The Ledger and the Flame

“Jess—hey. Look at me. Look at me.” It was Olivia’s voice, sharp and near.

Jessica opened her eyes and stood motionless in the chamber disoriented. The air was thick, too still, like the weight of centuries had settled onto her shoulders. The figures in the chairs hadn’t moved again. But she could still feel their eyes on her. Watching. Waiting. She exhaled slowly, forcing her mind to settle. Think. Breathe.

Leanna’s arms were bracing her from the other side. “You were swaying,” she said quietly. “Thought you were going to collapse.”

Jessica’s gaze flicked from Leanna back to the still-robed corpses. No movement. No voice. Just dust and death and silence.

She swallowed hard, pressing a hand to her temple. “I… I think I remembered something.”

Olivia crouched beside her. “Anything useful?”

Jessica shook her head slowly. “I don’t know. But it didn’t feel like mine.”

She turned her gaze to the sealed passage ahead. It wasn’t just a door to the past. It was a choice. Go deeper, and she would have to face the full truth. Leave now, and she would have to live with never knowing. There was no middle ground. The only thing left was to decide.

Leanna’s voice was careful. “Jess… what are you thinking?”

Jessica didn’t answer right away because she didn’t trust her own thoughts. Every instinct screamed at her to destroy this place. To burn it down and walk away, but she couldn’t. She knew the cycle wouldn’t end with her. It would just find someone else.

She swallowed. “I need to see what’s behind that door.”

Leanna tensed. “And then what?”

Jessica turned to her, her expression unreadable.

“Then I decide if I should leave this place standing.”

Leanna inhaled slowly, then nodded.

“Then we do it together.”

* * *

Jessica pressed her hand against the cold stone of the inner passage.

It wasn’t sealed like the last one.

This door was meant to be opened. It let out a deep, low groan as the stone slid away, revealing darkness beyond.

Jessica stepped inside first, her flashlight beam cutting through the dust-laden air. The moment she crossed the threshold, something shifted. The chamber wasn’t like the last one. There were no chairs. No figures. Just a single stone pedestal in the center. And on it, a book.

Jessica swallowed hard. The leather was cracked, ancient. But she could still see the emblem burned into the cover. The same sigil from the Vatican records.

Her breath came slow and measured. Because she already knew what she was looking at. It wasn’t just another name. It was a ledger. And inside were all the people who had carried the echoes before her.

Jessica exhaled, forcing her fingers to stay steady as she opened the cover.The pages were fragile, but intact. She ran her fingers down the first page of names.

Iacopo di San Luca.

Eleanor de Rochefort.

Matthias of the Rhine.

The names went on and on. Spanning centuries. Jessica’s pulse slowed. Her mind had already caught up to what this meant. She was looking at generations of herself. Not just a cycle. Not just a theory. This was proof. Her name was written in history before she had ever existed.

She swallowed hard, flipping further. And then, she found the last page. She stopped. Her breath caught in her throat. Because there, at the bottom of the final entry, was her name. Jessica Sanchez.

But it wasn’t the only thing. Beneath her name there was a blank space and an empty line waiting for the next name. Waiting for whoever came next. Jessica felt something cold settle in her chest. Because she understood what that meant. She wasn’t the last. If she left now… The cycle would continue.

Jessica let the book close softly, her fingers resting against the cover. Her mind was spinning. She turned to Leanna and Olivia looking for confirmation.

Her voice was steady, “We burn it.”

Leanna exhaled, nodding. “Are you sure?”

Jessica looked at the empty space on the ledger.

Then she pulled out her lighter and she set the pages on fire. The flames caught fast, licking up the brittle parchment, spreading to the edges of the book. The air filled with the scent of burning history.

Jessica watched the names blacken and curl into ash. For the first time, she felt something break inside her. Because maybe this wouldn’t stop the cycle. Maybe it would continue no matter what she did. But at the very least, she wouldn’t let them name the next one.

The fire spread fast. The dry parchment, the brittle wood beams, it all caught instantly.

Jessica turned to Leanna and Olivia. “We need to go. Now.”

They didn’t argue. They ran. The chamber shook as the fire ate through the ancient supports. Dust and stone rained from the ceiling. By the time they reached the entrance, flames were licking up the walls. Jessica took one last look at the burning chamber. At the place that had held her history, her past, her name. And then, without another word, she turned her back on it and she walked away.

* * *

They didn’t stop running until they were back at the base of the mountain. Jessica’s breath came fast and hard, her lungs burning from the cold. She turned, looking back at the cliffs above. Smoke curled into the sky.

It was done. She exhaled, forcing her heartbeat to slow.

Leanna ran a hand through her hair. “So… what now?”

Jessica didn’t answer right away.

She thought of the names now turned to ash. The cycle that is still out there, waiting. But for once, it wasn’t waiting for her. And then, her voice was quiet, “We go home.”

For the first time in her life, she didn’t feel like a ghost chasing the past. She felt like Jessica Sanchez. And that was enough. For now.