The outside world felt louder than usual.
Cars passed. People talked. Shops opened for the morning rush. Everything moved with purpose, with certainty. Watching it made me feel strangely detached, like I was walking through a memory instead of reality.
Nobody noticed me.
Not in the normal way people ignore strangers. It was deeper than that. Eyes slid past me without focus. Shoulders brushed mine without apology. A man walked straight into me at the crossing and didn't even react, as if he had bumped into air.
I almost lost my balance.
"I really don't exist anymore," I muttered.
"You exist," the shadow's voice answered quietly inside my mind. "You are simply unacknowledged."
That was somehow worse.
I walked toward my school without thinking. My feet remembered the path even if my mind struggled to hold onto details. Familiar streets felt distant, like dreams fading after waking.
Every step outside made the warmth in my chest pulse faintly.
The Anchor was reacting.
"So it gets stronger when I get closer?" I asked.
"Yes," the shadow replied. "Memories seek themselves."
The school gate came into view.
Students gathered in small groups, laughing, complaining about homework, living ordinary lives. For a moment I just stood there watching them.
I used to belong here.
Now I felt like a ghost visiting his own past.
I walked inside.
No one stopped me.
The guard didn't even look up this time.
Inside the corridor, conversations blurred together into meaningless noise. Lockers slammed. Shoes echoed against the floor.
And then it happened.
A girl walking past suddenly slowed.
Not fully stopping.
Just… hesitating.
Her eyes shifted slightly toward me.
My heartbeat jumped.
She frowned faintly, as if trying to remember something important, then shook her head and continued walking.
The warmth in my chest flared.
"You felt that?" I whispered.
"Yes," the shadow said. "Residual recognition."
Hope surged through me.
Someone here was connected to the Anchor.
I followed her.
Not close enough to look suspicious, just enough to keep her in sight. She climbed the stairs toward the rooftop access corridor.
My breath caught.
The rooftop.
The memory from the phone.
I pushed the door open after her.
Wind greeted me immediately, cool and strong. The city stretched endlessly beyond the railing, sunlight reflecting off buildings.
She stood near the edge, staring at the sky.
For a moment I just watched.
Something about her presence felt familiar in a way I couldn't explain. Not visually. Emotionally.
Like hearing a song you forgot you loved.
I stepped closer.
"Excuse me," I said carefully.
She turned.
Her eyes met mine.
And this time, she reacted.
A small gasp escaped her lips.
Not recognition.
But confusion mixed with fear.
"…Do I know you?" she asked slowly.
My heart pounded.
"I don't know," I admitted. "But I think you might be the reason I still exist."
That sounded insane the moment I said it.
She stared at me longer, searching my face.
Her expression softened slightly, then tightened again as if something was pulling her thoughts away.
"I feel like…" she whispered, holding her head. "Like I forgot something important."
The wind grew stronger.
Behind me, the shadow suddenly tensed.
"Careful," it warned.
I felt it too.
The air changed.
A faint distortion appeared near the rooftop door, barely visible, like heat waves rising from asphalt.
Cold spread across my skin.
"Not a Collector," the shadow said urgently. "Something else."
The distortion twisted and slowly formed a shape crawling along the ground.
Thin.
Hungry.
Its body looked stitched together from fragments of moving shadows, mouths opening and closing silently across its surface.
The girl shivered.
"Why does it suddenly feel cold…?"
It couldn't see her.
Only me.
Only the Anchor.
"It feeds on memory," the shadow said. "If it consumes the Anchor, you will vanish instantly."
The creature turned toward us.
Dozens of whispering voices filled the air at once.
"Warm memory… rare memory… give…"
Fear hit me hard, but I stepped forward anyway, placing myself between it and the girl.
I didn't know why.
Instinct, maybe.
Or desperation.
"I'm not giving you anything," I said.
The creature lunged.
Time slowed.
The warmth in my chest exploded outward suddenly, light spilling across the rooftop like a heartbeat made visible.
The girl's eyes widened.
For a split second, clarity filled her expression.
She grabbed my wrist.
And said my name.
"Aarush."
The world froze.
The creature shrieked as if burned, its body tearing apart under invisible pressure.
Light pulsed once more.
Then silence returned.
The thing dissolved into nothing.
I stood there, breathing heavily.
Her hand was still holding mine.
She looked directly into my eyes now, no confusion left.
Only shock.
"…I remember you," she whispered.
And for the first time since disappearing, I felt real again.
Behind us, the shadow spoke softly, almost relieved.
"The Anchor has awakened."
But deep inside, I felt something else too.
Because if someone could remember me again…
Then something far worse would definitely notice.