The hallway was no longer just a hallway.
It had morphed into something that shouldn't exist inside a human-made structure like a space rethinking its own shape. The walls weren't solid, but not fluid either. As if the air once remembered how to be a wall… and then forgot.
Aiden pulled Elara away from the door that had just opened on its own.
"Don't look," Aiden repeated, his voice low, tense, dangerously close to cracking.
"But that's… that's me." Elara's voice shook, her hands cold, but her eyes locked forward.
"That is NOT you." Aiden's gaze sharpened. "It's just using the closest image that can lure you."
"Elar-aa…" the figure whispered from the crack of the door.
The voice… identical.
The tone… identical.
Even the way it dragged the vowels identical.
Elara covered her ears, but the sound still seeped in.
As if ears weren't the medium it needed.
Aiden moved fast—slamming the door shut with his shoulder, pressing his full weight against it.
TAP.
TAP.
TAP.
Three knocks from inside, mocking.
The door stopped trembling. The hallway fell silent.
But the silence was wrong
a silence that felt like someone was holding their breath to listen to them.
Aiden slowly lifted his shoulder off the door.
Then he looked at Elara.
His posture seemed steady.
But the hand gripping her elbow… trembled.
"Aiden… are you scared?"
Aiden gave a short laugh tired, bitter, humorless.
"If I said no, that'd be a lie."
Elara swallowed hard. "So it… it's really trying to be me?"
Aiden exhaled deeply.
"You… don't fully understand what it wants."
"Elar-aa…"
The voice came again.
This time… from above the ceiling.
Elara flinched, bowing her head in fear.
"Aiden please! It's everywhere!"
Aiden grabbed her face gently and forced her to meet his blue eyes.
"Elara. Listen. I need you to stay sane."
His voice was low, firm, unquestionable.
"You asked earlier: why does it want to be you?"
Elara nodded quickly.
Aiden looked down… like the answer was heavy just to hold.
"Because it… is the residue of every failed loop."
Elara froze.
"…what?"
Aiden continued, his voice cracking just a bit.
"Every time you die in previous loops… the leftover parts of you unfinished, unresolved, unsynced pile up."
Elara shook her head quickly.
"No… that doesn't make sense. I just got here"
"For you yes."
Aiden's eyes held so many unsaid words.
"But for the loop, for the system… you've died many times."
The hallway seemed to shrink.
As if the walls themselves were listening.
Elara covered her mouth. "I… died?"
Aiden didn't answer.
His eyes answered for him.
Elara stepped back twice.
"Why didn't you tell me from the start?!"
"Because you weren't ready."
"I HAD THE RIGHT TO KNOW!"
Aiden stepped closer, but Elara pushed his hand away.
"Don't touch me. I… I need…"
Her hands shook violently.
"…I need to think."
Aiden stopped.
Not angry.
Not offended.
He lowered his head instead.
"I'm sorry."
That single word one Aiden rarely said hit the floor like a falling stone.
Elara let out a tiny sob.
"So… that thing… what is it? A failed version of me? A dead version of me?"
"No."
Aiden's gaze hardened.
"Failed Elara stays dead. It's not that."
"Then… what is it?"
Aiden swallowed hard.
"It is the loop.
Or more precisely… the loop's desire."
"Elar-aa… I'm right here…"
The voice again softer, more convincing.
As if trying to become a "better" version of Elara than she was.
Aiden reached a hand toward her slowly, carefully, like approaching a wild deer ready to bolt.
"Elara. Listen to me."
His breath trembled.
"Before you came… this loop always ended the same way."
"And how is that?"
Aiden closed his eyes for a moment.
"You die."
The hallway felt like it swallowed the air around them.
Elara clutched the cold wall, her body weak.
"But I just entered the loop two days ago…"
Her voice barely audible.
"How could I die… before I got here?"
Aiden looked at her with deeply human sorrow.
"Elara… remember what I said? The system doesn't always move linearly."
Elara nodded shakily.
"The loop doesn't wait for you to arrive.
The loop continues without you.
Then… when you enter
you're synced to the position that's most… appropriate."
Elara stared at him in rising horror.
"Appropriate… how?"
Aiden:
"Appropriate to die."
Elara covered her mouth, holding back sobs.
"Why me?!"
Aiden clenched his fists.
This time he was angry at the loop, at himself, at something invisible.
"Because you're the variable that shifts the probabilities the most."
He stepped closer, knees nearly touching the floor as he cupped her face again.
"Elara… listen carefully."
His voice trembled.
"There's a reason you're the only one who made the loop react—"
"Re… react?" Elara repeated, confused.
"Yes."
Aiden looked toward the door being swallowed by darkness.
"That thing behind the door… it never had a shape before you arrived."
Elara's skin crawled.
"That means…"
She stepped back.
"…it appeared because of me?"
"No."
Aiden shook his head slowly.
"It appeared because the loop wants you to return to your original pattern."
"To die?" Elara whispered.
Aiden stared at her for a long time.
A very long time.
As if recalculating every possibility.
Slowly, he answered:
"…yes."
Elara let out a tiny sob not loud, not dramatic.
The kind someone makes when they realize the world put their name on the wrong list.
Aiden clearly wanted to hold her.
But he restrained himself.
"Elara…"
His voice cracked.
"I'm sorry."
"Did you lie from the beginning?"
Aiden shook his head quickly.
"I didn't lie. I just… chose which parts you weren't ready to hear."
"Why?!"
Aiden paused.
Then he spoke very softly:
"Because if you knew from the start… you wouldn't have survived until today."
The voice imitating Elara spoke again from behind the door.
"You're afraid to tell the truth, Aiden…
because you know the truth will push her away from you…"
Aiden stiffened.
"That's not you, Elara."
Elara looked at him, eyes wet.
"But it's… not entirely wrong."
In that moment Aiden looked more broken than ever.
"Elara."
He stepped forward.
"I protect you not because the loop demands it.
But because I choose to."
Elara wanted to believe him.
But she was scared.
"Why me?"
Her breath hitched.
"Am I… important to you?"
Aiden looked at her honest, flawed, warm, and fragile all at once.
"Elara… you are"
BANG.
The door slammed from within.
Aiden spun, shielding Elara.
The voice giggled softly.
"What were you going to say, Aiden?
Tell her she's the reason you survived the hundreds of loops before?"
Aiden froze.
Elara stared at him, horrified.
"…Aiden?"
Aiden didn't speak.
Elara grabbed his arm.
"Aiden. Answer me."
Aiden finally turned his blue eyes shaking.
"Elara… you were not supposed to know this…"
"Know what?"
The hallway shuddered.
The door cracked.
The voice whispered from everywhere:
"Elar-aaa…
Aiden didn't save you.
He saved himself through you…"
Aiden looked ready to tear the voice apart with his bare hands.
"Elara,"
His voice was raw, painfully honest.
"Don't believe it."
"Then who should I believe?"
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
"You didn't tell me everything either…"
Aiden opened his mouth.
But before he could say a single word
a pale white hand slid out of the crack in the door.
Reaching.
Searching.
And the voice called out clearly:
"Elara…
you were me once, in a previous loop…"