# Chapter 11: Collapse
Sara looked away, her eyes fixing on some distant point on the empty street.
"I just need to go home," she said, her voice low, barely a whisper weighted with exhaustion.
It wasn't a direct rejection. It wasn't acceptance. It was just... escape. A door closing softly, but definitively.
Eren felt something heavy sink through his chest, like a stone dropping into dark water. He swallowed hard, the knot in his throat making it difficult to breathe for a moment. He nodded, not trusting his own voice not to betray the depth of the disappointment he felt.
"Of course. I'll walk you."
The walk to her house was wrapped in a silence unlike any of the other nights. Not the comfortable silence of friends who don't need to fill every moment with words. It was the heavy, uncomfortable silence of things unsaid, of confessions that hung in the air between them like invisible but palpable ghosts.
Sara kept her eyes fixed on the ground, arms crossed over her chest as though shielding herself — not from the night's cold, but from something far deeper. Eren walked beside her, hands shoved in his pockets to hide the involuntary trembling, each footstep echoing too loudly in the absolute stillness of the empty street.
The streetlamps cast yellow halos on the pavement. Occasionally, the wind blew, sending dry leaves dancing along the footpath with a whisper that sounded almost like distant voices.
When they finally reached her front door, Sara turned briefly. Her eyes met his for just one second — a second that seemed to stretch into an uncomfortable eternity — before she looked away again.
"Thank you," she murmured quickly, her voice barely audible.
Then she went inside and closed the door.
The sound of the latch clicking shut echoed in the silent night like a final verdict.
Eren stood there, completely still, staring at the dark wooden door as though he could pass through it by sheer force of will. The porch light went out. The house sank into darkness.
Finally, after a time that could have been minutes or hours, he turned.
And walked back to his apartment, alone again, with only his own shadow for company.
---
## The Following Nights
Eren couldn't sleep.
Lying in bed, he stared at the dark ceiling marked by cracks that seemed to form patterns — maps of unknown territories, veins of some giant and sleeping organism. Each time he tried to close his eyes, he saw Sara.
Her face. Always her face.
The way she had looked away when he finally said what he felt. The way she had fled without giving a real answer, leaving him suspended in a limbo of uncertainty that was worse than any direct rejection.
He tossed and turned, the sheets tangling around his legs like tentacles. He thought about her. Always her.
Sara smiling — that rare, genuine smile that lit up her entire face. Sara crying — tears falling silently as she held her wine glass as though it were the only solid thing in a world that was crumbling. Sara saying Yunar's name with that broken voice, filled with a love that Eren knew would never be directed at him.
*Yunar.*
Always Yunar.
Eren pressed his fists against the sheets until his fingers ached, feeling something hot and bitter rise in his throat — a toxic mix of frustration, jealousy, and a sadness so deep it seemed to have no bottom.
*Why Yunar? Why always him?*
What did Yunar have that Eren didn't? Why did the universe constantly conspire in favour of one person while leaving another on the sidelines, watching everything he wanted slip through his fingers like sand?
The questions spun in his mind like an infinite carousel, without answers, only feeding the pain.
---
## Days Later
Eren decided he needed a distraction before he went completely out of his mind. He picked up the grimoire — its old pages still exhaling that strange smell of aged paper and something more indefinable — and the fragments carefully wrapped in a dark cloth. He left the apartment and headed to Yunar's.
Perhaps studying the fragments together would help them better understand what they had really found on that mountain. Perhaps it was just an excuse not to be alone with his own destructive thoughts.
When he arrived and knocked on the door, the sound echoed from the other side, but nobody answered.
Eren frowned, knocking again, harder. Nothing. Just silence.
He picked up his phone and typed a quick message.
*Eren: "Where are you? I'm at your door."*
Sent. Waited.
No reply.
He sighed deeply and decided to wait. He sat down in the hallway outside the apartment, pressing his back against the cold, slightly damp wall, the heavy grimoire resting on his lap like an anchor.
The minutes crawled by with an almost cruel slowness. Eren closed his eyes, resting his head against the wall, letting his thoughts drift.
---
## Meanwhile
Yunar was standing outside Sara's front door.
