Chapter 24: Echoes of the Forgotten

The night air thickened as the figures emerged from the shadows, their glowing eyes locked onto Elias with an unsettling stillness. His pulse quickened, each beat a frantic drum against his ribs.

"Lyra…" he whispered, barely moving his lips. "Who are they?"

She didn't answer immediately. Instead, she took a slow step back, her fingers tightening around the silver locket. Her face, usually unreadable, was etched with something close to dread.

"They are the Keepers," she finally said. "The ones who guard the boundary between what was and what should never be remembered."

Elias's throat went dry. "And what do they want from me?"

Lyra exhaled sharply, her silver eyes flickering with urgency. "To send you back. To erase what's left of you."

A deep chill crawled up his spine. He didn't need to ask what she meant. The answer was woven into every dream, every fragmented memory that refused to fit together. He had woken up when he wasn't supposed to.

And now, something—or someone—wanted to undo that.

One of the Keepers took a step forward. It moved unnaturally, its silhouette shifting against the dim glow of the streetlamp. The air around it shimmered like heat rising from pavement, distorting the space it occupied.

Elias clenched his fists, his breath shallow. "We need to run," he said, barely recognizing his own voice.

"No," Lyra said sharply, her eyes flashing. "We need to fight."

Before he could protest, she raised her hand. The locket in her grip pulsed, emitting a faint, silvery glow. The moment the light touched the air, the Keepers recoiled slightly, their forms wavering as if disturbed by an unseen force.

Elias barely had time to process what was happening before Lyra grabbed his wrist. The moment her fingers closed around his skin, a surge of energy jolted through him.

His vision blurred.

Suddenly, he wasn't standing on the street anymore. He was somewhere else—somewhere deeper.

A vast, endless expanse stretched before him, a place where the sky was fractured like broken glass and the ground was a swirling abyss of memories. Voices whispered from the void, calling his name, speaking words he almost understood but couldn't quite grasp.

A presence loomed at the edges of his perception, watching. Waiting.

Then, just as quickly as it had come, the vision shattered.

Elias gasped as reality slammed back into place. The street, the night, the Keepers—everything was as it had been, except now Lyra's grip on his wrist was tighter, her breathing uneven.

"You saw it, didn't you?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Elias's heart pounded. He didn't know what he had seen. He didn't know what it meant.

But he knew one thing for certain.

He was not supposed to be here.