[Scene opens — darkness. Silence. The Spiral Zone.]
Aren opens his eyes… but nothing is clear. Everything is blurry. Everything feels broken.
> Aren (internal monologue)
"Last time… Spiral touched me.
This time… I walked in myself."
---
Spiral isn't a portal you fly through.
It's a choice.
You don't move physically — you're pulled in mentally.
And when you enter the Spiral…
…the first thing that breaks is reality.
Aren finds himself standing in a place that looks almost familiar.
A city — shattered. Streets cracked. Buildings half-collapsed.
But the horror hits when he realizes:
> It's his home.
A broken version of the future he came from.
---
> Aren (soft, shaken whisper)
"This is… my world? Or what's left of it?"
---
> Spiral Voice (calm, distant)
"Welcome, traveler.
This is the version of your home where you never left.
Where you stayed too long… and time forgot you."
---
Every step Aren takes… the ground beneath him fractures.
As if a memory is shattering with every move.
He pauses at a window — light flickering inside.
And then…
He sees his mother.
Alive. Calm. Sitting inside.
But she doesn't recognize him.
---
> Aren (gasping, stepping forward)
"Mom…? It's me…"
> Mother (soft but distant)
"…Are you… looking at me?
Who are you?" (emotion: blank, disconnected)
> Aren (voice trembling)
"I'm… Aren. Your son."
> Mother (slight smile, hollow tone)
"My son? My son left for the future.
You… you're just a fracture."
---
Aren stumbles back — shaken.
Imagine standing in front of the person you love most…
and they don't even remember your name.
That's the Spiral's cruel trick:
> Change time…
and your memories get rewritten with it.
---
> Spiral Voice (echoing)
"She doesn't remember you...
Because you rewrote the version where she would."
---
Aren slowly sinks to the ground.
Emotionally drained. Eyes wide, but hollow.
> Aren (barely audible)
"I just wanted to go home…"
> Spiral (whispers)
"There is no home, Aren.
You left that timeline the moment you entered mine."
---
[Scene pulls out.]
The Spiral Zone reveals its deeper layers…
like mirrors inside mirrors…
like a reality that never ends.
Aren is still just at the first layer.
The real Spiral…
hasn't even begun to show itself yet.
---
Chapter ends with:
> Aren (quietly, to himself)
"If I lost my home just by entering Spiral…
then how many versions of me are already lost inside it?"
---
Chapter 1 Ends.