The Motel That Wasn't
The air inside the motel had changed.
It wasn't just wrong—it was watching.
Leo could feel it pressing against his skin, sinking into his lungs. The walls weren't walls anymore; they pulsed, stretched, breathed. Reality itself had become thin, like old paper stretched too tight over something trying to break through.
The mirror was gone.
But something else had taken its place.
The ceiling.
It had turned into a reflection of them, only wrong—their mirrored selves didn't move in sync. They were delayed, watching, waiting. Learning.
And above those reflections—
A figure stood behind their glass-world counterparts.
A thing that should not exist.
It had no face. No features. No true form. Just an absence where something should be. It leaned forward, its not-eyes fixed on Leo, grinning without a mouth.
Leo's pulse slammed against his ribs.
Jessica's whisper was barely audible. "It sees us."
The moment she spoke, the lights shattered.
A City Trying to Forget Them
Darkness swallowed the room, thick and choking. Then—motion.
Leo didn't think. He ran.
Jessica, Mike, and Chen followed, barreling through the motel door—
And out into a city that no longer remembered them.
The streets were empty. But not abandoned. Erased.
Buildings flickered between states of existence—whole one second, crumbling ruins the next. Some streets were just... gone, swallowed by an encroaching void.
The Hollowing hadn't stopped. It had spread.
Leo skidded to a halt, his breath raw. "Where the hell do we go?"
Jessica pressed a trembling hand against her temple, her golden numbers glitching, unstable. "It's rewriting reality around us."
Chen swore. "Then we move before it decides to erase us, too."
Mike spun, gun raised, scanning the streets. His face was pale. "Where's the girl?"
She was gone.
Leo had felt her fingers on his wrist, her voice cutting through the void, pulling him back—
But now?
No trace. No footprints. No proof she had ever been there.
Jessica's voice shook. "Leo... are you sure she was real?"
He turned to her—and hesitated.
Because for a second, he wasn't.
The Hunt Hasn't Ended
A sound slithered through the streets.
Not a growl.
Not a whisper.
Something deeper.
Like the bones of the world were cracking open.
Mike swore, backing up. "I don't think we made it out."
Leo turned—and saw the reflections.
Not mirrors. Not glass.
Just twisting glimpses of themselves in the air. Moving differently.
The other Leo.
The other Jessica.
The things that had watched them from the ceiling.
And behind them—
The Faceless Thing.
It wasn't standing still anymore.
It was walking toward them.
Jessica gasped. "It's following us."
Chen's grip on her gun tightened. "No. It's hunting us."
Escape Is Not Enough
Leo turned toward an alley. It hadn't been there before. It shouldn't be there now.
But they didn't have options.
"Go!" he barked, shoving Jessica forward.
They ran.
Shadows slithered between the cracks in the pavement, tendrils of forgotten reality reaching for them. The streets warped, folding into impossible corridors—turning left shouldn't have led here, but it did.
The city was breaking itself to keep them inside.
A shriek tore through the night—not human. Not animal.
Jessica stumbled, golden equations writhing around her like living things.
"Leo," she gasped, her breath ragged. "It's not chasing us. It's pushing us somewhere."
Leo's stomach dropped.
They weren't escaping.
They were being herded.
The Door That Should Never Open
They burst into a dead-end street.
No alleyways. No exits.
Just one door.
It stood alone.
No building around it. No walls. No structure.
Just a single, black wooden door standing in the street like it had been left behind by something that no longer needed it.
The handle dripped.
Black ichor.
Something inside was waiting.
Mike turned to Leo, eyes wild. "You're not seriously thinking of—"
The shadows behind them moved.
The Faceless Thing was closer now.
Not running.
Just walking.
Confident.
It didn't need to chase them.
Because it knew.
They had nowhere else to go.
Jessica's voice was frantic. "Leo, don't! We don't know what's in there—"
"But we know what's out here," he shot back.
He reached for the handle.
The moment his fingers touched the wood—
The world collapsed inward.
Somewhere Else
Leo hit cold, damp ground.
The air was thick with something ancient, something that pressed against his skin like it was trying to remember him.
He wasn't alone.
Jessica groaned nearby. Mike swore. Chen's breath came fast and shallow.
The door was gone.
No alley. No city.
Just black stone walls, stretching upward into darkness.
A place that should not exist.
Leo's pulse slammed in his throat.
Because on the far side of the room—
The girl stood waiting.
She wasn't surprised to see them.
Almost like she'd known they would come.
Leo's voice was hoarse. "...Where are we?"
The girl tilted her head.
"The place between places."
Jessica stood slowly, one hand pressed against her temple, golden equations pulsing against her skin. "You knew we'd end up here."
The girl didn't confirm. Didn't deny.
Just watched.
Mike exhaled sharply, scanning the impossible walls. "And what exactly is here?"
The girl finally moved.
She stepped forward—toward the center of the room.
And there, carved into the stone—
A mirror.
Cracked.
Fractured.
Waiting.
She turned back to them.
And for the first time—
Leo saw something like fear in her eyes.
"You made it through," she whispered.
"But so did it."
Leo's blood ran cold.
Chen stiffened. "...What do you mean?"
The girl raised a hand.
Pointed.
At Mike.
Leo turned.
And froze.
Because Mike's shadow wasn't his anymore.
It was too long.
Too still.
And when it moved—
Mike didn't.
His breath hitched. "What—"
Then—
His shadow turned its head.
And smiled.