Chapter 83: Platform Zero
"...Wait."
Dillan took another step.
The little girl had vanished.
Yet he knew...
Absolutely knew...
She had been standing there.
Dana tightened her grip on his arm.
"Dillan."
He didn’t answer.
His eyes remained fixed on the darkness beyond the platform.
"...She was there."
"I know what you think you saw."
Commander Yuna’s voice cut through the silence.
"But you’re not moving another step."
Dillan slowly looked toward her.
"...You didn’t see her?"
Nobody answered.
That was answer enough.
The abandoned station fell silent once again.
Only water dripping from cracked concrete disturbed the stillness.
Drip...
Drip...
Drip...
Dr. Yeon checked her scanner.
"...The readings dropped."
Commander Yuna frowned.
"Dropped?"
"They spiked..."
"...The moment Dillan looked down the tunnel."
She showed everyone the screen.
A sharp crimson peak.
Then...
Nothing.
Flat.
As though whatever had been there had simply...
Left.
"We keep moving."
Commander Yuna ordered.
"But nobody separates."
The team advanced cautiously.
Weapons raised.
Flashlights swept across broken train tracks.
Old advertisements peeled from damp walls.
Everything looked abandoned.
Until...
Sera stopped walking.
"...Commander."
Everyone turned.
She pointed toward the wall.
Small handprints.
Made of muddy water.
Dozens of them.
They began near the tunnel entrance...
And disappeared deeper underground.
Dana knelt beside one.
"...Children?"
Dr. Yeon slowly shook her head.
"No."
She scanned the prints.
"...Too small."
"...They’re not physically here."
Silence.
"...Residual resonance."
The team continued deeper.
Five minutes later...
The tunnel widened.
An old maintenance platform emerged from the darkness.
Rusted equipment lay scattered across the floor.
Broken electrical cabinets.
Collapsed rail carts.
Everything untouched for years.
Then...
Dillan noticed something.
"...Hold on."
He walked toward one corner of the platform.
Hidden beneath dust...
Was an old wooden bench.
His chest tightened.
"I know this place..."
Commander Yuna immediately stepped beside him.
"You’ve been here?"
"...No."
He frowned.
"I don’t think so."
His hand slowly brushed across the bench.
The moment his fingers touched the old wood...
The world blurred.
Summer.
The same station.
Bright sunlight poured through windows that no longer existed.
People bustled across the platform.
Children laughed.
A little girl sat on the wooden bench.
Swinging her legs.
"...You’re late!"
A young Dillan ran toward her carrying two ice creams.
"I had to wait in line!"
"You almost missed the train!"
"I didn’t!"
She pouted dramatically.
"...You almost did."
He handed her one of the ice creams.
"...See?"
"I came back."
She smiled brightly.
"...You always do."
The memory fractured.
"Dillan!"
Commander Yuna caught him before he collapsed.
His vision returned.
The abandoned station surrounded him once again.
Dana grabbed his shoulder.
"...What happened?"
He stared at the bench.
"...I’ve been here."
Dr. Yeon immediately looked toward him.
"...What did you see?"
"A memory."
He took a slow breath.
"...Me..."
"...And Sasha."
Silence spread through the team.
Far away...
Sasha suddenly stopped walking through a quiet shopping district.
Her heart skipped.
She closed her eyes.
"...The station..."
A bittersweet smile slowly appeared.
"...You remembered the station."
She gently touched the pendant hanging beneath her collar.
"...You remembered our favorite place."
Back underground...
The investigation continued.
Mira quietly photographed everything.
Every wall.
Every object.
Every strange mark.
Click.
Click.
Click.
She paused.
"...Commander."
"What?"
She lowered the camera slightly.
"...There’s another platform."
Everyone looked where she was pointing.
According to the station map...
There shouldn’t have been one.
Yet beyond the collapsed tunnel...
A second platform stretched into darkness.
Pristine.
Clean.
Untouched by time.
Its lights glowed softly.
As though trains still arrived every day.
Commander Yuna slowly raised her weapon.
