The wind howled as I ran through the grey landscape that made up the city I had found myself in. The last thing I could remember was the rebel walking away from me after he had told me to get stronger.

Everyone always told me I needed to be stronger. Shaking my head, I tried to clear my thoughts. I looked around at the grey city. No colour existed anywhere I looked. The flashing signs around me gave off only a slightly changing shade of grey.

My breath came in ragged gasps as I ran. Sweat trickled down my neck as I glanced behind me, searching for the figure chasing me. It felt somehow familiar, as if I should know it.

Each time I stopped to rest, though, it was there, trying to kill me. Blades slicing down as the thing attempted to take my head as it seemed to laugh. I had been running and hiding for days now. Or at least what I assumed were days passing. It was hard to tell in the sea of grey that made up everything. The sky never really changed. It always seemed to be the same continuous colour.

I tracked the time by the shadows growing and fading. Each time they grew, the shadows released horrors I had to evade. Black, tentacle-like monsters came out of every dark corner. The only plus was that the figure chasing me also seemed affected by the tentacle horrors.

Well, at least I hoped the horrors were affecting the figure.

Turning a corner, I slid to a stop as the building before me came into view. I stared at it in horror as my heart pumped hard. I knew this building. I doubted I would ever forget it, if I were honest with myself.

I jumped at a scraping noise behind me. My heartbeat sped up as the panic in me rose again. As much as I hated it, the building before me was a chance. As much as the orphanage I had grown up in before I was adopted could be called a safe place.

I had too many dark memories; there was too much pain and regret.

I swallowed as I ran through the iron gates of the fence line. The gates would normally be locked, so I was surprised they opened with little effort. Even the rusted hinges swung silently. The squeak I had been expecting was missing.

“Everything about this is wrong,” I muttered as I pushed open the front door.

‘Alex.’

I spun around, looking for whoever had called out. My eyes flicked back and forth, but there was no one there. I let out the breath I had been holding as I turned and stepped through the doorway.

The air inside the orphanage was heavy, almost suffocating. Each step I took echoed unnaturally, as though the walls themselves were mocking me for coming back. The familiar smell of damp wood and rust filled my nose, dredging up memories I’d tried so hard to bury.

Memories that I still couldn’t let go of.

The hallway stretched on longer than I remembered. Its edges were swallowed by the shadow that seemed everywhere in this place. My feet automatically took me in a direction I knew all too well: I was going to the storage room, where it had all happened so long ago.

I hesitated as I reached the door, my hand hovering just above the handle. A chill ran through me, my breath catching in my throat. Somehow, I already knew what I’d see on the other side.

Swallowing hard, I pushed the door open.

Inside, everything was as it had been that day. Large metal crates were stacked to the ceiling, and the scattered remains of broken tables and other discarded items littered the ground everywhere. The shadows were everywhere here as the only light filtered through the cracked window. But what froze me in place was the scene unfolding before me. It was the memory I had repeatedly played in my head for years. Though now it was brought to life, vivid and unrelenting.

I saw myself as a younger, thinner, and angrier version. My hands clenched into fists, my expression hard as I argued with another boy. And there she was. The first mistake I had ever made, I couldn’t just let go.

Lina.

She stood just behind me, clutching a small teddy bear, her frail figure almost swallowed by the shadows. Her wide, fearful eyes darted between us as the shouting grew louder.

“No,” I whispered, stepping forward. “Stop, Alex, you idiot. Just stop.”

But my voice didn’t reach them. It was like I wasn’t there at all.

Desperation clawed at me as I tried to grab my younger self by the shoulders to pull him away from the fight, but my hands passed through him like smoke. “Stop it!” I screamed, but they didn’t hear me. “You're going to kill her.”

The argument the younger version of me was in began to escalate as it had. I watched as the other boy shoved me, and I pushed back. We stared at each other as the shouting between us continued. The crate tower behind him wobbled, but we didn’t notice.

My hands clawed at the crates. My fingers slipped through them like mist. I shouted pleaded, but the scene moved on without me. I screamed for help. I looked around, but again, no one heard me.

“Alex, you can’t change this.” Said a soft and gentle voice. It was achingly familiar. I turned, and there she was, Lina, but not as she had been. She glowed faintly, her outline shimmering as though made of light. Her green eyes met mine, calm and steady.

Her eyes were the first colour I had seen in this place. Tears came running down my face as I stared at her. My hand started to reach out as she spoke again.

“You don’t belong here,” she said.

I staggered back, shaking my head and wiping the tears away. “No. I have to stop it. I have to save you.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You can’t,” she replied, her voice tinged with sadness. “The past isn’t something you can fight. What happened happened. You can’t change what was.”

I returned to the scene as the younger me grabbed Lina’s hand, pulling her away from the fray. But it was already too late. The other boy stumbled, colliding with the unstable stack of crates.

“No!” I screamed as they tipped, the heavy metal crates tumbling down.

I watched helplessly as Lina’s small body was caught in the collapse. The younger me fell to his knees, frantically pushing, trying to lift the crates, but it was useless. Lina lay still, her broken teddy clutched in her hand.