His hands were trembling slightly, an uncomfortable feeling of nervousness and anticipation churning in his stomach. He breathed in deeply, trying to calm his racing heartbeat. Once. Twice. Three times.
Then he raised his fist and knocked.
The sound echoed from the other side of the door, followed by a few seconds of absolute silence before footsteps approached. The door opened slowly, revealing Sara in the doorway.
When her eyes met Yunar's, she swallowed hard, visibly surprised. She straightened immediately, as though trying to compose herself, to protect herself from the emotional impact his presence caused.
But then everything broke.
Her composure collapsed like a house of cards in the wind. Sara ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck in a desperate, tight embrace, as though needing to make sure he was real.
"You... you came back!" Her voice came out muffled against his shoulder, filled with a mixture of disbelief and relief.
Yunar felt the tears begin to fall — warm, involuntary, soaking his face in seconds. His arms closed around her, holding her with the same urgency.
"I missed you so much," Sara continued, her voice trembling violently.
"I did too," Yunar managed to say, his voice rough and broken with emotion.
They stayed like that for a long moment that seemed suspended in time, just holding each other as though the world around them had completely disappeared, leaving only the two of them existing in that embrace.
Finally, Sara pulled back just enough to look into his eyes. Her own eyes were red, swollen from crying, but there was something else there now — a spark of hope that hadn't existed before.
"I need to tell you something," she said, her voice still trembling but steady.
Yunar wiped the tears from his own face with the back of his hand, leaving damp streaks on his skin.
"What is it?"
Sara took a deep breath, steadying herself. She held his hands tightly, as though she needed that physical connection to find the courage to say the words.
"But promise me... promise me you'll never disappear again and leave me this alone." Her eyes pleaded, vulnerable and exposed.
"I promise," Yunar said without hesitating for even a second, squeezing her hands back firmly. "I will never leave you. No matter what happens."
Sara wiped her own tears with a trembling hand, smiling through them — a wet but genuine smile. Then, slowly, carefully, she brought one of Yunar's hands to her stomach.
"It's just... we're going to be parents. We're having a daughter."
The world stopped.
Yunar blinked, the words taking a few seconds to be fully processed by his brain. And then, when they finally landed, the tears came back in full force — not from sadness or fear, but from pure, uncontrollable happiness.
---
## Back at the Apartment
Eren was still sitting in the hallway when he heard footsteps approaching.
He got up quickly, shaking the numbness from his legs, slipping his phone into his pocket. Yunar appeared around the corner of the hallway, walking toward the apartment with light steps.
When their eyes met, Eren noticed immediately that something was different. Yunar was... radiant. Smiling broadly. Fresh tears still on his face, but tears of unmistakable joy.
"Where were you?" Eren asked, trying — and failing — to keep his voice completely neutral. "I waited so long."
Yunar stopped in front of him, still wearing that infuriatingly happy smile that made something twist inside Eren's chest.
"I did exactly what you asked me to."
Eren felt something cold travel down his spine, like cold fingers crawling across his skin.
"I went back to her," Yunar continued, opening the apartment door with animated movements. "And man, can you believe it? She's—"
At that moment, something broke inside Eren.
He slammed the grimoire against the floor with brutal force. The sound echoed through the narrow hallway like thunder, reverberating off the walls.
"What are you saying?" Eren's voice came out low, dangerous, loaded with a rage that had been building for days, weeks, perhaps months.
Yunar blinked, the smile disappearing instantly, replaced by genuine confusion.
"Why are you saying that?"
"What do you mean?" Yunar took a step back, completely lost, unable to understand the sudden shift in atmosphere.
But Eren was no longer listening. Could no longer hear anything beyond the roar of blood in his ears, the racing beat of his own heart.
He lurched forward, closing the distance between them. His hand struck Yunar's chest with enough force that the impact pushed him backward, making him stumble and nearly fall.
"You always get to make the choices!" Eren shouted, his voice breaking with raw emotion. "Why not me? Why didn't you just keep ignoring her, like you had been?"
His hands were shaking violently. His entire body trembled with the force of the accumulated rage and pain.