"...Nobody said this station had two platforms."
Dr. Yeon checked the map again.
"...It doesn’t."
Dana swallowed.
"...Then what are we looking at?"
No one answered.
Lyra stepped forward.
Her silver eyes narrowed.
"...That’s not a platform."
Commander Yuna looked toward her.
"What is it?"
Lyra quietly whispered,
"...It’s a memory."
The air suddenly grew colder.
A train horn echoed somewhere deep within the darkness.
Long.
Lonely.
Impossible.
The rails beneath their feet began vibrating.
Not from an approaching train.
From something...
Remembering one.
The lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then...
The station speakers crackled to life.
Static filled the air.
Followed by a calm female voice.
"Now arriving... Platform Zero."
Everyone froze.
Dr. Yeon looked around.
"...There isn’t any power..."
The announcement continued.
"Passengers for Farewell Station... please prepare to board."
Dana’s grip tightened around her weapon.
"...Commander..."
Commander Yuna didn’t answer.
She was staring down the tracks.
At the far end of Platform Zero...
A train slowly emerged from the darkness.
It made no sound.
No vibration.
No wind.
It simply...
Appeared.
Its windows glowed with warm yellow light.
Inside...
Silhouettes of passengers quietly sat in their seats.
None of them moved.
None of them looked outside.
Except...
One.
A little girl.
Long dark-red hair.
White dress.
She sat beside the window.
Smiling.
Looking directly at Dillan.
Very slowly...
She raised one hand.
And tapped the glass three times.
...
Tap.
...
Tap.
...
Tap.
Dillan’s breathing stopped.
The System erupted across his vision.
[ CRITICAL WARNING !!!]
[ONEIRIC MALFORMATION: HYPER STATE ESCALATING.]
[MEMORY ENTITY HAS ESTABLISHED A PHYSICAL ANCHOR.]
[DO NOT BOARD THE TRAIN.]
The train doors slid open.
Warm light spilled onto the abandoned platform.
The little girl smiled wider.
Then...
For the first time...
She spoke words everyone could hear.
"...Come home, Dillan."
The entire station fell deathly silent.
"...Come home, Dillan."
The voice echoed through the abandoned station.
Soft.
Warm.
Gentle.
Like someone welcoming family home after years apart.
No anger.
No hatred.
No malice.
That...
Was what terrified everyone.
The train stood silently at Platform Zero.
Its doors remained open.
Golden light spilled onto the cracked concrete.
It looked...
Safe.
Comfortable.
Inviting.
The complete opposite of everything surrounding it.
Dillan took a step forward.
His body moved before his mind did.
"Dillan!"
Dana grabbed his arm.
He barely noticed.
His eyes remained fixed on the girl inside the train.
"...She’s waiting..."
He whispered.
Commander Yuna immediately stepped in front of him.
"No."
"...Move."
"Dillan."
"I said..."
His voice sounded distant.
"...Move."
The System exploded across his vision.
[CRITICAL WARNING !!!]
[HOST DECISION-MAKING IMPAIRED.]
[ONEIRIC MALFORMATION INFLUENCE DETECTED.]
[DO NOT BOARD.]
His breathing became uneven.
The words blurred.
The notifications flickered.
Then...
Something impossible happened.
The little girl looked directly at the floating System windows.
Her peaceful smile never faded.
"...You’re loud."
She gently lifted one finger.
Every notification froze.
Cracks spread across the blue windows.
One after another.
They shattered into thousands of glowing fragments.
Silence.
The System...
Had disappeared again.
"Damn it."
Commander Yuna drew her weapon.
"Everyone defensive positions!"
Hunters immediately formed a circle around Dillan.
Sera’s healing aura expanded.
Dana drew both blades.
Mira raised her rifle.
Lyra...
Never moved.
She continued watching the train.
"...It’s stronger."
She whispered.
Commander Yuna glanced toward her.
"What is?"
"...Her."
The train conductor stepped onto the platform.
Nobody had seen him appear.
He wore an old navy-blue uniform.
White gloves.
