The impact on the roof didn't stop.
It hit again.
Harder.
Metal screamed above them.
Chloe let out a sharp cry, curling into herself. "It's on the car—oh my God, it's on the car!"
"Shut up!" Dylan's voice snapped—
Then everyone froze.
Slowly…
Very slowly…
They turned.
Toward him.
Dylan.
Sitting in the back seat.
Exactly where he should be.
Breathing hard. Eyes wide. Face pale.
"…What?" he said.
No one answered.
Because outside—
There was still something standing there.
Still smiling.
Still wearing Dylan's face.
Inside the car—
Dylan stared at them. "Why the hell are you all looking at me like that?"
Jake whispered, "Nah… nah, this is messed up…"
Ryan's voice dropped, tight and controlled. "Don't move."
"What?"
"Don't. Move."
Dylan's expression twisted. "Are you serious right now?"
Another slam on the roof.
The car shook violently.
Chloe screamed again.
Lena didn't take her eyes off Dylan.
"There's one outside," she said slowly.
"And one inside."
Silence hit like a punch.
Dylan blinked. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Jake pointed with a shaking hand toward the window. "Then explain that!"
Dylan turned his head.
And saw himself.
Standing outside.
Smiling.
Watching.
His face drained completely. "What the fuck…"
The thing outside tilted its head slightly.
Mocking.
Studying.
Learning.
"Open the door," it said again.
But this time—
It wasn't just using Dylan's voice.
It was blending them.
Dylan.
Lena.
Jake.
A distorted mix.
Like it couldn't decide which one to be.
---
"Okay," Jake said, breathing fast. "Okay, nope. Nope. This is where shit goes completely insane."
"Stay quiet," Lena said.
"No, you stay quiet!" Dylan snapped. "There's something outside pretending to be me, and now you're all staring at me like I'm the problem?!"
Ryan didn't blink. "Because we don't know which one you are."
"That's bullshit!"
"Is it?" Ryan said.
Dylan's jaw tightened. "You think I'm that thing?"
"I think that thing can copy us," Ryan replied. "And we just saw proof."
Dylan looked at Lena. "Say something."
Lena didn't respond immediately.
Her eyes moved between:
Dylan inside
Dylan outside
Same face.
Same clothes.
Same everything.
But not the same presence.
The one outside—
Didn't feel human.
The one inside—
She wasn't sure anymore.
---
Another loud scrape across the roof.
Like something dragging itself.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Chloe covered her ears. "Make it stop…"
"It wants us to break," Lena said quietly.
"Yeah, well, it's working!" Jake snapped.
"Think," Ryan said. "We need to think."
"Think about what?!" Mason said. "There's two Dylans!"
"Exactly," Ryan said. "So one of them is fake."
"No shit!" Jake said.
Ryan ignored him. "Which means it made a mistake."
Everyone looked at him.
"What kind of mistake?" Lena asked.
"It copied him too early," Ryan said. "Before separating him from us completely."
Dylan frowned. "What does that even mean?"
"It means you disappeared for a moment," Ryan said. "That's when it got you."
"I didn't disappear!"
"You weren't in my line of sight," Ryan said. "That's enough."
Dylan's anger cracked slightly. "So what—you're saying I'm not real?"
"I'm saying we don't know."
"That's insane."
"So is everything else right now," Lena said.
---
Outside—
The thing tapped the window lightly.
Like it was getting bored.
Then it leaned closer.
Face pressing just enough into the dim light.
The features shifted.
Just slightly.
Too subtle to notice at first—
But once you saw it—
You couldn't unsee it.
The eyes were wrong.
Too still.
Too focused.
No blinking.
Chloe let out a small, broken sound. "That's not him…"
"No," Lena said. "It's not."
Dylan swallowed hard.
"Then I'm real," he said quickly. "There you go. Problem solved."
"No," Ryan said immediately. "That doesn't prove anything."
