I Wasn't the One Who Chose

"I hear voices even when I'm not thinking."

Lira stood in an endless white space. No sky. No ground. No echo.

But she wasn't alone.

Four figures surrounded her.

They had her face. Her body.

But something in their eyes didn't match. Not fully.

One looked distant.

One wore a crooked, quiet smile.

One stared like she wanted to tear the world apart.

And the last stood like a marionette... expressionless, unmoving, like she was waiting to be programmed.

Lira knew this wasn't a dream.

They were her.

Not illusions. Not ghosts.

Versions. Leftovers. Survivors.

And then the voice came, not from above or around her, but from within the floating flip phone beside her head.

"Final round initiated. Primary consciousness no longer holds exclusive voting rights."

The screen flickered and displayed:

[MERGE SYSTEM: DELAYED]

[SELECT: ARE YOU STILL FIT TO BE PRIMARY?]

Lira's breath hitched.

One version stepped closer. She looked younger, softer, like a memory Lira had forgotten how to feel.

"I don't remember much," she whispered. "But I remember not being afraid."

Another stepped up. Her face was bruised, half-erased, like a corrupted save file that somehow survived the reset.

"I remember the moment you hesitated. The moment you chose to run."

Lira stepped back. But this space gave her nowhere to run.

"Stop," she murmured. "I'm not here to fight you."

The third version raised her hand toward the white void. A vertical crack opened in the air like a jagged wound.

Inside it: flashes of memory.

Lira leaving Alina behind.

Lira silencing the message.

Lira choosing to be the only one left.

"That wasn't a decision," one of them said. "That was panic. That was fear."

"I don't want to choose again," Lira whispered.

But the phone hovered closer.

SELECT: CONTINUE AS SELF OR MERGE INTO ONE

---

The world began to dim. The whiteness bled into gray.

Lira heard something, dripping water, slow footsteps, her heartbeat echoing in a room that didn't exist.

She was waking up.

But just before her consciousness fully reconnected...

One of the versions leaned close and whispered in her ear:

"If you wake up… the body might not be yours anymore."

***

Lira woke up with a tight knot in her chest.

Her ceiling.

The dim light.

The same pale blue curtains fluttering by the cracked window.

Everything looked normal.

But nothing felt right.

Her breath was too shallow.

Her skin was too cold.

And her hands… they felt like she was borrowing them.

She reached for the flip phone on her nightstand. It was already lit.

No text.

Just an empty black screen for a few seconds...

Then, in pulsing gray letters:

WELCOME BACK, SUBJECT_04

INTEGRATION RATE: 71 PERCENT

STATUS: UNSTABLE

Lira stared at her reflection in the phone screen.

She whispered, "This is still my body."

But for a moment, even her voice sounded unfamiliar.

---

At school, the world felt like a poorly loaded simulation.

Classmates greeted her, but their eyes hesitated... like they were double-checking her name in their memories.

Her homeroom teacher paused before calling her attendance, like something about her name didn't sit right anymore.

She tried to brush it off.

Then Reva walked in.

Same messy ponytail. Same energetic bounce in her steps.

Lira smiled and waved.

Reva glanced at her and blinked.

"Oh," she said. "Sorry, someone's already sitting there."

Lira froze. "Reva. It's me."

Reva tilted her head.

Her smile was polite. Empty.

"You're… Lira, right?"

The words hit like static.

A name repeated without emotion.

She didn't know her.

Not completely.

Not anymore.

Lira sat back slowly, her heart pounding in a rhythm that wasn't entirely hers.

---

In the bathroom, Lira stood in front of the mirror.

She stared at her reflection.

At first, it stared back.

But then...

She looked away.

And her reflection didn't follow.

It kept staring.

Its mouth curled slightly, seconds before her own did.

And then it moved its lips.

Silently.

But Lira could read the words.

"You're not the only one who's awake now."

Her hands trembled.

She looked down at the flip phone.

The screen flickered again.

This time, a new warning appeared:

REALITY INTERFERENCE DETECTED

PRIMARY CONSCIOUSNESS: PARTIALLY COMPROMISED

YOU ARE NOT FULLY IN YOUR OWN WORLD

Lira whispered, "Then whose world is this?"

But deep down, the more terrifying question was...

Is there still a version of her who belongs to it?

***

Lira sat alone behind the school building, in the quiet stretch of space no one really used anymore. The kind of place that didn't exist on any map, even though it was always there.

The wind was cold, but she didn't shiver.

She kept glancing at her hands, flexing, clenching, watching the way her fingers moved.

They felt... delayed.

Like the commands were being processed through a filter.

Her mind had been too loud all day.

Not with thoughts.

But with echoes.

And that strange silence in between them... that was the worst part.

Then she felt it.

A presence.

Someone behind her.

She turned quickly.

A boy stepped into view. He wore the school uniform, but she didn't recognize him. His hair was a deep, unlit black, and his face was expressionless, like a photo that hadn't finished loading.

He didn't speak right away.

He just looked at her like he already knew too much.

"You're the one who got chosen," he said at last.

Lira frowned. "Do I know you?"

"No," he replied. "And that's the point."

She narrowed her eyes. "Then why do you look familiar?"

The boy sat on the edge of the stone bench across from her. His posture was relaxed, but everything about him felt off, like he was trying to act normal and failing at the details.

"They call me Versionless," he said. "Not officially. There's no ID. No memory logs. No record."

"You're part of the system?"

"I'm what slipped through the cracks. Never created. Never erased. Just... there."

Lira shook her head. "That's not possible."

He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"You're thinking in binaries. Real or not. Alive or deleted. But you should know better by now."

