The disaster continued, or so Serena thought, as she struggled to calm herself after the terrifying scene she had just witnessed. Seconds passed, but her fear did not fade. She couldn't hide it, even if she wanted to. What she had seen could not have been her parents.
She was certain of one thing: if she made a sound, any sound at all, she would end up like them.
Holding her breath, she hurried back to her room, sobbing, tears streaming down her face. Her eyes landed on a photograph resting nearby. It showed a happy, small family, her mother, her father, and herself. The sight made her cry even harder.
Then a thought struck her.
Where was Atlas?
He was in the picture. He had always been with them. So why wasn't he here now? What had happened to him?
Beside the smiling family stood another figure, a man with no face. Thankfully, his face had been erased in the photograph, but his body was still visible. His arms and legs stretched unnaturally, dissolving into something like tentacles.
Fear clenched her chest.
Is Atlas dead too?
What happened to him?
She reached out and touched the photograph, an instinctive gesture of affection, for her parents, and for Atlas, the family friend who had been with them for as long as she could remember.
Her fingers sank into the frame.
It was soft.
The frame was supposed to be wood, but it felt tender, almost like flesh. That made no sense.
Shock gave way to confusion. Confusion turned into doubt.
This is not my home.
And then came hope.
Maybe her real parents were still alive. Maybe this place wasn't real at all. Maybe it was an illusion. Maybe she was still trapped in that abandoned city.
She moved through the room, touching walls, furniture, anything, trying to make sense of it. When her hand pressed against the wall, it passed straight through.
She stumbled forward.
On the other side was a vast room, endless, bluish, stretching infinitely in all directions. There was nothing inside it. No walls. No ceiling. Just space.
She decided to explore briefly before returning. Carefully, she dropped small objects from her pockets onto the floor, marking her path so she wouldn't forget where she came from. She didn't dare go far. Getting lost here felt like a death sentence.
As she walked, something appeared in the center of the room.
A mirror.
She approached it slowly and saw her reflection.
Then the reflection stepped out of the mirror.
It was her.
That version of Serena casually greeted her and continued walking as if nothing was strange.
Only then did Serena realize, she wasn't alone.
There were many versions of her here.
Adult Serena. Teenage Serena. Child Serena.
They all walked carefully, quietly, as if following an unspoken rule.
As she moved farther, she saw something horrifying.
Her younger self was being eaten.
A strange creature clung to her, devouring her slowly. And beyond that, far beyond, was a long, endless line of versions of herself, all being killed by similar creatures.
She didn't understand what those things were. She couldn't describe them, not even to herself. Her mind refused to form an image.
Only one feeling remained.
Fear.
She felt something notice her.
Watching.
She forced herself to act like the others. Like the adult versions of herself. She walked in slow circles, pretending not to see the deaths around her, hiding her terror, inching back toward where she had come from.
Then she saw another version of herself, young, wearing a dress.
She remembered loving that dress. Her mother had bought it for her.
But a doubt crept in.
Did she?
Is that really my memory?
Do i even remember owning that dress?
In that moment, she understood.
Her identity was being stripped away, piece by piece. And she had no idea how to fight it.
So, she chose the only option left.
She ran.
No one stopped her. No one reacted. No one even cared.
Everyone kept walking.
She passed through the wall and collapsed back into her room, shaking violently, drenched in sweat, crying, completely lost, with no idea what to do next.