Chapter 24: The Hollow Man

Two Rivens.

One standing near Vera and Vex.

The other at the far end of the room.

Both identical.

Both motionless.

And only one of them was real.

The air was thick with tension. No one spoke. No one moved.

Vex's hand twitched near his gun, but he didn't pull it yet. Vera had already drawn hers—but she hadn't aimed.

She was waiting.

Because they all knew—if they made the wrong move, they wouldn't get a second chance.

---

The copy smiled first.

"You were never supposed to exist."

Riven went rigid.

The voice was his. But wrong. Layered. Distorted.

Like an echo of himself that wasn't fully real.

Vera's grip on her gun tightened. "Tell me I'm not the only one hearing that."

"You're not," Vex muttered. His eyes darted between the two Rivens. "But I'd really like to know which one I'm supposed to shoot."

Neither Riven spoke.

Because for the first time—he wasn't sure he knew either.

---

A test.

That was what Vera was waiting for. A single mistake, one thing out of place, one wrong movement.

Then she'd know.

So she turned to the Riven closest to her, eyes sharp, voice low.

"What's the first thing you ever said to me?"

A pause.

Then—

"'You look like you could break my spine in half.'"

Vera's lips pressed into a thin line. That was right.

She turned to the second Riven, the one standing across the room. "And you?"

Another pause.

Then—

The copy tilted its head. Smiled.

And spoke in her voice.

"That's a funny question, considering neither of you are real anymore."

---

Vera fired.

Too slow.

The copy twisted. Its body moved like a glitch in reality—one moment it was across the room, the next it was inches away.

Vex cursed, stumbling back. Riven jerked away as the thing grabbed at him, its fingers like ice, its grip sinking into his arm—

Too deep.

His breath hitched—it wasn't just touching him.

It was pulling.

Like it was trying to drag something out of him.

A piece of him. A piece of his self.

Riven gasped—shoved back—but it was still holding on.

"You're slipping," the copy whispered, its voice layered. Suffocating.

"Do you feel it?"

Riven did.

And that was the worst part.

---

Then Vera shot it in the head.

The gunfire ripped through the room, the force sending the copy staggering backward.

For a moment—just a moment—it flickered.

Like it was losing cohesion.

Then it straightened.

The bullet hole in its skull closed.

Like it had never been there at all.

Vera exhaled sharply. "Oh, that's bullshit."

Vex grabbed her arm. "We need to go."

"Where? There's nowhere left—"

"Out. Now."

The copy lunged.

They ran.

---

The facility was collapsing.

Not physically. The walls weren't crumbling, the floor wasn't breaking apart.

But the space itself was coming undone.

Hallways stretched and shrank. Doors led to places they shouldn't. The lights flickered in and out, and every time they did—

The copy got closer.

They ran hard, pushing past the twisting corridors, the broken space, the impossible gaps between where they were and where they needed to be—

Vex grabbed Riven's arm. "Whatever that thing is, it's linked to you. Can you—I don't know—shut it off?"

Riven's pulse was hammering. His body felt wrong. Like something was shifting inside him.

Like he was shifting.

Vera shoved open a door. "We figure that out after we get the hell out of here!"

They burst through—

And stepped into nothing.

---

A void.

Not darkness. Not emptiness.

Something else.

Something that wasn't supposed to exist.

And yet—

They were in it.

No walls. No ceiling. Just an endless, twisting sea of fractured reflections.

Riven felt his chest tighten.

They had stepped into the Monarch's domain.

And there was no way back.

Vex turned sharply. "What the—"

A sound cut him off.

Not a voice. Not words.

But something whispering.

Riven looked up.

And saw them.

Hundreds of copies.

Himself. Vex. Vera.

All of them distorted. Twisted versions, broken echoes, moving in ways that didn't fit.

They watched.

They waited.

And then—they smiled.

The real Vex went rigid. "I take it back. I don't want to figure this out. I want to leave."

Vera gritted her teeth. "Agreed."

Riven took a slow step forward. "I don't think we have a choice."

Because the whispers were getting closer.

And the copies—

Were starting to move.