Akira stood frozen. The words echoed, bouncing off the inside of his skull.
I'm you.
"That doesn't explain anything." He muttered.
The clone spoke coolly. "Oh it does." The clone approached him. "In fact, it explains everything."
Akira stepped back instinctively.
"Everything?" he repeated.
The clone nodded.
"There's nothing in this place you haven't already seen," it said. "Just pieces of yourself you weren't ready to face."
Akira's eyes narrowed. "You're saying all of this... the rooms, the memories, that thing—it's all me?"
"Yes," the clone said. "The heart was your pain. This—" it gestured to the brain pulsing behind them, "is your denial."
Akira shook his head slowly. "No... No, I buried all of that. I survived it."
"You repressed it," the clone corrected. "Survival is remembering and continuing. You forgot. You folded it neatly, like bedsheets after a funeral, and stuffed it somewhere dark."
The doppelganger slapped Akira across the face. "Tonight. You will be reborn."
Akira rubbed his face where a red mark lingered. "Reborn?"
The clone made an opening gesture with hands. His hands parting like a gate.
Behind him, the walls began to peel open—not like doors, but like flesh, revealing a corridor of shifting light and nerve-like tendrils pulsing with electric blue.
Akira's breath caught.
"What is that?" he asked, voice low.
"A passage." The clone responded. "The entrance to Room Three."
"Room Three?" Akira asked confused. "What is after the brain."
The clone let the question hang in the air for a second or two.
"The brain only protects what's deeper. It sees what it wants to see, hears what it chooses to hear." The clone paused for a moment. "It edits. Filters. Lies for you."
Akira followed the clone through the passage. On one side a scorching heat threatening to burn them. On the other a freezing cold that made even the air stop moving.
Akira flinched. The heat seared his skin; the cold made the marrow in his bones shiver.
he clone ahead didn't seem fazed at all.
The hallway seemed endless. The contrasting temperatures made the walk more gruelling for Akira.
Every step felt like it could be his last, only to be followed by another step and another.
The bridge of the passage shifted. Thin then wide repeatedly. The floor beneath him felt slick, almost like skin. His foot slipped, and he crashed down with a thud that echoed down the passage.
Pain shot through his side. He stayed there, breath ragged, cheek pressed against the strange, pulsing surface.
Why does everything feel alive? he thought, chest heaving.
The clone walked on ahead and spoke monotonously "On your feet."
Akira struggled to get on his feet. He walked a few steps before stumbling again.
The clone in front of him disappeared into mist. He then felt a hard boot press into his back forcing him to stand up.
"Keep walking." The voice behind him spoke. Akira's head snapped back. It was the clone.
"H-how did you do that?" He asked begging for answers.
The doppelganger responded in a cool, nonchalant tone. "This area is my domain. From Room 1 all the way to room 3. I decide how it moves. And in turn the area defines me"
Akira kept walking. The passage stretching out into oblivion. He has gotten used to the scorching heat and the simultaneous freezing cold.
Every five steps Akira would slow down his pace. Unsure whether to keep going. But a kick from behind would urge him on to make the sixth and seventh.
Walls appeared on each side. Closing off the fire and ice.
"Finally." Akira panted. "It looks like we're getting somewhere."
The air was silent.
Akira kept walking on. The doppelganger trailing behind.
The walls around him began to shift, at first so slowly he barely noticed. A subtle narrowing, like the gentle closing of book covers. At every step, the space seemed just a little less forgiving, the air thickening as if the corridor itself was breathing.
Akira's chest tightened. The walls had already begun to squeeze, leaving no room for his ribs to expand. The passage tapered more sharply now, and his arms instinctively rose to the sides, searching for balance.
The air grew colder, thinner. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he tried to push forward, but the corridor forced him to slow. His shoulders scraped the rough, pulsating walls, and a sharp sting crept down his sides.
By the time the walls had pressed in so close that Akira could no longer walk forward upright, he had no choice but to twist sideways—his body contorting like a crab crawling through a narrow crevice.
His breaths came shallow and rapid, the weight on his chest unbearable. Every movement was agony, every inch forward a victory snatched from suffocation.
Then a voice cut through from behind. "Breathe."
"Breathe. Is he stupid. "How the hell am I supposed to breathe in here?" Akira thought to himself.
"Well. He's the domain master or whatever so I guess I'll try."
Akira inhaled and the pressing sensation around him subsided. The walls exploded outwards, giving him much more space.
Akira gasped for more air. savouring the flavourless taste.
He looked up. A massive double door was towering over him and the doppelganger. Locked securely by a giant chain, multiple strings, nails and bolts.
He stayed still for a moment, staring at the massive doors, his breath dragging like rusted chains. His knees shook, not from pain but anticipation ,the kind that trembles just before a scream.
"What's waiting behind that?" he asked, though no one responded.
"This is the room of truth. The emotions you tried to bury will now climb out the grave and bite you like a zombie." The clone spoke with a faint hint of emotion this time.
A second passed. The clone then burst out chuckling, it was unsettling.
Akira blinked. The clone's face was bending —.No, melting. Its cheeks stretched unnaturally, lips tearing just enough to show another row of teeth behind the first. And then another.
Akira took a moment to process what he seeing in front of him. "Y-you. You can't be me."
The thing that used to be the clone paused its laughter for just a beat "I'm you. Internally. We may not look the same anymore. But we will soon think the same. Act the same. Breathe the same. Walk the same."
The sound of drums reverberated through the door. Accompanied by a piano and trumpets.
The man in front of Akira cupped his faces into his hands and laughed into it.
"Peek-a-boo."
Akira didn't move.
The music surged. The piano hammered frantic notes, off-tempo and shrill. Drums pounded like war or a heartbeat seconds before collapse.
"Behold." The man stretched out his arms wide. "I Yoru Skittenfritz the devil incarnate has claimed a vessel. A soul lost in it's way."
He approached Akira and hugged him tightly. "Don't worry. I'll make sure you get your vengeance."
Yoru continued speaking. "Vengeance is clarity. Forgiveness is fog.The world taught you silence. I teach you scream."
Akira stepped out of the hug. "You aren't me." He screamed. "You're... you're a parasite. A thing."
Yoru grinned wider. "If we're not the same. Why do I feel so at home?"