Kiera_Saraogi

Harper Quinn returns to Bellridge Academy after a week of unexplained absence. There’s just one problem: no one remembers her.
Not her old friends.
Not the teachers.
Not even the school records.

She insists she were in Room 13A—but it doesn’t exist. The hallway ends before it reaches that number. Maps skip it. Staff claim it never did. But Harper remembers the soft hum at night, the scribbled symbols on the ceiling, and the girl who used to whisper, “Don’t fall asleep.”

Now Harper is caught in a riddle of memory and time.
Strange fragments of the past flicker through her mind—conversations she had, friends , books with her handwriting inside, and old photographs where her face is just... gone.

The deeper she searches, the more terrifying the truth becomes.....

Room 13A

Harper stared at the red scarf hanging from the mirror.

She hadn't worn it in weeks. Hadn't even thought about it. But there it was–exactly how she used to wear it. Folded once, tied off-center. Her signature.

Jamie stepped forward cautiously, lifting it between his fingers.

"She's not hiding anymore," he murmured.

"No," Harper said, her voice barely above a whisper. "She's waiting."

A girl with Harper's face, Harper's eyes, Harper's voice.

The reflection blinked first this time. It tilted its head, just slightly.

"I didn't mean to become you," the copy said, stepping out of the mirror like it was never glass at all. "They made me."

Jamie moved to Harper's side, tense, protective. But Harper held out a hand to stop him.

"I know what you are," Harper said. "A failsafe."

The copy nodded slowly. "When the original starts to fight back, they make another. One that's easier to control."

Harper swallowed. "So what happened to Version A?"

The copy gave a sad smile. "You were terminated. Officially."

For a long moment, they just stared at each other—mirror and flesh, code and memory.

And then Harper said, "So why do you look… scared?"

The copy's voice dropped. "Because I'm glitching".

The ground under their feet began to tremble.

Lights all over Bellridge flickered like fireflies in a storm. Students poured into the halls—confused, some crying, some remembering again for the first time.

Jamie glanced around. "Something's wrong."

"It's the system," the copy said softly. "There weren't supposed to be two of us. The restoration broke their sequence."

"And it can't hold both," Harper whispered. "It has to pick."

The copy looked up at her with calm eyes.

"You already did," Harper replied. "You took my name. My memories. My place."

The air warped around them as a panel opened in the ceiling above. A voice–Administrator-Prime–boomed one last time.

"System overload in progress. Multiple Harpers detected. Restore one. Purge the other. Proceed."

And on the wall before them appeared two glowing symbols.

Jamie turned to her, his voice low and breaking.

"You can walk away. You don't have to choose."

But Harper shook her head. "Yes, I do."

"I'm the real Harper Quinn," she said. "I remember pain. I remember losing myself. I remember fighting back when I was terrified."

The reflection looked at her sadly. "I remember those things too now."

"I believe you," Harper said gently. "But only one of us is built to survive this."

The copy blinked, and a tear—thin as water, flickering like static—slid down her cheek.

A bright light surged through the hallway.

Just a girl accepting that she was never meant to last.

Jamie stood beside her, still there, real.

Chapter 32 Who deserves to Stay