Chapter Three: Beyond the Bleed

“What is my signature color?” Zero gave him a strange look. “You don’t have one.” A screen spanning the sky blazed awake. It showed the real world: Bai Mi at Gu Yan’s mother’s dining table. His mother placed a split dumpling in her bowl. “You always loved these when you were little, Mi.” Gu Yan ran at the screen and struck an invisible barrier. Bai Mi was replacing more than his name. She was entering his childhood. On-screen, she looked up as though she had heard him. A patch of skin matching Gu Yan’s color appeared behind her neck, then silver covered it. “With every memory she takes, she grows a piece of you,” Zero said softly. “When she becomes you completely, reality will have no place left for Gu Yan.”