The First WorldDarkness swallowed the laboratory.For several seconds, there was nothing.No voices.No machines.No footsteps.Only the sound of Ethan Carter breathing.Then a light appeared.A single white point in the darkness.It expanded slowly until Ethan found himself standing beside a lake.The same lake.But not the same world.The water was clear. The sky was blue. The old Carter house stood untouched among green trees.There was no Meridian tower.No Mirror Network.No resistance.No war.No ruins.Ethan turned around.Rachel was gone.His brother was gone.Richard was gone.Lily was gone.He was alone.Or so he thought.A child was standing near the water.Ethan recognized him immediately.Himself.Eight years old.Young Ethan was throwing stones into the lake.Another boy sat nearby.His brother.They were laughing.Ethan watched them silently.Then a woman's voice came from behind him.“You wanted to know who destroyed the first world.”Ethan turned.Eleanor Carter stoo

St. Mary'sThe message remained on the screen.ETHAN CARTER IS WAITING.Lily stared at it without blinking.For several seconds, nobody moved.Then Sarah whispered, “That isn't possible.”Daniel turned toward her.“Why?”Sarah looked at the coordinates.“Because St. Mary's wasn't just destroyed.”She swallowed.“It was erased.”Rachel frowned.“Buildings don't get erased.”“This one did.”Sarah pointed at the screen.“After the first Mirror event, every record connected to St. Mary's disappeared. Patient files. Staff records. Photographs. Government documents.”Daniel stared at the database.“That explains why I couldn't find a complete record.”Lily stepped closer.“But I was born there.”“Yes.”“And my father disappeared there.”Sarah nodded.“That's what everyone was told.”Lily looked at her.“What really happened?”Sarah didn't answer.Lily's voice hardened.“Mom.”Sarah closed her eyes.“Your father didn't disappear from St. Mary's.”“He was taken.”“By whom?”“By us.”The room

The Last MemoryThe hospital speakers went silent.For several seconds, nobody moved.The last words Amelia had spoken remained suspended in the air like a threat that had not yet decided whether it wanted to become a promise.“The third world has begun.”Lily stared at the photograph on the wall.It had already burned away, leaving only a dark rectangular stain.But she could still see the woman's face in her mind.Amelia.Her mother.A woman Lily had mourned for most of her life.A woman who had supposedly died before Lily was old enough to understand what death meant.Yet Amelia had spoken to them.She was alive.And she had known they would come.Rachel slowly lowered her weapon.“Everyone stay calm.”Daniel looked at the tablet in his hands.“Calm isn't really an option anymore.”“What are you seeing?” Rachel asked.Daniel's fingers moved rapidly across the screen.“The network is still active.”“What network?”“The Mirror.”Lily turned toward him.“I thought it was destroyed.”“