The Truth I Was Never Meant to Find

I can feel it. The pull. The weight of it in my chest. Something shifts. Something's off.

Eduardo's eyes. Still locked on mine. But there's distance. There's always been distance. I can't breathe. Not properly. The air is thick, suffocating. I want to run. I don't move.

I don't trust my voice anymore. Nothing feels right. It's like I'm watching my life from behind a glass, unable to touch it.

Then…

A sound.

At first, it's nothing. A whisper. But it grows. And it's not from Eduardo.

"Ana."

A chill. Like ice crawling under my skin. It's not him. It's not anything I want to hear. My stomach drops.

I turn. I feel the darkness wrap around me, pressing. Suffocating. I can't breathe.

There's a figure. In the corner.

I don't need to look closer. I already know.

Her.

A woman. She's… me. But not.

The shadows twist around her, make her unrecognizable, like a broken mirror. And yet, I can't tear my eyes away.

"Ana," the voice says again. Cold. Mocking. It doesn't belong to anyone. But it does. It belongs to me.

"Who are you?" I can't even say it. Not really. I know. But I don't want to.

Her eyes. Hollow. I see them. I know them. I can't look away.

"Ana," she says, this time sharp. "You really didn't think it would be this easy, did you?"

The room tightens. The walls press in.

"What do you want?" My words are thick. They don't feel like mine. I should be running, but I'm stuck. Frozen.

She smiles. It's not her smile. It's mine. Twisted.

"I've been waiting. You know that, don't you?"

I step back. My chest is heavy. I try to breathe, but it hurts.

The air. It's not right.

I turn to Eduardo, desperate. But he's gone. Vanished. Like he was never there.

I'm alone.

But she's still there. The twisted version of me.

"No." I shake my head. "You're not real. You're not real."

She laughs. Cold.

"You've always known this moment would come, Ana. You've always known it. The truth you've been avoiding. The truth you've been running from."

I don't want to hear it. I don't want to understand.

But she's right. The truth is ugly. It's all around me.

"Stop," I whisper, voice shaking. "Just… stop."

But the other Ana doesn't stop. She steps forward. Closer. And her smile only grows.

"You were never meant to find the answers, Ana. You've always been the problem. You. Always you."

The floor beneath me cracks. I feel the world crumbling, breaking apart. I want to scream. But I don't.

I stare at her. The twisted reflection of myself.

It's not about Eduardo. It was never about him.

It was me.

I've been looking in all the wrong places.

"You were never meant to escape," she says, voice soft, almost a whisper. "You've always been here. Always."

I try to run. But there's nowhere to go. The walls close in.

"No," I say, choking on the words. "I'm not her. I'm not — "

But she's right in front of me now. Her eyes are cold. Dead. And then, she smiles again.

"You always were, Ana. You always were."

And everything… goes black.

It's dark. No light. No sound. Nothing but the rush of my pulse in my ears. Thumping, steady. Unstoppable.

I don't move. I can't. The weight of it all is too much.

What happened?

I was… there. But now… here.

A flash. The reflection. Her eyes.

My eyes.

I can't breathe. The air doesn't exist. It's a cruel joke. I want to scream. To run. But there's nowhere to run to. No place safe. The walls are gone. The floor beneath me — disappeared. It's just me. And… her.

I try to stand. My legs shake. I feel the ground beneath me, but it's not real. None of this is real. It can't be.

But she's still there. Standing. Watching.

I turn. My hands are shaking. I feel my breath catch in my throat. I'm choking on something I can't name. But I know it's her. Or… me.

"You thought you could escape?" Her voice echoes in the emptiness. Cold. Harsh. A mockery.

I'm not sure if I want to answer. If I could, even.

"You think you're special," she continues, stepping forward. Her presence fills the space. It's suffocating. "But you're just like everyone else. Running from what you're meant to be."

"No," I say, finally able to speak. But it doesn't sound like my voice. It's cracked, broken. "I'm not you."

But I am. I can feel it. The truth presses against my ribs, sharp, relentless.

Her smile grows, stretching too wide for comfort. "Yes, you are. You've always been. You can't hide from yourself forever."

I look down. The ground beneath me flickers. It warps, like a reflection in water disturbed by a stone.

It's my fault. All of it.

I thought I could fix it. Thought I could undo the things I did, the things I left behind.

But now I know. There's no going back.

"You've always been the one holding yourself back," she whispers. "You're your own prison."

I'm suffocating. The air, the truth, it's all around me. I can't escape. I can't breathe.

I want to fall. To give up. But there's no ground. No place to fall.

I close my eyes. I don't want to see her. Don't want to hear her. But it doesn't matter. She's there. In me. In everything.

"You should've known, Ana," she says softly, almost tenderly, like a cruel lullaby. "The answers were never out there. They were always inside you."

I shake my head. "No."

But she's already gone. The silence swallows her words. And for a moment, I think I'm alone.

But I'm not.

There's something here. Something… waiting.

I look up, and everything shifts.

The blackness fades. A door. It's there, in the distance. So familiar. But I didn't see it before. I didn't see it until now.

It's my door.

The one I locked. The one I ran from.

I take a step. My legs still shake, but I move. One foot in front of the other.

I don't know what I'm walking toward.

But I have to.

I have no choice.