THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS: EPISODE 4

Aryan’s head throbbed as the memory faded, leaving behind a hollow dread. He was forgetting something vital.

The hallway stretched endlessly before him, each door labeled with a blank space where his name should have been. The whispers grew louder.

“You waited too long.”

“Now, you must chase yourself.”

His trembling hand reached for another door. The handle was ice-cold. As he pushed it open, the room inside was not a room at all.

It was a mirror maze.

Reflections of himself stared back from every angle, each one slightly different, some older, some younger, some looking directly at him while others whispered to figures he couldn't see.

Then he noticed one reflection wasn’t moving like the others. It stood completely still, staring at him with hollow eyes.

His phone buzzed. Another message.

“Ask him what you forgot.”

Aryan swallowed hard and took a step forward. His distorted reflection followed his movement exactly..except for the still one.

His pulse hammered. "Who are you?”

The still reflection slowly tilted its head.

“The part of you that remembers.”

A shiver ran down Aryan’s spine. “Remembers what?”

The reflection let out a breath. The sound was wrong like a whisper through broken glass.

“That you’re already dead.”

Aryan stumbled back, his mind reeling. No. No, that couldn’t be true. He was here, breathing, thinking…wasn’t he?

His phone buzzed again. He looked down.

A new message.

“You need to wake up before it’s too late.”

The reflection’s face began to change, features shifting, warping. The other reflections in the maze started to flickerlike static on a broken TV.

The walls groaned. The mirrors cracked.

The maze was collapsing.

A sharp pain shot through Aryan’s skull as another memory forced itself into his mind

A car crash. Blood. A shattered windshield. His own broken reflection staring back at him through the glass.

And then….nothing.

Darkness.

Aryan gasped, stumbling backward. The ground beneath him gave way. He was falling into the void.

The last thing he heard before everything went black was his own voice, whispering

“Wake up.”

- To be continued.