Chapter 174: Twenty Years Awake

The first thing Eden felt was pain. Not the kind of pain he had grown accustomed to inside the stories. This was different—small, physical, and undeniably real. A dull ache pulsed behind his eyes while a burning sensation lingered in his throat. Every breath felt like something his body had forgotten how to perform properly. His chest rose unevenly beneath a thin blanket, and somewhere beside his head a machine continued its steady rhythm, its repetitive beeping cutting through the silence. When Eden finally opened his eyes, he was greeted by a white ceiling, fluorescent lights, a plastic tube beneath his nose, and a monitor beside the bed. For several seconds he simply stared. A woman in blue scrubs stood frozen nearby with her mouth hanging open and one hand hovering over a button. Then she suddenly screamed for a doctor.

Footsteps thundered outside the room. Eden tried to sit up, but pain exploded through his body and forced him back against the pillow. Someone rushed into the room, followed immediately by another person. Questions came from every direction as voices overlapped around him. They wanted to know if he could hear them, if he could understand them, and what his name was. His mouth was dry and his voice barely existed, but he managed to answer. "Eden." The doctor leaned closer and asked, "Eden what?" After swallowing painfully, Eden forced out, "Eden Mercer." The doctor exchanged a look with the nurse before asking if he knew where he was. Eden glanced around the room and answered that he was in a hospital. The doctor nodded and asked if he knew what year it was. The answer felt ridiculous even before he said it. "2009."

The doctor went completely still. Eden frowned immediately and asked what was wrong. The doctor slowly looked toward the nurse, who covered her mouth as if she had heard something shocking. Unease crawled through Eden’s chest. He asked again what was wrong, and this time the doctor pulled a chair beside the bed and sat down. "Mr. Mercer," he began carefully. Eden answered, and the doctor quietly informed him that it was 2029. The world seemed to stop. Eden immediately shook his head and denied it, but the doctor gently explained that he had been unconscious since 2009. Eden refused to accept it, yet the doctor continued anyway, telling him that twenty years had passed.

Eden turned toward the window. The city outside was unfamiliar. Buildings stood where he remembered empty lots. Cars moved along streets he didn’t recognize, and massive digital advertisements covered enormous screens. Twenty years. The thought echoed endlessly through his head. Looking back at the doctor, he demanded to know how that was possible. The doctor admitted they didn’t know. Eden asked how he had survived, and again the answer was that they didn’t know. When he asked why he had suddenly awakened after two decades, the doctor hesitated before admitting they didn’t know that either. The answer was almost funny. After everything Eden had experienced, the real world apparently had the same habit as the stories—it refused to explain itself.

When Eden asked where his family was, the doctor’s expression immediately changed. The silence that followed was enough to make his chest tighten. The doctor slowly removed his glasses and apologized. Eden cut him off before he could continue. He demanded to know where Luna was. The doctor glanced toward the nurse before finally answering that she had passed away. Eden closed his eyes. He had known. Somewhere deep inside, he had always known. But hearing it spoken aloud made it real in a way the stories never had. When he asked when it happened, the doctor answered quietly that it had been in 2011, only two years after the accident. Eden’s fingers tightened around the blanket before he forced himself to ask about Aria.

The doctor hesitated again. Eden clarified that he meant his daughter, and after a brief moment of confusion the doctor nodded. When Eden asked if she was alive, desperation entered his voice. Finally, the doctor sighed and confirmed that she was. For a moment Eden couldn’t breathe. For twenty years he had dreamed of hearing those words. The doctor explained that Aria was listed as his legal medical contact and had visited him regularly. Eden stared in disbelief and asked how often. A faint smile appeared on the doctor’s face as he answered that she came every week. A tear rolled down Eden’s cheek, and he turned his face away while the doctor rose from his chair and promised to contact her immediately.

Before leaving, however, the doctor stopped at the doorway and mentioned one more thing. He explained that Aria had specifically requested that a notebook never be removed from Eden’s bedside. Confused, Eden followed the doctor’s gesture toward the nightstand. There, resting beside the lamp, was a black notebook. The sight of it sent a chill through him. He recognized it immediately. Not from the hospital, but from the stories. The Author’s notebook. Eden stared at it and quietly insisted that it hadn’t been there before. The doctor disagreed, explaining that it had sat beside his bed for twenty years. When Eden demanded to know who had placed it there, the doctor admitted he had no idea before finally leaving the room.

