“This event isn’t part of your loop.”

And somehow, that was worse than forgetting.
It meant something—or someone—was writing over the simulation…
without permission.

Chapter 4: The Loop That Wasn’t Written

There were no alarms.
No flashes. No sirens.
Only silence, and the way it stretched—longer than it should have.

Kale stood in front of his apartment door, keys in hand.
The hallway light flickered.

Not a glitch. Not yet.
Just… off rhythm.
Like it had skipped a beat of reality.

He’d just gone to get groceries.
He could still feel the phantom weight of the bag in his hand—but it wasn’t there anymore.

No bag.
No receipt.
No memory of buying anything.
Only the shape of an action that no longer existed.

When he stepped inside his apartment, it greeted him wrong.

The shoes by the door were too small.
He had never owned children’s shoes—not since…

He blinked.
One was blue. The other green.

He remembered those shoes.
He remembered putting them in storage.
He remembered taking them with him when he moved—

Except he had never moved.
He had always lived here.

Hadn’t he?

He reached for the wall light switch.
Flicked it.

Nothing happened.

Except—the light came on anyway.
One second later.

A delay.
A hesitation.
Like the world was checking his input before rendering the output.

Then came the smell.

Almond oil. Sun-warmed linen.

His daughter’s scent.

He turned slowly.
There, on the kitchen table, was a drawing—done in crayon.

A family: him, her, someone else. A third figure with no face.

He didn’t remember seeing this before.
He didn’t remember her drawing it.

But when he reached for it, his hand froze.
As if something in him knew:

This event isn’t part of your loop.

[UNRECOGNIZED EVENT: ARTIFACT BREACH - CLASS 2]
[WARNING: Subject has engaged with a moment that was never logged in the reality script.]
[Stability Confidence Score: Dropping. Estimated Collapse Risk: 46%]

Then his apartment door opened behind him.

He hadn’t touched it.

Marelle stepped inside.

She didn’t knock.
She didn’t flinch.

She looked at the table.

At the drawing.

And whispered:

“You found it too.”

They stared at each other.
Two people, two memories, and now one contradiction.

She added:
“I was never programmed to see this.”

He said nothing.

Because neither of them knew which was more terrifying:

That the world was glitching…

Or that something had started writing new memories—outside the simulation’s control.

[Ω-PALIMPSEST ESCALATION DETECTED]
New Loop Fragment: "Crayon Entity" – Unlogged. Origin: Unknown.
System cannot trace source. Architect thread fractured.
Recommendation: Observe. Do not interfere.

Somewhere, beyond the Seeded Layer, something watched.
And it did not know who had drawn the picture either.

---

Next Chapter:

The Seeded Self: Chapter 5