Bristol, England – 5:11 PM, Tuesday
The lab was too quiet.
Ishaan sat at his desk, eyes locked on the screen. The drone footage had been enhanced, frame-by-frame. No glitches. No compression errors. The figure was there. Standing motionless in the corner of the rooftop. Facing him.
And it looked exactly like him.
He zoomed in.
Blurry, yes. But the posture, the slope of the shoulders, the scar on the left eyebrow — all the same. Only the expression was different. Empty. Like it wasn't looking at the camera, but through it.
His hand hovered over the playback button.
He didn't press it.
Instead, he sat back and listened to the hum of the air vents. The buzz of the fluorescent lights. The faint thrum in his chest that hadn't stopped since the rooftop.
It wasn't adrenaline.
It was resonance.
Outside, the sky dimmed to a strange violet, not storm-dark, just wrong. Like the color didn't belong.
Students passed outside the glass walls of the lab, laughing too loud. Oblivious.
He rubbed his temples. The shimmer was back — just under his vision. Not visible. Not fully. But it made the air seem fluid. Flexible.
Like the world was breathing with him.
Message Notification: [Kriti – 8 Missed Calls]
He tapped it. Scrolled. Paused.
"Ishaan. Something's happening. People are vanishing. Not like dead, like... gone. I saw a woman blink out right in front of me near the medical wing. CALL ME."
His breath caught.
He opened the university's security camera portal. Logged in using his project credentials. Searched the timestamp from earlier. Rooftop, northern angle.
There it was.
The other Ishaan, clearer this time. A glitch in reflection. The camera lens distorted — not outward, but inward, like the frame had bent toward something that wasn't supposed to be there.
And in the next frame, it was just him, standing alone.
His phone slipped slightly from his hand. A whisper — just at the edge of hearing — brushed his thoughts.
Not a voice.
Not words.
Just recognition. Like something knew his shape now. Like it had learned his pattern.
He muttered, almost without thinking, "Ishaan Ren Vale."
His reflection in the dark screen flickered.
Just once.
And then he was alone again.