Reality had transformed into a hall of mirrors, each reflection slightly off-kilter, each world more distorted than the last. Elias could no longer distinguish where one ended and another began. The missed steps were coming faster now, more violently, tearing through his life like a storm of nonsense and chaos.
The Echoes were everywhere—in his apartment, in the facility, in the streets that twisted and turned with a logic that defied understanding. Some of them were kind, others cruel, and some were barely holding together, their minds shattered into fragments that no longer aligned. It was as though the universe had decided to show him every possible version of himself, whether he wanted to see them or not.
"They're trying to tear me apart," Elias muttered to the empty room, curled up in a corner of a world that might not have been his. "Each time I die, I lose a piece of myself, and the pieces are beginning to overlap."
Dr. Calhoun, the man behind the curtain, was reveling in the spectacle. He had noticed Elias's meddling and was now playing his own game, twisting reality just enough to make Elias doubt everything. Was this world real? Were any of them? Or was it all just a madman's hallucination?
"You're unraveling, Wren," Calhoun said, his voice carrying the satisfaction of a man who had seen his predictions come true. His eyes gleamed with a cruel amusement, the skin around them crinkling as he watched Elias struggle. "You can't tell what's real anymore, can you? That's what happens when you play with things beyond your understanding."
But Elias understood all too well. He knew that if he didn't stop this, if he didn't end the madness, he would cease to exist—in every reality, in every version of himself.
YOU ARE READING
The Step After
Short StoryIn the unremarkable confines of his fleeting apartment, Elias Wren experiences a misstep that irrevocably alters his perception of reality. As the fabric of his world begins to fray, each faltering step draws him deeper into a labyrinth of alternate...
