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Echo of Darkness :
"Silence… before everything falls"
On a night when the moon disappeared, things changed. Sounds became fainter, and shadows stretched as if to swallow everything. Luka never believed in superstitions, but he could feel them—those moments when the world paused for a few seconds, as if something was about to happen.
He didn't know that this night would be one of them.
In the morning, nothing seemed different—on the surface.
Same routine, same glances. But he felt it, that slight change. As if the air had grown heavier. As if unseen eyes were watching from the dark corners.
It always started with small details.
A spoon not in its usual place.
A window left open, though he clearly remembered closing it.
Soft footsteps behind him… and no one there when he turned.
That evening, when he finished his work, he didn't go to his usual corner.
Instead, he moved without thinking, as if something was guiding him.
Step by step… until he found himself standing before a door he had never noticed before.
An old wooden door, tightly shut, but not completely.
When he touched it… it was warm.
As if someone had just been standing behind it.
What he found behind it… was not expected.
A forgotten cellar, untouched for thousands of years.
And a smell… a smell that didn't belong to this place.
And in the center, something that should not be there.
A mirror
Clean. Strangely reflective amid all the dust.
When he looked into it… he didn't see just himself.
There was something else.
Something standing behind him.
But when he turned around.
No one was there.
In that moment, Luka knew that this night… wouldn't be just another night.
Luka didn't move.
He stood there, eyes fixed on his reflection—or rather, what was supposed to be his reflection.
In the mirror, the room looked the same: cracked walls, dusty floor, dim light barely revealing the details.
But…
In the right corner of the reflection, there was a shadow.
It wasn't behind him in reality.
But it was there… in the mirror only.
A mysterious figure, its features unclear. It wasn't just an ordinary shadow.
It was watching him.
Its eyes, though obscure, stared directly at Luka.
Luka's grip tightened—not from fear, but disbelief.
He wasn't afraid—not in the usual way.
It was something deeper.
Something that freezes you in place. Not because you fear what might happen, but because what you see… shouldn't exist.
For seconds, nothing moved.
Then slowly…
The shadow smiled.
A smile that wasn't natural.
A smile that shouldn't be on something without a face.
Luka didn't step back, didn't scream, didn't run.
But he felt it…
Something inside him shifted in that moment.
In the next instant, the light went out.
Pitch darkness.
His breathing slowed…
When the light returned, the room looked the same, but a strange feeling crept into his heart. It wasn't the light that returned—but something else. Something that had been hiding all along.
Luka looked around. The mirror… was gone.
"Was it really here?"
In the dark corners of the room, something else was present. Not just a shadow—it was something that breathed.
Its breath was heavy, like a creature settled in the shadows that moved behind him.
"What is happening here?"
At that moment, Luka felt something he had forgotten—comfort.
Not the comfort that comes from safety, but the kind that arrives when all logic collapses.
As he tried to comprehend what was happening, he felt something whisper from the darkness into his ear.
"Don't think this is everything…"
The voice was cold, strange, and scattered into the air like thick fog.
Suddenly, footsteps moved behind him—slow, heavy—but he felt them deep in his heart.
And as he turned around, no one was there. But the feeling… grew stronger.
The footsteps were getting closer.
And though darkness once again filled the room, Luka felt something stir within it. Something deep, strange… something that had always been there, but he never knew.
The mirror… returned.
Then, just like before… the shadow smiled.
But this time, the smile was twisted. Crooked. As if something was broken inside it.
"You are not alone here, Luka"
The words were faint, yet struck his heart with a strange force, as if they didn't come from the one in the mirror, but from a faraway place.
They echoed like a distant sound, coming from the deep, where there is no beginning and no end.
And as the words repeated in his mind, he felt something else. Something watching.
"It has begun"
What had begun?
The questions tangled in his head, but the answer was vague. There were no words—only darkness seeping into his mind.
Then… as he tried to go back, the walls had changed.
They were less defined.
The lines were broken, the corners distorted.
And the darkness was closer.
"You'll never get out"
This time, the voice was real.
It came from a gap in the room he didn't know existed.
Luka took a step back. But at that very moment, he felt something heavy holding him down.
As if the ground beneath his feet was beginning to swallow his steps.
As if the earth itself was rejecting him—or maybe… it was controlling him now.
In that moment, silence echoed unnaturally through the room. The darkness pulled itself toward every corner and every crack, as if something had been watching Luka since the beginning—and this darkness wasn't merely the absence of light.
It was alive.
It carried within it an ancient secret, waiting for the moment to strike.
Luka slowly turned his head, closing his eyes for a moment, as if staring into the darkness would make everything go back to normal. But when he opened them again, he was deeper in that darkness, further from everything familiar.
"Are you afraid?"
The voice came from inside his head—not from anywhere else. It was an inhuman voice, belonging to a place he did not know.
Luka felt something tethering his body to the ground. A strange sensation—as if the earth had merged with his soul, and every step he took weighed heavier on his heart.
Then, suddenly, the sounds vanished.
The darkness was complete, as if time itself had stopped. There was no light. No colors.
"You don't understand, do you?"
The whispers grew closer, and the voice came from every corner, every crack—even from inside his body.
Luka took a deep breath, but even his breathing felt strange, unnatural. It was heavy, as if the air itself had filled with something unbearable.
Then, in that utter darkness, he felt something push him. A hand—or perhaps a shadow.
"Who are you?"
Luka whispered, but he felt it wasn't him who said it. His voice came from somewhere else, as if the darkness itself was speaking through him.
And as the darkness began to seep into his body, he felt something strange speeding up his heartbeat. It was something deeper than fear. Something un
natural, as if everything had been set long ago, and he was merely a part of a fate he could not escape.
The darkness smiled… within his heart a sound stopped his heart.
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