That is how you survive.

“Leo,” he says. Then: “Where is this?”

The floor opens. He falls. He wakes on a different metal floor. Warmer. Above him, a sky with two moons and a sun the color of rust. The air smells of rain and salt. Someone is shaking his shoulder.

He squints. Reads: Step 1: Remember who you were. Step 2: Give away what you love most but keep the memory of it. Step 3: Find the others who also kept their half. He reaches into his pocket. The torn photograph of Elena is still there. Her smile, severed but whole in his mind.

He takes out his wallet. There’s a photo of Elena. He kisses it. Then he tears the photo in half. Not because he stops loving her. Because the sacrifice can’t be something he hates. That’s not honest. The honest sacrifice is the thing he wants to keep most.

Leo laughs. A small, broken sound. He looks at his scarred palm. He remembers the heat of a burning house, the way smoke curls under a door, the weight of an axe. That memory has weight. Lies are light.

Leo’s stride falters. Then he remembers: lie number one. Elena is alive. She has to be. The last thing he saw before the white light and the metal floor was her face, saying come back . He files the lie away. He keeps walking.

The child tugs his sleeve. “Are you gonna leave too?”

The third lie comes soft, almost gentle.