[Ashe sat on the cold floor. His hand burned. His breath heavy. The mirror still held a silhouette.]
Time passed.
But in this room… time didn't matter.
There was no day. No night.
Just a typewriter, a mirror,
and a boy who might've once been alive.
[His head hung low. His eyes glistened. He stared at the mirror — at nothing.]
Ashe (tired, almost smiling):
"Maybe I've lost my mind.
Or maybe... I was never right to begin with."
[The silhouette in the mirror began to clear.
A girl's face started to take shape — but her eyes remained blurred.]
Noira (from the mirror, calm but serious):
"You're here because you forgot...
that you are a liar."
[Ashe grits his teeth, trying to stand, but his legs tremble.]
Ashe (frustrated):
"I'm not a liar.
I just… I just don't remember everything."
[The typewriter clicked again.]
Chik.
> "Then write the truth."
[He hesitated.
Then sat cross-legged before the machine.
His hand still burned. The skin red.]
Ashe (softly, confused):
"My name is… Ashe..."
[The typewriter paused.
Then violently shook — keys rattling furiously.]
Chik chik chik chik chik chik...
> "Lie."
"Ashe is not a name. Ashe is a title thrown away."
[He stared at the mirror.
His voice dropped into a whisper.]
Ashe:
"Then… what was my real name?"
[Noira stayed silent.
Then slowly stepped closer inside the mirror's depth.]
Noira:
"Maybe… you burned it before you could ever write it."
[FLASH — a burning page.
A name turning to ash.
Only two letters remained: "A" and "E."]
[Ashe's face tightened — fear and guilt pooling in his eyes.]
Ashe:
"I forgot who I was…?"
[Another voice emerged — colder than before.
From inside the typewriter.]
Ira (from the machine):
"Or maybe…
you never knew yourself at all."
[Suddenly — something appeared on the wall.
Written in bold, scar-like ink.
He walked toward it slowly.]
> "You can only leave…
after you finish what you never started."
[He stumbled back, falling to the floor.
Hands covering his face.]
Ashe (choking):
"What do I even write?
There's nothing left in me..."
[Then — the room trembled.
Like someone else had entered.
Someone not human.]
[In the mirror — another reflection appeared.
It looked like Ashe…
but the eyes — completely black.
Empty.]
???:
"Then write…
everything you never said.
All of it.
Because your lies don't just kill you, Ashe…
they kill everyone who was ever your truth."
[Ashe stared at his darker reflection.
His face crumbled.
Tears fell.]
Ashe (broken, whispering):
"I couldn't remember anyone…
I never belonged to anyone…
I… I was just what was left.
Ashes of someone I failed to become."
---
[The lights in the room began to fade.
The typewriter moved on its own — one last time.]
Chik.
> "A lie is never small…
it just arrives late."
---
END OF CHAPTER 1