Dylan snapped. "Then what the hell does?!"
---
Silence.
Then Lena spoke.
"We test him."
Dylan stared at her. "Test me how?"
She didn't answer right away.
Because she was thinking.
Fast.
Carefully.
Because one wrong move—
And they'd let it in.
---
Outside, the thing smiled wider.
Like it was enjoying this.
---
"Memory," Lena said finally.
Dylan frowned. "What?"
"We test something it wouldn't know."
"It's been listening to us," Ryan said. "It knows what we've said."
"Then something we haven't said."
Silence.
Jake blinked. "Like what?"
Lena looked at Dylan.
"Tell me something about yourself that none of us know."
Dylan hesitated.
"That's your test?"
"Do it."
He scoffed. "Fine. I—"
He stopped.
His expression changed.
Just slightly.
Lena noticed.
Ryan noticed.
"What?" Lena said.
"Nothing," Dylan said quickly. "I just—thinking."
"Then think faster," Jake said. "Because this situation is getting worse by the second."
Outside—
The thing's head tilted again.
Listening.
Always listening.
---
Dylan ran a hand through his hair. "Okay. Fine."
He exhaled.
"When I was a kid… I got suspended from school."
Jake blinked. "That's it?"
"I didn't tell anyone."
"Why?"
"Because…" Dylan hesitated again. "I hit a teacher."
Silence.
Chloe looked up slightly. "What?"
"Yeah," Dylan said. "I punched him."
"Why?" Mason asked.
Dylan shrugged. "He grabbed my arm. I reacted."
Lena studied him carefully.
"You've never mentioned that."
"Yeah," he said. "That's the point."
Ryan leaned back slightly.
Thinking.
Analyzing.
"Could be real," he said.
"Could be fake," Lena replied.
Dylan threw his hands up. "You asked for something, I gave it! What more do you want?!"
---
A knock.
From the other side.
Everyone turned.
The thing outside—
Smiled.
And spoke.
In Dylan's voice.
"I got suspended when I was ten."
Dylan froze.
The thing continued.
"Punched a teacher."
Chloe let out a quiet scream. "No, no, no—"
"It knows," Jake whispered.
"Of course it knows," Ryan said. "It's listening right now."
The thing outside leaned closer.
"And he cried after."
Dylan's face snapped toward the window.
"What?"
The thing's smile widened.
"You cried."
Dylan's expression shifted.
Just for a second.
But it was enough.
Lena saw it.
Ryan saw it.
Jake saw it.
A crack.
Small.
But real.
"You didn't say that part," Lena said quietly.
Dylan's voice tightened. "Because it didn't matter."
"It mattered enough for it to say it," Ryan replied.
"That doesn't mean anything!"
"It means it knows more than you told us."
Dylan's breathing got heavier. "Or it's just making shit up!"
"Or you're not telling the full truth," Lena said.
---
Silence.
Heavy.
Dangerous.
Dylan looked around at all of them.
At their faces.
Their doubt.
Their fear.
"You seriously think I'm that thing?" he asked.
No one answered.
Because no one was sure.
---
Outside—
The thing stopped smiling.
For the first time.
Its face went still.
Flat.
Unnatural.
Then—
It stepped back.
Slowly.
Disappearing into the darkness.
The roof went quiet.
The car stopped shaking.
Everything—
Stopped.
---
And somehow—
That fel
t worse.
---
Chloe whispered, "Where did it go…?"
No answer.
Ryan's voice dropped. "That's not good."
"No shit," Jake muttered.
"What now?" Mason asked.
Lena didn't look away from the darkness outside.
Because she knew.
This wasn't over.
Not even close.
"It's not trying to get in anymore," she said.
"Then what is it doing?" Chloe asked.
Lena's stomach tightened.
"Changing the rules."
---
Behind them—
Very quietly—
A door lock clicked.
---
Everyone froze.
---
End of Chapter 4
---