The Way Caraval Used To Be

Who is Orion?

Then the lights went out, and the chair disappeared.

What did he do wrong? He grabbed the pocket watch and threw it across the room. The noise of the shattering glass echoed into the empty room.

His legs went numb. He tried to hold onto a wall, but he collapsed. A tear fell down his face.

And he got a flashback of a boy crying over a broken teddy bear. He looked exactly like Orion, except for his taned skin. In the flashback, Aric bent just to whisper to him:

"Be careful, Rhian. Boys don't cry."
Aric didn't know when this was. He didn't recall doing it. Actually, he didn't recall doing anything that happened this year. Or the years before it. But fuck it. Boys may cry.

He got up while holding onto a handle. Wait... a handle? A door! The room had a door!

The light blinded him for a second. He was in a field of flowers. Pink, yellow, and blue. Small flowers. He felt bad for stepping on them to get to the boy.
Orion was crying with his head buried between his long legs.

"Orion?" Aric asked full of hope.

"Leave me alone."

Aric went closer and hugged him.

"Why did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Ask me the question when you weren't safe."

"What question?"

"If you remembered me, you were supposed to ask for Orion Hengher, and I was supposed to say, 'Oh, I'm Orion Hengher, you're looking for me.'"

"But... who's Orion?"

"Don't you get it? There's no Orion Hengher! We are Orion Hengher. Someone who remembers is Orion Hengher.
'I'm looking for someone who remembers.'
'Oh, I remember, you're looking for me.'
It meant that we remembered each other, even after he tried erasing our memories."

"Who?"

"Legend! We're not even alive. He just needed performers for his game. Me, Yara, Rafal, Rhian, we all remember all of it, except you."