Lira's hands clenched on her skirt. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because your reality is thinning," he said calmly. "And something's coming through. Versions that were never supposed to gain awareness. Versions that don't follow the rules anymore."

She felt the air grow heavier. "You mean... like Subject_05?"

The boy went still.

He looked at her differently then... not like she was broken, but like she was dangerous.

"You've seen it?"

Lira nodded slowly. "Not just in my dreams. I've seen it... watching me. And now I can't tell if it's trying to replace me or become me."

The boy's voice lowered. "Then you're already out of time."

He stood, turning toward the fog at the edge of the yard.

"Versions that survive deletion start feeding off certainty," he said. "They grow stronger the more you doubt yourself."

Lira stood up too, heart pounding.

"Wait. What do I do?"

He looked back at her once.

"You either become the version everyone believes in… or you become the one they forget ever existed."

Then he stepped into the fog...

and vanished without a sound.

***

Lira woke up at 3:12 a.m.

She didn't know why, only that her body had moved before her mind had caught up. Her fingers were already reaching under the pillow. Already grasping the flip phone that wasn't supposed to be on.

The screen lit up.

Not the usual white. Not the soft system blue.

Red.

Deep red.

Like a warning light blinking in a sealed-off part of her mind.

Words appeared, slow and deliberate:

"RESELECT ACCESS GRANTED"

"YOU HAVE ONE FINAL OPPORTUNITY TO REDECIDE"

Two choices hovered beneath the message:

• Merge with All Versions (Collective)

• Erase All Others (Singular)

Below the options, a final line flickered like a glitch:

"Consequences remain. Guilt is either shared… or yours alone."

Lira stared at it.

She wasn't sure how long.

She only knew her chest felt heavy, like her ribs were shrinking.

This wasn't mercy.

This was a trap wrapped in the illusion of choice.

Behind her eyes, the voices were growing louder again. No longer whispers. No longer begging for attention.

They were arguing.

She could feel them pushing through trying to surface. Trying to move her body, even just a little.

And then her thumb twitched.

Not by her will.

She yanked her hand back, gasping, heart pounding.

The screen glitched.

A single line of corrupted code appeared briefly before fading:

PRIMARY CONSCIOUSNESS: NO LONGER IN FULL CONTROL

Lira sat up.

Looked at her arm.

There were scratches, tiny, almost invisible on her shoulder. Like fingernails had dragged across it.

She hadn't done that.

Or maybe she had… when she wasn't herself.

She stumbled into the bathroom and flicked the light on.

The mirror was fogged, but she wiped it clean with one hand.

And saw two things:

Her own reflection.

And just behind it, barely visible...

another version of her.

Smiling.

But not mimicking.

It moved a second ahead of her.

And its smile never touched its eyes.

Lira leaned in. "This is still my body."

The reflection's mouth moved.

Not hers.

The one in the mirror said:

"You were just the first to wake up."

---

The next day, everything felt worse.

Her body was heavier, slower, like her bones were waiting for instructions that hadn't come.

When she spoke, her voice carried a coldness she didn't recognize.

Even Reva noticed.

"You okay?" she asked, squinting at her during lunch.

Lira smiled too quickly. "Of course."

Reva didn't respond. Just kept staring, until Lira asked, "What?"

"You just feel… different today. Like someone else is watching through you."

Lira's smile faded.

And for a moment, she wasn't sure who had said that.

Herself...

or one of the others.

***

The rain came lightly that afternoon, a quiet drizzle that blurred the edges of everything.

Lira stood by the window on the second floor, watching the world dissolve behind the glass.

Something moved through the mist on the empty field behind the school.

At first, she thought it was just a trick of the fog.

But then she saw the shape more clearly.

A girl.

Wearing her uniform.

Walking with her posture.

Same arms. Same stride.

Same presence.

Lira pressed her hand to the glass. Her breath hitched.

That was her.

Out there.

But she was here.

She turned toward the nearest mirror hanging beside the door. Her reflection stood still.

Too still.

She blinked...

but her reflection didn't.

It was watching her.

Smiling.

Late.

---

The flip phone vibrated violently in her pocket.

She pulled it out. The screen was cracked, but still functioning.

A new message had appeared:

UNREGISTERED ENTITY HAS BREACHED VISUAL REALITY

OVERLAPPING TIMELINE DETECTED

YOU ARE NOT THE SOLE VERSION IN THIS WORLD

Her knees nearly buckled.

She looked back toward the field.

The figure had stopped walking.

Now she was staring directly up at the window.

Lira backed away from the glass.

But her eyes stayed locked on the girl down below.

She was smiling.

Not kind. Not mocking.

Just sure.

And her lips moved.

Lira couldn't hear the words.

But she knew what they were.

She could feel them forming like a memory she hadn't made:

"You made your choice too fast."

---

She ran.

Out of the classroom.

Down the stairs.

Across the wet concrete and into the field.

But when she reached it...

No one was there.

Only puddles and silence.

Until she saw it:

Her reflection in the water.

But the real horror wasn't the reflection.

It was the fact that it didn't move with her.

She stepped back.

The reflection didn't.

She lifted her hand.

The reflection stayed still.

And then...

it raised its hand…

first.

---

That night, Lira didn't sleep.

She sat on her bed, every light off, watching her reflection in the window. Making sure it didn't move without her.

The flip phone lit up.

This time, there was no message.

Only a symbol.

A loop. An infinity mark. Dim and pulsing.

Then one final line appeared:

CONSCIOUSNESS HAS SPLIT

NO ONE FULLY WON

THE BODY WILL BELONG TO WHOMEVER BELIEVES THEY'RE REAL

***