The Girl who wasn't me

Part I: The Mirror's Edge

That night, Lena didn't sleep.

Every time she closed her eyes, she saw her own face—not her reflection, but the girl in the photograph from the file. Leena Chaudhary. A name that tasted like ash in her mouth. A face that wore her skin like a ghost slipping into someone else's body.

She couldn't tell if it terrified her or made her want to scream.

Dimensional Echo.

The words haunted her. What did it mean to be a remnant of a reality that no longer existed? If she wasn't entirely real, then what was she? A mistake? A warning? Or something worse—a shadow given form?

Lena sat up in bed, the moonlight washing her face in cold silver. Her phone buzzed beside her.

Kian.

"I know something's wrong. I don't care what it is. Just let me in."

She read the message again.

Then typed:

"Meet me tomorrow. I'll tell you everything."

She didn't press send.

Because telling Kian the truth would break something.

Maybe him.

Maybe her.

Maybe everything.

---

Part II: The Keeper's Whisper

The next day at school was quieter than usual. Too quiet.

Even the Watchers were absent. Their usual patrols, their blank-faced presence, all gone like smoke. The science wing had been reopened. The blood cleaned. The warning erased.

But the air still crackled with fear.

Lena walked through the hallway like a shadow herself, watching students glance over their shoulders as if something unseen were following them. Whispers danced on locker doors.

"She disappeared again."

"They say she's cursed."

"Maybe she's not even human…"

Lena ignored them all.

Until a note slipped into her locker.

No name. Just a symbol—a triangle inside a circle, with a dot at the center.

She recognized it immediately.

The Keepers.

The same group that had once tried to abduct her from the marketplace. The ones who called themselves "Protectors of Order."

There was a time she thought they were just another version of the Watchers.

But Riven had told her the truth:

The Keepers didn't protect realities. They killed anything that broke them.

The note said:

> Come to the rooftop. Alone. No tricks. We know about the girl in the file. We know who you really are. We can tell you what she became.

If you want to avoid her fate—come.

---

Part III: The Rooftop Bargain

The school rooftop was usually locked, but the door was ajar today, as if waiting for her.

Wind howled as Lena stepped into the open. The city stretched below—chaotic and beautiful and unaware.

Two figures stood there, facing away from her. Long coats. Masks made of obsidian glass. The Keepers.

"You're braver than we expected," one of them said without turning.

"I'm not here for compliments," Lena replied, steadying her voice.

The second Keeper turned slowly. A woman. Her mask shimmered with shifting runes. "You opened the file. You saw what she became."

"I saw her name."

"You saw your origin," the first one corrected. "You are a fracture, Lena. A soul unmoored. Your reality was erased—but your echo survived. That makes you unpredictable. Unstable."

"You mean dangerous."

"To everyone. Especially yourself."

Lena crossed her arms. "Why did you bring me here?"

The Keeper woman stepped forward. "Because we've hunted her before. Leena. Your predecessor. She destroyed four timelines before we trapped her in this one."

Lena's breath caught. "What do you mean this one?"

"She was imprisoned inside the shell of a new life. Yours."

The wind stopped.

Her mind reeled.

"You're lying," she whispered.

"We don't lie," the woman said. "We preserve. But we also understand… nature finds a way. And Leena's soul has begun to wake inside you."

"I'm not her."

"No," the male Keeper said. "But you will be—unless you let us help you."

Lena narrowed her eyes. "What kind of help?"

"A ritual," the woman replied. "We can isolate the original Echo. Sever it. Destroy the fragment inside you. You'll be clean. Just Lena Carter. Just a girl."

"No powers," the man added. "No Vanishing. No war."

Silence.

A normal life.

Wasn't that what she always wanted?

But if she gave it up… who would protect the others like her? Who would fight the Watchers? Who would face the Vanished?

And Kian…

If she lost her powers, would he still look at her like she was made of constellations?

Lena stepped back.

"No."

The wind picked up again.

"No?" the Keeper woman said, a dangerous edge in her voice.

"I won't erase myself to make you comfortable."

The man raised a device.

Lena vanished before he could fire.

She didn't teleport.

She simply… disappeared.

And when she reappeared again, a few blocks away—chest heaving, sweat on her brow—she realized something terrifying and thrilling at once:

She hadn't meant to do that.

The Vanishing was getting stronger.

---

Part IV: The Mirror Boy

That night, Lena sat across from Kian in the library.

He looked tired. Paler. His usual spark dimmed.

She hadn't noticed before, but… he was unraveling.

And she was the thread tugging him apart.

"I've been seeing things," Kian said softly. "Shadows that move when they shouldn't. Reflections that don't match reality. I think—"

"You're being pulled in," Lena said. "It's because you're close to me."

He flinched. "So what do we do?"

"I don't know."

They were quiet for a moment.

Then Lena said the one thing she wasn't supposed to:

"I kissed Riven."

Kian didn't move.

Not for a whole ten seconds.

Then he laughed—short, bitter, broken.

"You… kissed him?"

Lena's throat closed.

"I didn't mean for it to happen."

"But it did."

His eyes—usually full of light—darkened.

"I've defended you. Lied for you. Covered for you. And this whole time, you were—what? Playing with both of us?"

"No!" she cried. "It wasn't like that."

But how could she explain?

How could she say that Riven understood the broken parts of her that even Kian didn't know existed? That with him, she felt like a storm instead of a secret?

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Kian stood, jaw clenched. "You always are."

He walked away.

And she didn't stop him.

---

Part V: The Girl Who Wasn't Me

At midnight, Lena stood in front of the mirror in her bedroom.

But this time, something looked back that wasn't her.

Not exactly.

It was the girl from the file. Leena Chaudhary. Her eyes glowed silver. Her mouth curled in a smirk.

"You're slipping," the reflection said.

Lena didn't speak.

"You think you're different. But you and I—we're the same flame. I was just lit sooner."

Lena reached out. The mirror stayed solid.

"I won't let you take me."

The Echo smiled wider. "You won't have a choice."

The mirror shimmered.

Cracked.

And then…

It smiled.

---