"Why did you have to go back to her?"
He took another aggressive step forward, invading Yunar's space, his eyes burning with unshed tears.
"You... I know. You only did this because I ended up falling for her, didn't you? You found out and decided to take this from me too!"
Yunar's eyes went wide with shock, finally beginning to grasp the magnitude of what was happening.
"You're so selfish!"
Before Yunar could formulate any response, before he could even open his mouth to defend himself, Eren bent down sharply. He snatched the grimoire from the floor and turned, marching toward the exit with heavy steps that echoed like thunder.
When he reached the door, he flung it open and left, slamming it behind him with so much force that the walls shook and the sound reverberated through the entire building.
Yunar's voice came from inside, confused, broken, carrying a pain he didn't fully understand.
"E... ren?"
But Eren was already too far gone to hear. Already running through the corridors, taking the stairs two steps at a time, the grimoire pressed against his chest as though it were the only solid thing in a world that was falling apart.
---
## At Eren's Apartment
Eren walked through the streets like a ghost, completely oblivious to the world around him. People glanced at him sideways — a young man crying openly as he walked blindly, wiping away tears that fell without stopping — but he didn't care. Couldn't care about anything beyond the pain tearing through his chest.
When he finally reached his apartment, he stumbled in, locked the door behind him, and threw the grimoire onto the table with enough force to make the surrounding objects vibrate.
He stood there for a moment, breathing heavily, hands resting on the table, head down.
Then he saw the fragments.
There, on the nightstand across the room, glowing softly with those impossible cosmic colours — lilac, violet, brown, colours that shouldn't exist together but somehow formed a hypnotic spectacle.
Eren walked toward them slowly, as though being pulled by invisible strings. Each step heavy, deliberate.
He stopped in front of them, his eyes fixed on that alien glow.
"Why..." His voice came out hoarse, broken, barely recognisable. "Why do only you get to make choices?"
His hands extended slowly, trembling, fingers reaching toward the fragments that seemed to pulse in response, as though alive, as though calling to him.
The pain in his voice was palpable, filling the empty apartment like toxic smoke.
---
## The Following Day
Eren's phone buzzed, the sound breaking the absolute silence of the apartment.
He looked at the lit screen.
*Yunar: "I don't know what you meant by all of that, but can we talk?"*
Eren stared at the message for a long moment, each word being processed slowly, heavily.
Then he locked the screen without responding and tossed the phone onto the sofa.
---
## Day 2
*Yunar: "If you want, I can come over."*
Eren read the message. Felt something twist in his chest — a mixture of anger, sadness, and something resembling remorse, but not enough to reply.
He locked the screen again.
Didn't respond.
---
## Day 3
*Yunar: "I hope you'll want to talk to me."*
Eren just stared at the screen for a few seconds before turning the phone off completely.
---
## 8 Months Later
The apartment had become a physical reflection of Eren's mental state. Clothes scattered across the floor. Empty takeaway boxes stacked in corners. Curtains closed, blocking out all sunlight, keeping everything in a perpetual half-darkness.
Eren was sitting on his bedroom floor, back against the side of the bed, phone in his hands. He had turned it back on for the first time in weeks.
A notification appeared.
*Yunar: "My daughter was just born. We're still at the hospital. We could grab a drink sometime."*
Eren read the message once.
Twice.
Three times.
*My daughter.*
The words burned.
He didn't reply.
---
## 1 Year Later
*Yunar: "Today is my daughter's birthday. Are you going to show up? She'd be happy to meet you."*
Eren stared at the message, tears rolling silently down his face without any effort to wipe them away.
He didn't reply.
---
## 5 Years Later
The apartment was even worse now. Five years of self-imposed isolation accumulated in every corner — an archaeology of depression and abandonment. Eren's beard had grown out of control. His eyes were sunken, ringed by dark circles.
The phone buzzed.
*Yunar: "Maybe you've been reading all the messages. Today was my wedding day."*
Eren was sitting in his usual spot — bedroom floor, back against the bed. His hands were trembling as he held the phone.
He read the message.
Read it again.
And again.
*My wedding day.*
And then the tears came.
