Liminal 3: Shattered Dimensions

Enough

Adaliya's hands trembled as she gripped her weapon, every nerve in her body taut with tension. The shrill screech of the approaching Mimic echoed through the desolate, decaying water park. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, drowning out everything but the sound of her own breath.

She held her weapon up, finger hovering over the trigger, every instinct screaming to be ready. The Mimic was close now, far too close. She spun around, her eyes darting through the shadows.

Where was Sarah?

Adaliya's pulse quickened. Her eyes locked on a shape in the gloom—standing right where Sarah had been only moments before. A figure, twisted and tall, its face contorted into that unsettling, inhuman grin. The Mimic. Its hollow eyes locked onto hers, and it started to move.

Without thinking, Adaliya fired.

The gunshot echoed through the empty hall. The Mimic fell back, crumpling to the ground. It let out a sound—one that hit her like a punch to the gut. It wasn't the otherworldly screech of the creatures she'd encountered before.

It was... human. A groan of pain.

Adaliya's breath caught in her throat. She blinked, the world seeming to warp and shift around her. The grotesque form of the Mimic lying on the floor started to shimmer, its edges blurring, distorting—until it wasn't the Mimic anymore.

It was Sarah.

"No... no..." Adaliya whispered, her chest tightening as dread crashed over her like a tidal wave.

Sarah's body lay motionless on the damp ground, blood pooling beneath her. Her eyes, wide with shock, stared up at Adaliya, her mouth slightly open as if to speak.

"No!" Adaliya screamed, rushing forward, her weapon slipping from her hands and clattering to the floor. She dropped to her knees beside Sarah, grabbing her shoulders, shaking her as if she could pull her back from the brink.

But Sarah didn't respond.

The truth crashed down on Adaliya like a hammer. The Mimic—**this Mimic**—had warped her vision, twisted reality. She hadn't seen Sarah standing there. It had made her see the Mimic, its horrific form masking the person she cared about most in this place.

Adaliya's breath came in short, ragged bursts as she stared at Sarah's lifeless body. Her hands, covered in blood, hovered uselessly over the wound she'd inflicted. She didn't know how to fix it. There was no fixing this.

Tears blurred her vision, and she gasped, trying to make sense of the nightmare that had just unfolded. "Sarah... I'm... I'm so sorry..." Her voice cracked as she cradled Sarah's head in her lap, feeling the weight of her terrible mistake crushing down on her.

In the distance, the screech of the **real** Mimic grew louder, the sound bouncing off the walls of the park.

It was coming.

And Adaliya had enough.

Adaliya's chest heaved as she knelt beside Sarah's lifeless form, her mind spinning in a storm of grief and fury. The dull screech of the approaching Mimic echoed off the walls, and something inside her snapped. The weight of everything—Ben's brutal death, Atty's transformation, and now Sarah—was unbearable. Her heart burned with hatred for the Backrooms, for the creatures that had stolen everything from her.

She stood, eyes wild, her entire body trembling. The Mimic was close now, its grotesque shape emerging from the shadows, crawling closer with its sharp, jagged grin—its twisted, mocking version of Atty's voice still echoing in her ears.

It had taken enough.

"No more..." Adaliya muttered, her breath ragged, a deep growl rising in her throat.

The Mimic let out a distorted, low snarl as it lunged, but Adaliya didn't flinch. Instead, with a primal scream that tore from her chest, she charged at it. The gun was gone, lost in her blind fury—she didn't need it.

Her hands met the Mimic's cold, leathery skin. Its claws lashed at her, tearing through her suit, but she didn't care. Pain fueled her rage, spurring her forward. She dug her nails into the creature's throat, squeezing with every ounce of strength she had left.

The Mimic thrashed beneath her, its distorted voice crackling like static, mimicking Sarah's cries. But Adaliya didn't falter. She slammed its head against the ground, again and again, her fingers slipping through the blood as it oozed from its broken form.

With a guttural roar, she drove her knee into its ribcage, feeling the sickening crunch of bone beneath her. The Mimic screeched, writhing beneath her grasp, but Adaliya didn't let up. She slammed her fists into its face, over and over, not stopping until her knuckles were raw and bloodied. Every blow was a release of her grief, her hatred, her anguish.

"You... took... everything!" she screamed, her voice cracking as she pounded the creature into the ground. "Ben! Atty! Sarah!"

With one final scream of fury, she grabbed the Mimic's throat and twisted with all her might. There was a sickening snap, and the creature went limp beneath her. She knelt there, panting, staring down at the broken, lifeless thing beneath her hands. The sound of her own breath was deafening in the eerie silence that followed.

She felt nothing but an overwhelming emptiness.

The Mimic's body twitched one last time, a faint rasp escaping its lips. It tried to mimic one final word, but Adaliya silenced it with a savage punch, crushing its skull into the floor. Blood splattered across her suit, across her face, but she didn't care.

Collapsing to her knees, she screamed into the darkness, her voice hoarse and broken. She screamed for everything—the friends she had lost, the horrors she had faced, the hell she had been trapped in. Every emotion she had buried, every ounce of sorrow and rage, poured out of her until she had nothing left.

The Backrooms had taken everything.

Now, it had taken her too.