A conductor’s cap pulled low over his eyes.
His face...
Didn’t exist.
Only smooth pale skin beneath the hat.
He bowed politely.
"...Final boarding."
His voice echoed strangely.
Like several people speaking at once.
"The train leaves soon."
Nobody answered.
He slowly turned toward Dillan.
"...Passenger..."
"...We’ve been waiting."
Dr. Yeon’s scanner shrieked.
BEEP!
BEEP!
BEEP!
She looked down.
"...Impossible..."
Commander Yuna didn’t take her eyes off the conductor.
"What?"
"...He’s not alive."
"...Not dead either."
The readings refused to stabilize.
The scanner displayed only one message.
UNKNOWN EXISTENCE
The faceless conductor smiled.
Or rather...
The skin where a mouth should have been stretched slightly.
"...Please..."
He gestured toward the open doors.
"...She waited long enough."
Something inside Dillan broke.
Another memory burst forward.
Rain.
A crowded station.
A crying little girl.
A departing train.
Tiny hands reaching toward each other.
"Dillan!"
"Don’t go!"
"I’ll come back!"
"I promise!"
The train doors closed.
The little girl pressed both hands against the glass.
Crying.
Smiling.
Believing him.
The memory ended.
Dillan’s knees almost gave out.
"...Sasha..."
He whispered.
"...I really left..."
Across the city...
Sasha stopped walking.
Without warning...
Tears streamed down her face.
She looked toward the subway hidden beneath Seoul.
"...You remembered..."
She smiled through her tears.
"...The promise."
Back inside Platform Zero...
The little girl slowly stood from her seat.
She walked toward the open doorway.
Still smiling.
Still looking only at Dillan.
"...Come home."
Her voice trembled slightly.
"...You promised."
Dillan’s heart ached.
Every instinct screamed to go to her.
To finish the promise.
To end the waiting.
His foot moved.
One step.
Commander Yuna immediately blocked him.
"No."
"You don’t understand."
"No."
"She waited."
"I don’t care!"
The words echoed across the station.
Commander Yuna stared directly into his eyes.
"I don’t care how long she waited."
"I am not letting you walk into something we don’t understand."
Silence.
Dillan looked away.
"...I’m sorry."
Then...
Lyra spoke.
"...Commander."
Everyone looked toward her.
"...She’s crying."
The little girl still smiled.
Yet tears quietly rolled down both cheeks.
Not because she was angry.
Because she was lonely.
Lyra slowly stepped forward.
Commander Yuna immediately stopped her.
"Lyra."
"...Don’t."
"I have to."
The silver-haired woman gently walked toward Platform Zero.
The faceless conductor never stopped her.
Neither did the little girl.
Lyra stopped several meters away.
"...Who are you?"
The little girl blinked.
"...I’m waiting."
"...That’s not your name."
Silence.
"...Who are you?"
The little girl’s smile slowly faded.
Her glowing crimson eyes lowered toward the ground.
Very quietly...
She answered.
"...I don’t remember anymore."
Everyone froze.
Lyra’s expression changed.
"...What?"
"...I’ve been waiting..."
The little girl’s voice trembled.
"...For so long..."
"...That I forgot..."
"...Everything..."
"...Except him."
The station fell completely silent.
Even the faceless conductor lowered his head.
Lyra finally understood.
This wasn’t Sasha.
This wasn’t even truly the little girl from the memories.
This was...
A fragment.
A memory that had waited so long...
It had forgotten the person it belonged to.
The System suddenly forced itself back into existence.
Not before Dillan.
Before Lyra.
[NOTICE.]
[MEMORY ECHO IDENTIFIED.]
[NOT THE ORIGINAL.]
[DO NOT MISTAKE THE ECHO FOR THE OWNER.]
Lyra’s pupils widened.
"...A Memory Echo..."
She whispered.
Behind her...
Dillan stared at the little girl.
Then at the empty train.
Then at the endless darkness beyond Platform Zero.
A terrifying realization slowly settled over him.
If this...
Was only a memory...
Then where...
Was the real Sasha?