Not silent tears this time, but violent sobs that shook his entire body. Tears poured from his eyes as he gripped the phone so hard his fingers turned completely white, his knuckles sharp and prominent. With his other hand, he hit the wall beside him.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Each impact leaving red marks on his skin, but he felt no pain. Or perhaps he did, but it was lost inside the far greater pain consuming his chest.
"Why do you have to be like this?" He whispered to the void, his voice hoarse from disuse. "We were supposed to be friends. So why?"
His voice broke completely.
"You're the only one who ever gets to make choices."
Slowly, as though moving through thick water, Eren got to his feet. His legs protested — he had been sitting too long. He swayed slightly before finding his balance.
He walked to the nightstand where the fragments had remained untouched for five long years, still glowing softly with that hypnotic, supernatural cosmic light.
In that moment, something inside him broke completely. Not a sudden break, but the final thread of something that had been wearing thin for years, at last snapping.
With a brutality born of five years of accumulated pain — compressed, fermented into something toxic and destructive — without hesitation, he picked up both fragments.
One in each hand.
The moment his fingers touched their surface, a wave of energy passed through his body. Not electric, not heat — something entirely different, something that had no name in any human language.
The fragments pulsed in his hands, as though they had heartbeats of their own.
Eren looked at them. Looked at the grimoire on the table. Recalled the words written on those ancient pages.
*After use, the individual will die. Permanently. Their existence will be erased from reality.*
It didn't matter anymore.
Nothing mattered anymore.
Then the sound began.
A low hum, almost inaudible at first, but growing rapidly. Deep enough to make bones vibrate, to make teeth grind involuntarily. The sound didn't come from outside — it came from inside the fragments themselves, from inside Eren, from inside the very fabric of reality around him.
In one sharp movement, charged with five years of rage, pain, jealousy, and despair, Eren collided the crystals.
The impact was silent, but what followed was apocalyptic.
The cosmic light exploded in an intense vibration that filled not just the apartment, but seemed to extend beyond, passing through walls, through the city, perhaps through much more than that. The impossible colours — lilac, violet, brown, and other shades that human eyes were never made to process — erupted in a kaleidoscope that seared the retina.
In that instant, Eren felt his entire body vibrate.
Not just on the surface. Deeply. Every cell, every atom being rewritten, reconfigured, altered at the most fundamental levels of existence.
His vision began to distort in ways that defied description.
He could see more than one reality. Layers upon layers of existence overlapping like stacked transparencies. He saw his current reality — the dirty apartment, the cracked walls. But simultaneously he saw other versions — the same apartment clean and well-kept in one reality, completely empty in another, burned to ash in a third.
And beyond that, cosmic spaces opening before him like wounds in the fabric of reality. Infinite voids filled with stars that existed in no known sky. Dimensions folded back on themselves in impossible geometries.
Eren felt something being torn from him. Not physically, but at a deeper level. His very existence being pulled, stretched, fragmented across multiple realities.
And at the centre of it all, one image: Yunar.
He had thought of Yunar at the moment of collision. He couldn't help it. And the fragments responded.
The light grew until it became blinding, unbearable.
And then everything exploded in a flash that consumed all.
---
## Meanwhile
Yunar was at home — the home he now shared with Sara and their five-year-old daughter.
He was in the bathroom, performing the mundane act of washing his hands under running water. The tap dripped slightly. The soap was nearly finished.
Suddenly, without any warning, he felt a sharp sting.
Not physical pain in the traditional sense. It was as though something had passed through his chest, his heart, his very essence, but without leaving a visible wound.
The water slowed between his fingers, becoming viscous, as though time around him was distorting.
The soap slipped from his hand, falling toward the floor in an impossible slow motion.
And in that instant, Yunar vanished.
Instantly.
Completely.
As though he had never been there.
The soap hit the floor with a dull, hollow sound. The water continued running in the sink, now with nobody to turn it off.
From outside the bathroom, Sara called:
"Love? Are you okay?"
But there was no one to answer.
And slowly, so slowly it was almost imperceptible, her memories began to rewrite themselves.
---
*END OF CHAPTER 11*