The cold hallway stretched endlessly before her, the fluorescent lights above flickering erratically as she sprinted forward. Her bare feet slapped against the smooth, sterile floor, her breath ragged, heart pounding like a war drum.
Behind her, she could hear them.
Jian calling her name.
Raven barking orders.
Diemen's quick, controlled footsteps closing the distance.
But Elara didn't stop.
She turned a corner blindly, nearly slipping as she pressed forward. Every door she passed looked identical—smooth white panels with no handles. She didn't know where she was, but every fiber of her being screamed that she needed to get out
Then, ahead of her—
A door, different from the rest.
A small, flickering keypad next to it.
Elara didn't think—she acted. She slammed her palm against the screen, hoping, praying it would open.
A red error flashed: ACCESS DENIED.
"No, no, no—" she gasped, pressing it again.
The voices behind her grew louder.
She turned around—Diemen was already there, closing in, a silver syringe glinting in his hand.
Panic surged through her veins.
Just as he lunged forward—
The keypad beeped.
The door hissed open.
A gust of cold air rushed past her as a dark room beyond was revealed, filled with nothing but shadows.
Without hesitation, she threw herself inside.
The door slammed shut behind her, cutting off the sound of approaching footsteps.
Darkness swallowed her whole.
Her breaths came in sharp, desperate gasps. The room was silent—too silent. The kind of silence that pressed against her skull, suffocating.
Then—
A voice.
Soft.
Familiar.
"…You found me."
Elara froze.
The air in the room shifted, as if something was moving just beyond her sight.
And then—
A shape.
A figure stepping forward from the void.
Her breath caught in her throat.
She knew that face.
That voice.
But it was impossible.
Because the person standing before her—
Was her.
Elara staggered back, her body pressed against the cold metal door. Her own reflection—no, not a reflection—another version of herself stood just a few steps away, illuminated by the faint red emergency lights flickering in the room.
The otherElara smiled. Not a warm, reassuring smile—no. It was empty. Cold. Wrong.
"…Who are you?" Elara whispered, her voice trembling.
The duplicate tilted her head, eyes gleaming with an unnatural light. "I should ask you the same thing."
Elara's pulse thundered in her ears. "I—"
A loud bang behind her.
Someone—no, something—was trying to force the door open.
She twisted around in terror as another metallic slam echoed through the room. The door shook violently. They had found her.
Her breath hitched. She turned back toward the other Elara, panic gripping her like a vice.
But—
The duplicate was closer.
Too close.
Elara didn't remember her moving.
Her own face stared back at her, expression unreadable. And then—
The other Elara whispered, voice barely audible:
"You don't belong here."
The lights overhead flickered wildly—
And everything collapsed into darkness.
Elara gasped as she was thrown into the darkness, but instead of falling, she felt herself land softly—almost as if the shadows themselves had caught her.
She looked up, her breath shallow, her mind screaming for answers.
The duplicate stood before her, face illuminated by a strange green glow. A glow that wasn't coming from her, but from the vast room behind her.
Elara's eyes widened in horror.
Rows upon rows of massive glass containers stretched endlessly, each one filled with a different version of her self.
Some were crying. Some were laughing. Some stood motionless, eyes blank like puppets with their strings cut. Each was labeled with a name, a designation, as if they were nothing more than an experiment.
Elara staggered forward, her throat dry.
"What… what is this?" she whispered.
The duplicate turned toward the glowing chambers, her expression eerily calm. "This is where you were made."
Elara's body went cold. "Made…?"
The duplicate finally met her eyes. "You think you were born? You think your life was yours?" She gestured to the glass chambers. "You are just one version of Elara—just one of many. Some of you lived happy lives, some of you suffered, some of you never even made it out of here."
Elara shook her head violently. "No… No, I have a family. I have a life—"
The duplicate let out a humorless chuckle. "Do you? Or were they just given to you?"
Elara took a step back, but then—
A sharp pangshot through her mind.
She gasped, clutching her head as waves of emotions flooded through her—
Happiness. Sorrow. Love. Fear. Pain. Anger.
She felt everything, all at once, from every single version of herself standing in those chambers.
Visions flashed before her eyes.
—A version of her, standing at an altar, exchanging vows with someone she didn't recognize.
—Another, trapped in a cold, metal room, her eyes empty.
—One curled up in a corner, rocking back and forth, whispering to herself in the dark.
—One smiling in a bright, sunny park, holding the hand of a child.
Her mind was splintering.
She wasn't just Elara.
She was all of them.
Tears burned in her eyes as she dropped to her knees, gasping for breath.
The duplicate knelt beside her, voice soft but laced with something unreadable.
"You feel them, don't you?"
Elara could only nod, unable to form words.
The duplicate reached out, tilting her chin up to look into her identical eyes.
"Now, tell me… if you had the chance to choose, which Elarawould you become?"
Elara clenched her fists, trying to steady her breath as the waves of emotions continued to crash over her.
She swallowed hard and looked up at her duplicate.
"What about Jian?" Her voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper. "Who is he? What is his reality in all of this?"
The duplicate's expression shifted—something flickered across her face, something almost human, almost pitying.
"Elara…" she began, but Elara's patience snapped.
"No," she interrupted. "Tell me the truth. No riddles, no cryptic answers. Just tell me."
The duplicate sighed and stood up, turning toward the endless rows of glass chambers.
"Jian… was never supposed to be a part of this," she murmured. "He was an outsider. A mistake that they couldn't control."
Elara's stomach twisted.
"Who are they ?" she asked, her voice shaking. "Who is behind all of this? Who is doing this to me ?."
The duplicate turned back to her, the eerie green glow casting shadows across her face.
"They go by many names," she said. "Scientists, researchers, visionaries. But you know two of them well…"
Elara's breath hitched.
"Raven and Damien," she whispered.
The duplicate nodded.
"They were the architects of this place. Of you Elara's head spun.
"No," she muttered. "That can't be—"
The duplicate tilted her head.
"Do you really think you were chosen for all this? That it was some cruel accident?"
Elara shook her head, stepping back, but the duplicate followed her, voice unwavering.
"You weren't chosen , Elara. You were designed."
Elara felt her pulse thunder in her ears.
And then—
A memory resurfaced, unbidden.
Jian, standing in a sterile, white room, his hands trembling. A glass vial filled with that dark purple liquid. His lips parting in a whisper—
"I'm sorry."
Elara gasped, snapping back to reality.
Jian… had known.
He had been a part of this.
Her heart clenched.
Was he helping them? Or had he been trying to save her?
Elara turned to her duplicate, desperation filling her voice.
"Where is he now?"
The duplicate smiled—but it wasn't comforting.
"Oh, Elara," she said softly. "He's right where they want him to be."
Before Elara could speak, the ground beneath her trembled.
The chambers flickered—some of them glitching, their figures of her distorting and twisting.
The duplicate took a step back, her expression suddenly unreadable.
"It's starting," she whispered.
Elara's blood ran cold.
"What's starting?" she asked, her voice barely audible.
The duplicate met her eyes.
"The end of your