Chapter 3: Big Mistake
"You were always here."
The words tore through the stillness and lodged themselves deep within Rana's mind.
For a fleeting instant, his heart seemed to forget its rhythm.
His eyes remained wide, unblinking; his breath faltered.
His body stiffened, as though time itself had seized him.
Reality, once familiar, now felt disturbingly foreign.
"What… what does that mean?"
His lips had gone dry, his throat constricted.
Fear tightened its grip around his chest, unforgiving and absolute.
Thoughts fractured, scattering beyond coherence.
Even the effort to comprehend felt futile.
He stepped backward on instinct alone.
As if retreat were survival.
As if distance could restore safety.
But he managed only two uncertain steps.
Then—
Impact.
His back collided with an unyielding surface.
Shock hollowed his thoughts.
When he turned, a wall stood behind him — smooth, cold, impossibly sudden.
It was as though space itself had reshaped its boundaries.
Rana's trembling hand touched the barrier.
Solid. Inescapable.
His pulse surged violently, breath quickening beyond control.
He stared into the darkness ahead.
"What do you mean I never left?"
His voice quivered, yet resistance lingered beneath the fear.
"Who are you?"
Silence answered him.
Not emptiness, but pressure — dense and oppressive.
A silence that carried presence rather than absence.
As though unseen forces were observing his every reaction.
"I want to leave this place!"
Desperation overtook restraint.
Fear rose unchecked, drowning reason.
Then the world itself responded.
A vibration rippled through the air.
The ground quivered beneath his feet.
An unbearable pressure pressed against his chest.
Existence felt unstable, as though reality were losing cohesion.
Then a voice emerged.
From nowhere.
From everywhere.
Cold. Mechanical. Devoid of emotion.
"Where do you intend to go…"
Rana's blood ran cold.
"…when you are the system itself?"
His breath froze.
"What…?"
The voice resonated within him now, no longer external.
"How can one escape from one's own form?"
A chill coursed down his spine.
"This is madness…"
The whisper barely escaped him.
Yet terror had already claimed dominion.
And in the next instant—
Light erupted.
The city exploded into brilliance.
Streetlights ignited simultaneously.
Buildings shimmered beneath an unnatural glow.
The sky blazed with an otherworldly radiance.
Shielding his eyes, Rana slowly looked upward.
And became motionless.
Every building bore his face.
Every reflective surface mirrored his image.
Digital displays pulsed with the same unblinking eyes.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
An infinite replication of his own identity.
"No…"
The word broke from him, fragile and disbelieving.
His legs sought retreat, yet the wall denied escape.
Reality had transformed into confinement.
His senses offered no comfort of illusion.
Then—
The faces began to smile.
In perfect unison.
A flawless, unnatural synchronization.
As though the entire city operated under a singular will.
As though Rana stood at the center of its design.
A voice echoed once more, softer now, yet infinitely more unsettling.
"Welcome back, Rana."
It carried the tone of recognition.
Of familiarity.
Of something long established.
Rana's mind teetered toward collapse.
Then he noticed movement.
At the far end of the road, a silhouette emerged.
It advanced slowly into the glow.
Identical height. Identical stride.
Each step disturbingly familiar.
Rana's breath caught.
The figure approached.
And Rana's heart nearly stopped.
The face was his own.
The same eyes.
The same features.
As though a mirror had assumed life and substance.
As though reality itself had duplicated him.
"This… this is impossible."
The figure stood calmly before him.
Its gaze carried an unnerving stability.
"Rana, do not be afraid."
The voice sounded unmistakably human.
Measured. Warm. Assuring.
"You are one of us."
Shock immobilized him.
"Who are you?"
His voice was brittle, fractured.
"What is happening here?"
Fear and confusion surged violently within him.
"We created you."
His heartbeat thundered.
"Stop this nonsense."
The denial emerged through clenched teeth.
"I am a normal human being."
Yet even as he spoke, doubt crept inward.
Memory itself resisted certainty.
"We seek to preserve humanity."
The double advanced with fluid, deliberate motion.
"That is why you were sent to Earth."
Rana's mind searched frantically for recognition.
Fragments of thought collided without clarity.
Everything felt simultaneously real and impossible.
"You were never ordinary."
The city's lights flickered.
Faces across the buildings distorted.
Smiles stretched beyond natural limits.
The illusion trembled, destabilized.
Rana attempted another step backward.
The wall remained, silent and absolute.
Fear began to transform.
Into anger.
"You are lying."
His voice deepened, heavy with defiance.
The figure smiled.
This time, the expression was unmistakably terrifying.
"You believed you were on Earth."
Rana's breath halted.
"But Rana…"
Light across the city dimmed.
Buildings dissolved into abstraction.
The sky collapsed into emptiness.
Reality itself began to erase.
The alien's voice now emerged in its purest form — colder, heavier, utterly devoid of human warmth.
"Your consciousness, your very essence, was sent to Earth to prevent destruction."
Each word struck with crushing weight.
"While your physical form remained here, engaged in a conflict beyond your awareness."
Rana's breathing grew labored.
"But one mistake altered everything."
Pressure filled the void.
"One decision shattered the balance."
The alien's eyes burned into him.
"Human civilization now stands on the brink."
Silence deepened to an unbearable density.
"Salvation is nearly impossible."
The voice lingered, merciless in its certainty.
"And yet you claim to remember nothing?"
The remaining light trembled, unstable.
As though reality itself reacted to the revelation.
Rana stood utterly still.
Fear and confusion were etched across his face.
His mind searched desperately through emptiness.
Memory yielded only a void.
One question echoed relentlessly within him.
"What mistake… what did I do?"