recovered document 001: rules for surviving a broken story
Recovery Location: Archive Vault Seven
Original Author: Unknown
Condition: Damaged
Notes: Portions have been restored. Several lines remain unreadable.
If this document has reached you, then the collapse has already begun.
The Archives will tell you to remain calm.
Do not.
Instead, remember these rules.
They may be the only reason your story survives.
Rule One
If a stranger greets you by name before you introduce yourself...
Leave immediately.
Someone else's story has begun overlapping with yours.
Rule Two
Never follow a road that did not exist yesterday.
Stories create paths.
Broken stories create traps.
Rule Three
If a mirror shows a version of yourself that smiles before you do...
Do not look again.
It has already seen too much.
Rule Four
Do not trust anyone who claims they know how your story ends.
Not even if you love them.
Especially if you love them.
Rule Five
When the ravens begin flying toward Wonderland...
Do not follow them.
They are never searching for the living.
Rule Six
If a child tells you they remember a story that has never been written...
Listen carefully.
Children hear the Loom before adults do.
Rule Seven
Should you ever find a thread lying across your path...
Step over it.
Never touch it.
No one chooses which story they become part of after touching a loose thread.
Rule Eight
If someone tells you they have been forgotten...
Believe them.
Memory is becoming unreliable.
The forgotten are often the only ones telling the truth.
Rule Nine
Should the Story Loom fall silent...
Run.
No witness has ever described what happens next.
Final Rule
If you find this document again...
Burn it.
Because it means the stories have begun repeating themselves.
And by then...
It may already be too late.
---
Archive Note
This document has been officially declared a fabrication.
Possession is discouraged.
Reading it is discouraged.
Believing it is strongly discouraged.
The Archives deny any connection to its contents.
...
Privately...
Several Archivists now carry copies.
Just in case.
-- End of Recovered Document 001
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