Aarav's back pressed against the locked door. His chest heaved, each breath sounding too loud in the silence. In front of him, the other Aarav stood perfectly still.
They stared at each other. Same face. Same body. Yet completely different.
This Aarav's eyes were pits of black, endless and hollow, reflecting nothing. Veins crawled up his neck like snakes under the skin, pulsing as if alive. His smile stretched unnaturally wide, showing teeth that looked too sharp.
For the first time, Aarav realized… the whispers weren't just around him. They were coming from this thing.
The other Aarav tilted his head. "You opened the door," he said, the words layered with hundreds of voices. "Now you can't close it."
Aarav forced his mouth to move. "Who are you?"
The other Aarav chuckled. "I am you. The part you try to hide. The one you fear. The one you'll become."
Aarav's stomach twisted. He wanted to run, but the door was gone. There was no escape. The walls around them shifted, veins pulsing harder, faces pressing out of the surface as if they wanted to break free.
"You don't belong here," Aarav whispered.
"No," the other Aarav replied, stepping closer. "You don't belong here. This place is mine. The Abyss only shows what already exists inside you. And inside you…" His smile grew sharper. "…is me."
The air grew colder. Aarav's breath fogged in front of him, and every exhale felt like it was being stolen from his lungs.
He tried to back away, but the walls curved inward. The hallway was shrinking, closing in, like the Abyss itself wanted to trap him. His heart pounded in his chest, so loud it hurt.
The other Aarav leaned closer, their faces inches apart. Aarav could see himself—but not himself. His reflection moved a moment too late, like a broken mirror.
"You will fall, Aarav," the dark reflection whispered. "You will give in. And when you do, I will be the only one left."
Suddenly, the ground beneath Aarav cracked. A thin line split open, and from it came black smoke, rising like claws. The floor wasn't stone anymore—it was shifting, alive, breathing.
He stumbled back, but the reflection didn't move. It simply watched him struggle, the smile never fading.
The whispers grew louder, echoing in Aarav's skull, drowning his thoughts.
"He is you."
"You are him."
"There is no difference."
Aarav screamed, covering his ears, but it didn't stop. The other Aarav's voice cut through the noise like a blade:
"This is only the beginning."
And with that, the reflection reached forward, its hand stretching unnaturally long, fingers sharp like claws. Aarav's own hand burned as if marked by fire—because he realized with horror…
It was his hand too.
>>The chapter ends with Aarav trapped, the reflection's hand almost touching his face, the Abyss swallowing every sound.