Smoke crawled along the floor like a living thing, twisting around Evan's ankles as he moved deeper into the abandoned hallway. The silence here wasn't real silence—it buzzed, faint and electrical, as if the air itself was holding its breath.
Behind him, Maya whispered, "Evan… I think something's following us."
He didn't have to turn around to know she was right.
Every time they stopped, the echo stopped.
Every time they breathed, something seemed to breathe with them.
The fluorescent lights above flickered, casting sharp shadows against the cracked walls. Evan's pulse hammered in his ears, but he forced himself forward, gripping the metal pipe he'd ripped from the generator room.
"We just need to reach the elevator core," Evan said. "The building's map says there's an override terminal on sublevel two. We can access it through—"
A loud metallic slam cut him off.
Not behind them.
Not ahead.
Inside the wall.
Maya's breath caught. "Did you hear—"
Before she could finish, the wall beside them bulged outward for a split second, like something huge had pressed its weight against the concrete from the other side.
Then another slam.
Harder.
Dust rained from the ceiling. The lights flickered violently. A spiderweb crack spread across the wall beside them.
Maya grabbed Evan's arm. "We need to move. Now."
Evan nodded, pulse racing. "Run."
They sprinted down the hall, their footsteps echoing off the metal floor panels. Behind them, the thing in the wall moved with them—pounding, scraping, dragging. It was as if the creature wasn't walking but crawling along the inside of the building, matching their pace with chilling precision.
Every few seconds, another slam.
Every slam, closer.
When they rounded the corner into the stairwell, the air temperature dropped instantly. The stairwell lights were dead. The darkness felt thicker here, almost physical.
Evan aimed his flashlight downward.
Halfway down the stairs, something glinted.
Something metallic.
Something moving.
His breath froze.
Maya whispered, trembling, "Please tell me that's not—"
But Evan already knew.
The figure on the stairs wasn't human.
Not entirely.
It was shaped like a person, but too long—arms stretched past its knees, legs jointed at impossible angles. Its skin was pale, patchwork, stretched too tightly across its body like someone had pulled it over a frame it didn't belong to. A metal mask covered its face—a smooth, expressionless plate with no eye holes, only a thin vertical slit where a mouth should be.
It tilted its head at them.
The metal scraped.
The sound punched through Evan like an electric shock.
Maya's voice cracked. "What is that—"
The creature launched upward.
Not climbed.
Not jumped.
Launched.
Its hands slammed into the railing as its body twisted in midair, moving like a puppet pulled by invisible strings. Evan grabbed Maya and shoved her back into the hallway as the creature landed where they had stood a heartbeat earlier.
The metal stairs buckled under the impact.
And then the creature straightened.
Slowly.
Purposefully.
Evan didn't think.
He grabbed Maya's wrist again. "MOVE!"
They sprinted through the corridor. Behind them, the creature followed—but it didn't run. It crawled, its limbs scraping against the floor, metal mask clanging softly each time it jerked its head. Even without eyes, it moved with the certainty of something that could feel their fear.
Something that hunted through sound.
Through breath.
Through heartbeats.
They reached a set of double doors—heavily reinforced, with a cracked electronic lock.
Evan pulled desperately at the handle. "Come on—!"
It didn't budge.
Maya scrambled beside him. "The keypad—try the keypad!"
He slammed his fingers into the buttons, trying random combinations as the creature's scraping grew louder, closer.
Beep.
Beep.
Error.
Error.
Red light.
The creature's crawling turned into a low, metallic rattle.
It was climbing up the walls.
Maya screamed, "Evan, hurry!"
"I'm trying!"
Beep.
Beep.
Green light.
The door clicked open.
They threw themselves inside and slammed it shut just as the creature hurled its body at the metal, denting it inward by an inch.
The whole frame shook.
Another slam.
The steel groaned.
Evan held the door shut with everything he had as the creature rammed it again. The impact sent him stumbling backward, shoulder blazing with pain.
The pounding continued for ten seconds.
Then twenty.
Then silence.
All Evan could hear was his own ragged breathing.
Maya slumped against the opposite wall. "What… what was that thing?"
Evan didn't answer immediately.
Because the room they'd just entered wasn't a hallway.
It wasn't an office.
It wasn't even part of the public facility.
It was a surveillance chamber.
Rows of monitors lined the walls, each showing a different part of the building—hallways filled with smoke, stairwells choked with debris, labs flickering with dying lights.
But one monitor—the biggest one—stood out.
Because on that screen was footage from inside the wall they had just run past.
Evan's stomach dropped as he stepped closer.
There, in grainy gray feed, was the creature.
Except…
There were six of them.
All crawling, all shifting, all pressed against the interior support structure like insects hiding under a floorboard.
Waiting.
And in the corner of the feed, a text overlay blinked:
SUBJECT CLASS: MIRROR-BORNE
REPLICATION STATUS: ACTIVE
PRIMARY TARGET: EVAN MARSH
Maya clasped a hand over her mouth. "It's targeting you."
The screen flickered.
The camera angle shifted automatically.
And the feed changed to show another room—dark, but with a lone figure sitting in the center, hands bound, head lowered.
Blood streaked the figure's shirt.
Bruises covered his face.
His hair was matted, identical to Evan's.
Maya whispered, shaky, "Evan… is that—"
Evan's vision blurred.
Because the face on the screen…
was his.
Another Evan.
Alive.
Bleeding.
Breathing.
And whispering something the microphone barely picked up.
"That's not… me…
Don't trust…
the one with you…"
The lights in the surveillance room flickered out.
A soft click echoed behind them.
The door lock resetting.
Then another click.
From inside the room.
Evan turned slowly, dread climbing up his spine like icy fingers.
In the far corner, a maintenance panel they hadn't noticed before slid open.
Something crawled out of it.
Something wearing a face.
His face.
Its neck cracked as it tilted its head, smiling too wide.
Maya screamed.
Evan stepped in front of her as the thing took one slow step forward, voice glitching, overlapping with his own:
"Hello… Evan."