgical tools arranged with ritual precision. Her eyes were blank. Surgical mask in place. She didn't look at me.
"Subject," she said. "Strip."
"Anya, it's me."
She looked up.
Then stabbed herself in the eye.
Blood geysered. She screamed. The System screamed with her.
[System Alert: Contagion Detected. Memory Virus Active.]
Her body convulsed and split open like a blooming flower of flesh and circuitry.
The walls collapsed into surgical sheets. I fled, heart hammering.
[Shard Rejected.]
---
Door Two: The Mother
A nursery. Empty crib. Mobile spinning with scalpel blades.
Anya rocked in a chair, humming to something not there.
"He was perfect," she whispered. "Until he smiled. Just like you."
The walls bled lullabies. She offered me a baby wrapped in my own skin.
"Hold him. Say goodbye."
I did.
The baby grinned.
Its eyes were Li's.
[Shard Accepted. Partial Integration: 13%.]
She handed me a rattle. Inside, it shook with teeth.
---
Door Three: The Betrayer
This room was a courtroom. I was on trial. Anya was judge, jury, executioner.
"How many versions of me did you let die to survive?" she asked.
"I didn't know which one was you."
"Convenient."
The walls displayed footage of every loop:
Anya bleeding.
Anya screaming.
Anya begging.
I had no defense.
"Sentence: Partial deletion."
[System Alert: Memory Wipe – Sector B7]
[Memory of Loop #14 erased.]
[Shard Bound by Guilt. Integration Delayed.]
She reached into my chest and removed a piece of my heart. "Return it when you're worthy."
---
Interlude: Corridor of Masks
Between doors, the hallway changed.
Masks hung on meat hooks. Each mask was a version of me:
Chen the Hero
Chen the Killer
Chen the Lover
Chen the Liar
One mask pulsed.
I touched it.
Vision flooded in: A timeline where I and Anya ruled Shengyuan as gods. Then burned the world.
The mask smiled. "We won that loop. Too bad you left."
---
Door Four: The Child
A school. But all the students were Anya.
They sat with empty notebooks, mouths sewn shut.
One stood when I entered. She was eight. Bloody knees. Broken teeth. She held a knife.
"They said you'd come."
"I'm not your enemy."
She stabbed my thigh.
"Liar."
Then she hugged me.
"You let me grow up. That was your crime."
[Shard Accepted. Emotional Anchor Strengthened. +9% System Stability.]
But when I turned, Li stood behind me.
Older again.
Now wearing my father's face.
"Hurry," he said. "The rest are starting to remember. And they don't want to be Anya anymore."
---
Door Five: The Oracle
A temple. Flickering candles. Skulls stacked to the ceiling.
Anya floated above the altar, eyes glowing white.
"Ask your question," she intoned.
"Who created the first loop?"
She wept blood.
"You did. You always have. You always will."
"That's not possible."
"Time doesn't care what's possible."
She shattered into light.
[Shard Partial. Wisdom Extracted. Timeline Corruption: 11%.]
A ghost of her voice whispered: "Burn your name to survive."
I carved "LU CHEN" into the stone floor. The letters bled.
---
Door Six: The Machine
Anya made of wires and chrome.
She repeated the same phrase: "Do you authorize my deletion? Y/N"
I said nothing.
The walls displayed every failed version of her: glitched, exploded, lobotomized.
"You kept rebooting me," she said. "You called it love."
[System Conflict: Ethics Core Compromised.]
I chose no.
She smiled.
[Shard Accepted. Integration Conflict: Pending Emotional Resolution.]
She left a data drive in my palm. It pulsed.
---
Door Seven: The Dead
A morgue.
Anya on a slab. No wounds. Just... gone.
Her file read: "Cause of death: Hope."
I kissed her forehead.
She opened her eyes.
"Wrong loop," she whispered. "You're too early."
[Shard Accepted. Dormant. Awakens upon Final Integration.]
The morgue melted.
---
Back in the corridor, Li waited. His suit was crimson now. His eyes endless.
"You passed," he said. "But you're still not whole. You know what comes next."
The floor split open.
A new staircase. Leading down.
Carved into each step was a memory I hadn't lived yet.
The final one said: "Anya kills you to save you. Loop #Zero."
I stepped down.