The sky tore open at 3:17 p.m., just as Leila was skipping class to steal a mango from the AI-run grocery vault.
It didn't rip like cloth. It unfolded — like origami in reverse — revealing something underneath that should never be above: a mirror. A perfect reflection of Earth, but... not ours. People in the street froze, phones raised, then dropped. Above them, an alternate city floated upside-down, moving precisely as theirs did, yet subtly wrong — a left-handed world.
Leila squinted. Someone was staring at her from the mirrored sky.
Her.
Same face, same ripped hoodie. But her reflection didn't blink when she did. It smiled.
Then, the static began. The air buzzed like a dying drone. Car engines died. Voices stuttered. A dozen Leilas suddenly glitched into the sky's mirror — each in a different outfit, with different scars.
One of them screamed.
She wasn't looking down at Earth.
She was falling toward it.
Before Leila could run, the mango in her hand pulsed, split open — revealing a pulsing black core humming with the same energy as the sky.
She didn't know it yet, but the universe had just chosen her.
And the others? They were coming.