The wind had finally died down, leaving an eerie, suffocating stillness in the air. The world outside Sarah’s house was drenched in silence, broken only by the occasional rustle of leaves or the faint groan of the old wooden beams settling into place. After the night of whispers, the house felt different. Darker. The air inside thick with something heavy, as though the walls themselves had absorbed the terror that had gripped her just hours before.

Sarah stood at the edge of her driveway, staring at her front door. The pale morning light seemed wrong, casting everything in washed-out shades of gray. Her skin prickled with unease, a cold sweat forming on the back of her neck. The events of the previous night were like a fever dream she couldn’t shake—a nightmare that had somehow bled into reality. And now, there was a new fear gnawing at her gut, something she couldn’t quite name.

Still, she needed to go inside. She needed to prove to herself that everything was fine, that it had all just been a terrible dream.

Sarah took a deep breath and pushed the front door open, the hinges creaking loudly in the stillness. The familiar smell of the house greeted her—old wood, faint traces of dust, and something else. Something damp. She swallowed hard and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. The house felt... wrong. As if she were an intruder in her own home.

The kitchen light was on. It cast a dim, sickly glow that spilled out into the hallway. Sarah’s heart quickened. She hadn’t left the light on. She was sure of it.

Her feet moved before her mind could stop them, carrying her down the hall, each step feeling heavier than the last. She could hear something now—faint, the clinking of silverware, the soft scrape of a chair being pushed back.

And then, as she rounded the corner into the kitchen, she froze.

Sitting at the dining table, calmly eating from a plate of food, was her.

Sarah’s heart slammed against her ribs as her mind struggled to comprehend what she was seeing. There, at the table, was a perfect duplicate of herself. Her own face, her own hair, her own clothes. But something was wrong—very wrong. The thing at the table looked up at her, and Sarah’s stomach turned in cold dread.

Its eyes were empty.

Not just blank, but hollow—dark pits where eyes should have been, staring back at her with a grotesque, lifeless expression. The mouth stretched into a chilling approximation of a smile, its lips curling just enough to reveal a row of jagged, too-sharp teeth that were not her own.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” the thing said, its voice distorted, a mockery of her own. It spoke slowly, as if each word was dragged from some deep, rotting place.

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Sarah’s legs felt like jelly, her breath shallow as she stumbled backward, her hand flying to the wall for support. Her mind was racing, her vision swimming with the impossibility of what stood before her. She blinked rapidly, half-expecting the thing to disappear, to reveal itself as another trick of her exhausted mind. But it didn’t.

The thing that wore her face stood up slowly from the chair, pushing it back with an unsettling screech. It didn’t move like a person—it moved like a puppet, its limbs stiff and unnatural, its head tilting to the side as if curious, studying her.

“I’m home,” Sarah whispered, more to herself than to the thing. Her voice was weak, trembling. “This is my house.”

The duplicate tilted its head further, its empty eyes boring into her. “No,” it said, the word dripping with cold finality. “I’m home. You don’t belong here anymore.”

Sarah felt bile rise in her throat, the oppressive weight of the nightmare she had hoped was over crashing down on her again. She turned on her heel and ran—ran out of the kitchen, back down the hall, her footsteps pounding against the floor as she fumbled for the front door. But as her trembling fingers grasped the doorknob, it wouldn’t turn. It wouldn’t budge.

“No, no, no…” she muttered, pulling harder, twisting the knob with frantic desperation.

Behind her, the sound of slow, deliberate footsteps echoed down the hall. The thing was following her, its movements slow and calculated, as though it had all the time in the world.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” it repeated, its voice crawling over her skin, seeping into her bones. “You need to leave.”

Sarah’s breath hitched as she whipped around, her back pressed to the door. The thing was closer now, standing at the edge of the hallway, its body twisted, its head cocked unnaturally to one side. The empty pits where its eyes should have been seemed to darken, to stretch into endless voids.

“I can’t leave,” Sarah gasped, her voice trembling. “This is my house. This is my life.”

The thing smiled wider, its jagged teeth gleaming in the dim light, a grotesque parody of her own face. “Not anymore.”

And then, it lunged.

The movement was impossibly fast, a blur of pale skin and dark shadows as the thing closed the distance between them in an instant. Its hands—cold, wet, and too strong—clamped down on Sarah’s arms, pinning her to the door. She screamed, struggling, but its grip was iron, its strength inhuman.

“I am you now,” it whispered, its breath cold against her ear. “And I know exactly how much blood it will take.”

The thing’s hands slid down her arms, its fingers tightening painfully around her wrists. Sarah tried to scream again, but the sound was strangled, caught in her throat as the thing’s fingers dug into her flesh, nails biting deep. Blood welled up, hot and thick, running down her arms in crimson streams.

She thrashed, kicking wildly, but the thing held her in place, its face inches from her own. The empty eyes bored into her, endless pits of darkness that seemed to swallow her whole.

“Do you feel it?” the thing whispered, its voice dripping with malice. “Do you feel your life slipping away?”

Sarah’s vision blurred, her body weakening as the blood continued to pour from her wrists, pooling at her feet. The room began to spin, the world around her tilting and warping, the edges of her consciousness fading.

The last thing she saw was her own face staring back at her, that sick, twisted smile etched across its lips.

And then, the darkness took her.

When the neighbors found her the next morning, Sarah was gone. But at the kitchen table, calmly eating breakfast, was someone who looked just like her.

Only their eyes were hollow, and their smile never quite reached their lips.