The room fell silent after the door closed. Too silent. Eden’s eyes remained fixed on the notebook. Slowly, he reached toward it. The moment his fingers touched the cover, the monitor beside him began beeping faster. He immediately pulled his hand back, but it was too late. The notebook moved. Only slightly, but enough to make his blood run cold. The cover slowly opened on its own. The first page appeared blank until ink began forming across it one letter at a time. WELCOME BACK. Eden’s heart hammered in his chest. Another sentence appeared beneath it. DID YOU ENJOY YOUR DREAM? He froze and whispered no, but the writing continued anyway. YOU WERE GONE FOR A LONG TIME.

Grabbing the notebook, Eden watched as the pages flipped rapidly. Every page contained something from his life. His childhood. Luna. Aria. The accident. The hospital. The worlds. The Readers. The Author. Everything. Then he noticed a page dated 2029. His hands trembled as he read the first sentence: EDEN WILL WAKE TODAY. Beneath it was another line declaring that he would believe the story was over. Then came another sentence stating that he would meet Aria, followed by one claiming she would tell him the truth. Eden’s pulse raced faster with every word. Finally, a last sentence appeared at the bottom of the page. BUT SHE WILL NOT BE HIS DAUGHTER.

The notebook slammed shut. Eden dropped it immediately and muttered a curse under his breath. At that exact moment the door opened. He looked up to see a woman standing in the doorway. She was older than the Aria he remembered, older than the six-year-old girl who had haunted his memories for so long. Her hair was longer, and faint lines rested around her eyes. Yet those eyes were unmistakable. Eden knew them instantly. Neither of them spoke for several seconds before she finally whispered a single word. "Dad."

Eden’s throat tightened. He spoke her name, and tears immediately filled her eyes. For a moment she remained frozen before crossing the room. When Eden reached out, she grabbed his hand without hesitation and pressed it against her cheek. Her skin was warm. Real. She told him she had known he would come back. Eden broke down completely. He told her how much he had missed her, how he had thought she was dead. Through her tears, Aria admitted that she had believed the same thing about him. Then her expression changed. She glanced toward the notebook lying on the floor before telling him that he needed to listen carefully.

Pulling a chair closer, Aria sat beside the bed and explained that she had spent twenty years trying to understand what had happened to him. Doctors had described his brain activity as abnormal. They claimed he was dreaming, yet the dreams never behaved like ordinary dreams. Eden’s eyes drifted toward the notebook, and Aria immediately noticed. She explained that it had appeared beside his bed on the very first night. Nobody knew where it had come from. When Eden asked if she had read it, she admitted that she had. At first it had only described events that hadn’t happened yet, including his awakening. Later, however, it began describing her. According to Aria, the notebook somehow knew things about her life that nobody else knew. When Eden suggested it might have described her childhood, she shook her head. It had described events from before she was even born.

The revelation made Eden freeze. Aria leaned closer and explained that the notebook described the stories he had created. Eden admitted he had always thought those stories were dreams. Aria said she had believed the same thing until she found a particular name inside the notebook. Luna. The mention of that name immediately tightened Eden’s chest. Aria explained that Luna wasn’t the first person to read the notebook. When Eden asked who had been first, Aria looked directly into his eyes and answered that it had been her mother. Luna had read it two weeks before she died.

The room seemed to lose all sound. Eden could barely process what he was hearing. He asked what Luna had said after reading it. Tears filled Aria’s eyes again as she explained that her mother had told her something she never understood. Luna believed the story had not been created by Eden. When Eden demanded to know who had created it instead, Aria admitted Luna didn’t know. Instead, she reached into her bag and pulled out a folded piece of paper. She handed it to him.

The handwriting was unmistakable. Luna’s. Eden’s hands trembled as he unfolded it. Only three lines were written on the page. The message told him that if he was reading it, then he had finally awakened. It also warned him not to believe that the hospital was the real world. Eden stopped breathing. Looking up, he saw that Aria was crying.

Before either of them could say another word, the lights flickered. The monitor beside his bed went black. Every machine in the room shut down simultaneously, and the entire hospital fell silent. Then the television mounted on the wall switched on by itself. Static filled the screen before a black image appeared. White text slowly formed across it.

Chapter 175.

Eden stared in disbelief while Aria rose abruptly from her chair and demanded to know what she was looking at. The screen changed again. Another sentence appeared. THE READER HAS RETURNED. Eden felt his blood run cold as a second message followed. THE STORY HAS NOT ENDED. Moments later the screen went black.

A child’s laughter echoed from somewhere in the hallway. Eden turned toward the door while Aria whispered his name. The door slowly creaked open, revealing a six-year-old boy standing outside. Eden recognized him immediately. The First Reader. The boy smiled and tilted his head slightly before asking if Eden had really believed waking up meant he had escaped. Then his smile widened.

"Welcome to the next layer."