Shadows Between Worlds

The room felt heavier than it should have. Jenny's words lingered in the air like smoke: "You're here, but you're not. You don't belong here."

Zayn stared at her, confusion and worry storming across his face. "What do you mean? We made it back. This is our world—our real one."

Jenny's gaze flicked toward him, but her expression was unreadable. "It might look like your world," she said, voice low, "but something came back with you. Something… unnatural."

Liam felt Roxy shift beside him. She hadn't said much since they arrived, but the way her jaw was clenched told him she knew more than she'd admitted. "Roxy," he said gently, "what's going on? You said there wasn't much time."

Roxy hesitated, then finally exhaled. "There's been… strange things happening ever since you disappeared. Things no one could explain. Places flickering in and out of existence. People forgetting things. And lately, more and more people have started having dreams—memories, almost—of things that never happened. Worlds that don't exist."

Niall sat on the armrest of a chair, rubbing his forehead. "You think it's because of us?"

"I don't just think it," Jenny said quietly. "I know it."

She stood, walked to a small table by the window, and opened a drawer. From inside, she pulled out a stack of old, worn notebooks and a folded newspaper. She handed them to Zayn.

He opened the top notebook. Inside were sketches—some rough, some incredibly detailed. A few were of him. Others of the rest of the boys. But not as they were now.

In one, he was in the middle of a forest, staring up at a swirling portal in the sky.

In another, Harry stood behind a bakery counter, handing a smiling customer a cupcake.

Louis was in a toy store, laughing with children.

Liam was pulling on a firefighter's coat, stepping into a blazing building.

And Niall stood over a dental chair, holding a mirror and hook.

"These are dreams I had while you were gone," Jenny said softly. "I didn't know what they meant. But I kept drawing. I couldn't stop. I was obsessed with it. And then… a few weeks ago, I remembered."

"Remembered what?" Zayn whispered.

"That you were gone. That something took you." She looked up at them all. "And that something is still here."

The silence that followed was stifling. The weight of Jenny's revelation pressed in on all of them.

Louis stood up, pacing. "So what, you're saying there's something wrong with this world? Like it's… broken?"

Jenny shook her head. "Not broken. More like… unstable. Thin. You came back, but the universe had to bend to let you in. And now there are cracks."

"Cracks?" Harry echoed.

Jenny pulled out the newspaper and unfolded it. The headline read:

"STRANGE LIGHTS IN SKY: Meteor Shower or Something More?"

Beneath the headline was a blurry photo of a rippling tear in the sky. A glowing line that shimmered above the city skyline.

"That appeared the same day you returned," Roxy said. "It's not a meteor. Scientists are baffled. But I felt it, Liam. Like something cracked open. Like this world was… bleeding."

Liam looked down at the photo, then back at the sketches. His fingers trembled slightly.

"We didn't come back alone," he said finally.

Zayn's face darkened. "You mean she followed us?"

"Or something worse," Liam said. "That world—her world—it wasn't just fake. It was built for something. Maybe a prison. Maybe a trap. But we tore a hole in it. And now… whatever was on the other side is bleeding into ours."

The room went quiet again, the gravity of it sinking into each of them.

Harry stood slowly. "Okay. So we didn't close the door behind us. What do we do now?"

Roxy stepped forward. "You need to remember more. You've only scratched the surface. There are parts of your memories that are still locked away. Why? I don't know. But whatever's leaking through… it's connected to those lost pieces."

Niall frowned. "But we are remembering."

"Not everything," Roxy said. "You don't remember the day you vanished. You don't remember what pulled you in. You don't remember why that forest was important. Or the CD."

The mention of the CD struck something deep in Harry. His hand instinctively moved to his jacket pocket—empty now. The case hadn't followed them back.

"I saw it," he murmured. "I saw it in the studio… then it was gone."

"You need to find it," Roxy said. "Or at least, what it points to. That music—it's more than a clue. It might be the key."

Liam sat down, feeling the weight of it all crash over him. "So we have to piece our memories back together, find this CD, avoid whatever's trying to bleed through, and fix the cracks in reality."

"Basically," Jenny said, managing a faint, tired smile. "No pressure."

Louis looked up. "And how do we stop something if we don't even know what it is?"

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Then Roxy said, "You may not know who she is yet, but she knows you. She's watching. Listening. And she's waiting."

"For what?" Zayn asked.

"For you to remember why she wanted you gone in the first place."

A chill swept through the room.

Outside, a low rumble echoed across the sky. Not thunder. Not an airplane.

A vibration. A tearing.

They all looked up toward the ceiling instinctively.

"Whatever's coming," Liam said, "we better be ready."