Adrian opened his eyes.
He saw the world, but it didn't feel like his sight. The colors were wrong — sharper, louder, painful to look at. Every sound rang in harmony with the spirals pulsing in his veins. His body stood tall, his movements fluid, confident.
But he wasn't moving.
I am, the other whispered, steering his arm like a puppet string. His fingers flexed, elegant, precise. His legs carried him forward with impossible grace.
Inside, Adrian pounded against the glass walls of his mind, screaming: Stop! That's mine! That's my body!
The double only laughed.
You're the echo now. I am the voice.
---
The corridors of the Dimensional opened for the double. Where Adrian had wandered lost, stumbling, the other strode with purpose, and the walls rippled in welcome. It was like the place recognized him.
Adrian watched in helpless terror as his hands brushed the walls, leaving spirals that pulsed in rhythm with his stolen heart.
"This is what you were meant for," the double said aloud, using Adrian's mouth. "Not weakness. Not fear. Harmony."
"No!" Adrian screamed from inside. "You don't get to wear me!"
For a heartbeat, his voice broke through.
His right hand spasmed, jerking against the wall, fingernails digging in. His body froze, trembling violently, torn between two wills.
"Get out!" Adrian roared — this time aloud. His own voice.
The double hissed, retreating for just a flicker.
---
And then, the tug-of-war began.
Every step forward was contested. One moment, Adrian dragged his feet, stumbling like a drunk. The next, the double straightened the spine, walking with inhuman elegance. His head twitched between hangs of despair and a predator's grin. His voice cracked mid-sentence, shifting tones — Adrian's scream tangled with the double's whisper.
Anyone watching wouldn't have known which version they saw.
Was he broken? Possessed? Both?
Adrian felt it too. His thoughts weren't his alone anymore. The double's whispers slithered through, feeding him alien memories, fragmenting him further: glimpses of spiral skies, a thousand mouths chanting, a world folding in on itself.
The Dimensional was inside him.
And he was inside it.
---
Exhaustion crushed him. His body collapsed to its knees, muscles jerking violently. Adrian clung to a shred of control, gasping through his own lips:
"I'm still here—"
But his mouth curled into a smile against his will, and the double spoke over him:
Not for much longer.
The spirals carved across his arms ignited, glowing so brightly the skin around them began to split. His chest pulsed with light, the spiral-heart beating faster and faster.
Inside the prison of his mind, Adrian screamed until his voice cracked into static.
And for the first time, he wasn't sure which scream was his.
---