** **
The doorknob stopped turning.
No one entered.
For a few seconds, the room was silent.
Then the knocking started again.
This time, it was moving away.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
The boy let out a slow breath.
“They're gone.”
Ethan looked at the passenger.
“Who are they?”
“They don't matter.”
“They do to me.”
The passenger stayed quiet.
Ethan was tired of getting half the truth.
He stepped in front of the man.
“No more riddles.”
“You brought me here.”
“You showed me my past.”
“You said I've done this before.”
He took a deep breath.
“So tell me everything.”
The passenger looked at him for a long moment.
Then he nodded.
“Eighteen years ago, your parents were driving home after visiting this hospital.”
“They were in a hurry.”
“You suddenly stopped breathing.”
Ethan felt his chest tighten.
“The car crashed.”
“The doctors managed to save your parents.”
He paused.
“But you were declared dead.”
Ethan looked at the floor.
The room felt smaller.
“They worked on you for two minutes.”
“At exactly 2:13 A. M., your heart started beating again.”
“The doctors called it a miracle.”
“But it wasn't.”
Ethan slowly raised his head.
“What happened?”
The passenger answered quietly.
“Something crossed over with you.”
The little boy lowered his eyes.
“It found an open door.”
Silence filled the room.
Ethan remembered the old security guard's words.
Something else came back with him.
“So… This is all because of me?”
“No.”
The passenger shook his head.
“You didn't create it.”
“You only became its way in.”
Ethan's mind raced.
“Then why are people disappearing?”
“Because it needs someone to take its place.”
The words hit Ethan harder than anything he had heard all night.
He looked at the toy taxi lying on the floor.
“Daniel…”
The passenger nodded.
“He refused.”
“And the others?”
“They refused too.”
A cold feeling spread through Ethan.
“And me?”
The passenger met his eyes.
“You keep making the same choice.”
“What choice?”
“You refuse to leave someone else behind.”
Ethan frowned.
“I don't understand.”
The passenger walked to the dusty window.
“In every ride…”
“… You learn the truth.”
“… And when the time comes…”
“… You stay.”
“So everyone else can go home.”
Ethan felt as if the ground had disappeared beneath him.
“That's impossible.”
“You don't remember because each time, you ask for your memories to be erased.”
“So the next Ethan still has hope.”
The little boy walked over to Ethan.
“You always tell me you'll come back.”
A tear rolled down the child's face.
“But you never do.”
Ethan couldn't speak.
Every answer brought another question.
Then he remembered the note.
“Don't let him finish the ride.”
He looked at the passenger.
“If you've been telling me the truth…”
“… Who wrote the note?”
The passenger didn't answer.
The boy did.
“You.”
Ethan looked at him.
“The Ethan who finally remembered everything.”
“He knew the truth.”
“He just didn't know who to trust anymore.”
At that moment, the hospital lights came back on.
The room looked different.
The dust was gone.
The bed looked new.
Voices echoed through the hallway.
Doctors.
Nurses.
Patients.
It was the hospital from eighteen years ago.
Everything around Ethan had changed.
Through the glass window in the room's door, he saw doctors rushing down the corridor with a small hospital bed.
On it…… Was a baby.
His mother was crying.
His father was running beside the doctors.
Ethan recognized them instantly.
They disappeared into the room across the hall.
Room 214.
The passenger looked toward the corridor.
“It's happening.”
“What is?”
“The moment that changed everything.”
Ethan looked at the crying parents.
Then at the little boy beside him.
Finally, he looked back at the passenger.
“For the first time all night…”
“… I know one thing.”
“What?”
Ethan took a step toward the door.
“I'm done running.”
He grabbed the handle.
“If this started here…”
“… Then it ends here.”
The passenger didn't stop him.
He simply said,
“Be careful.”
“One choice remains.”
Ethan opened the door and stepped into the corridor.
Across the hall, the door to Room 214 slowly opened by itself.
Inside, something was waiting.