Chapter 15: The Name That Was Never Yours
(Final Chapter)
The world had stopped pretending.
No more illusions.
No more safety.
Just a hollow echo beneath Leah's feet as she walked through what was left of the Archive — a stitched-together place made from memory and betrayal, from every word she had ever spoken, written, or refused to say.
She was alone.
At least, she thought she was…
Until she saw herself.
Standing at the end of the corridor.
Same eyes. Same face. Same trembling hands.
But her expression—cold, cruel, calm.
Leah stepped closer.
"You're me," she said.
The Other Leah tilted her head. "No. I'm the version of you who didn't beg for Jay back. I'm the one who let him die."
---
They circled one another like reflections on shattered glass.
Other Leah's voice was ice:
"You're the weak one. You broke the story. You rewrote fate for your own guilt."
Leah clenched her fists. "I tried to save him."
"You condemned him."
"No," Leah whispered. "I made a mistake. And I tried to fix it."
"Then why are you still haunted? Why is Jay still broken? Why is Elior gone?"
Leah flinched.
The silence stretched like ink across a white page.
And then—Other Leah held out a letter.
Charred around the edges.
Blood smeared where a name had once been written.
> "This is the first letter.
The one that started it all."
> "You didn't write it.
Neither did Elior.
I did."
---
Leah took the letter slowly.
As her fingers touched it, memory poured into her like fire.
The night of Jay's death.
The choice she made.
The voice that came to her, whispering:
> "Write the truth, and he stays dead.
Write the lie, and he lives—but it will cost your name."
She had chosen the lie.
But she didn't realize the cost was identity.
The Archive hadn't been built by someone else.
It had been built by her guilt.
By her need to erase what happened.
And the Other Leah?
She was the one who refused to forget.
---
Suddenly, the Archive began to collapse again.
But this time, there was no stairway. No exit. No Elior. No Jay.
Only one choice remained.
The Other Leah spoke softly.
"You want to finish the story?
Then take back your name."
"How?"
Other Leah stepped forward.
"You have to let me go.
Let the version of you who lied… die."
Leah froze.
It felt like tearing her heart in two.
But slowly…
She reached out.
And embraced the Other Leah.
The world trembled.
"You were trying to protect us," Leah whispered.
"I was trying to protect the truth," Other Leah replied.
And then she dissolved.
Like mist in the morning light.
---
Leah woke in her childhood bedroom.
Sunlight streamed in through the curtains.
She blinked.
Sat up.
And saw a letter on her desk.
One last envelope.
No ink. No blood.
Just her name:
Leah Hallow.
She opened it.
Inside, a single sentence.
> "Your story is yours again."
She cried. For Elior. For Jay. For herself.
---
Downstairs, Jay was eating breakfast.
He smiled. "You okay?"
Leah nodded.
"Yeah. I think I finally am."
He paused. "Do you… remember everything now?"
She smiled.
"All of it. Even the end."
Jay hesitated. "And Elior?"
Leah looked out the window, where a crow sat on the sill, watching her.
She smiled sadly.
"He gave up his ending so I could write mine."
---
Later that day, she went to the lake.
She stood at the edge, holding a letter.
The last letter.
She read it aloud:
> "To the one who finally finished the story:
There is no such thing as forgetting.
There is only choosing what you carry."
> "Tell the truth.
Even when it hurts.
Especially when it hurts."
> "Goodbye, Leah.
– E."
She dropped the letter into the water.
Watched it float.
Then turned and walked away.
---
And deep beneath the lake…
A whisper rose in the dark:
> "The story is over."
> "But some names… are never forgotten."
---
THE END