My legs buckled, and I sank to the floor, burying my face in my hands. “It’s my fault,” I choked out. “I should’ve been faster. I should’ve…”

“No, Alex.” Her voice cut through my thoughts, soft but firm. “It wasn’t your fault.”

I looked up at her, my vision blurred by tears. “How can you say that? I failed you. I let this happen.”

She knelt beside me, her hand hovering just above mine, though we couldn’t touch. “You didn’t let it happen. It wasn’t something you could stop. The crates were going to fall no matter what. The fight wasn’t caused by you, not by you or any of the others. We were all hungry. You can’t blame yourself for the chaos of that place. You tried to protect me. You always did. Thanks to your efforts, I survived as long as I did.”

I shook my head, the guilt twisting inside me. “But you’re gone because of me. Because I couldn’t protect you. I wasn’t strong enough.”

Her expression softened, and the light around her seemed to brighten for a moment. “I’m free now, Alex. Free from the pain, from the hunger, from everything that hurt us back then. You’ve carried this pain long enough, Alex.”

Her words pierced through the storm of self-loathing that had followed me for so long. I stared at her, the weight in my chest shifting, though not entirely lifting.

“Let me go,” she said softly, a faint smile on her lips. “Let me go so that you can be free too.”

The memories around us began to dissolve. The walls of the orphanage crumbled into mist. Lina’s form grew fainter, her glow fading into the grey world as the shadows returned.

“Wait,” I said, my voice breaking. “I’m not strong enough. I can’t protect anyone. I’m not ready.”

“You don’t have to be,” she replied, her voice echoing as the mist swallowed her. The shadows crawled towards where she was standing. “But you will be, someday. You need to let me go…”

And then she was gone.

I let out a scream of pain as I was left alone in the grey world. The weight in my chest might have felt lighter, but it was still there, like a scar that would never fully heal.

I felt pain course through my body as I let everything out. The hatred I had felt at myself, at everyone else. The loss of the one person that I had cared for. Lina had been everything to me for so long. My reason to keep fighting, to keep hoping.

I sobbed for what felt like ages. Each tear that I cried only made my heart ache more. I let everything go. Tears of anger, pain, and loss fell from my eyes as I cried.

After a long time, I finally looked up. The shadows around me didn’t feel as oppressive anymore.

For the first time in what felt like days, I didn’t run.

I just sat there, breathing, and let myself feel the quiet.

A voice echoed again, sharp and urgent.

'Alex, wake up.’

I looked around, panicked at the voice. “Who’s there,” I shouted.

The sound of broken glass behind me made the hair on my neck stand up. I slowly turned around and froze.

Every nerve in my body screamed as I stared at… me. My face, my scars, my haunted eyes. But something about the other me felt wrong, twisted, like a shadow wearing my skin. Its movements were just slightly off, too smooth, too deliberate. Its eyes held a hollowness as if they were windows into the void, and when it smiled, the shadows around it twisted like a living thing.

My voice came out a hoarse whisper. "What the fuck is this?” I asked the other me. My eyes darted around as I tried to understand what I was seeing. The shadows danced along the other me’s figure like they were a part of it.

Again, the voice called out.

‘Wake up, Alex.’

I looked around for where the voice was coming from again. But there was nothing around me. I shook my head, and I focused back on the figure of me. It smiled—rows of needle-like teeth appeared, making sweat bead on my forehead as I swallowed the fear I felt rising.

“What are you?” I demanded, my voice trembling as the thing raised its hand, shadows coiling around its fingers as they curled into the shape of a gun. It pointed at me, the corners of its twisted smile stretching impossibly wide.

Bang.

The word wasn’t spoken out loud. It echoed in my head. My legs trembled, rooted to the spot.

I felt a grip tightened around my shoulder. I spun wildly, my heart hammering, but there was no one, just the suffocating silence of the orphanage. Shadows loomed closer, alive and watching.

I turned back. The figure smiled again, its mouth stretched impossibly wide, rows of needle-like teeth gleaming like daggers. My stomach churned as the shadows around it writhed, crawling across the walls like living smoke.

It raised a hand again, slowly dragging a finger across its throat. The gesture was deliberate taunting, and my feet still refused to move. Every nerve screamed at me to run, but I couldn’t. My body was frozen, caught in the gravity of its presence.

The figure stepped forward as it dissolved into smoke, its form rippling unnaturally until it reshaped into another face, my adoptive father’s. His sneer cut sharper than any blade.

“You’re a disgrace,” he spat, his voice dragging me back to every humiliating moment, every word I tried so hard to bury. “Weak. Useless. I should never have picked you.”

“Shut up!” I roared, my voice breaking. “Shut up! Shut up!”

But the figure only laughed, the sound reverberating in my chest like the tolling of a death knell.

“So pathetic,” it hissed before melting back into the image of me: my scars, haunted eyes, and failure reflected in its hollow gaze. The smile returned, wider now, the teeth almost luminous in the darkness.

The shadows rose, encasing it in a writhing cocoon. Tentacles of smoke stretched out, twisting upwards before it vanished. The tendrils of smoke twisted into words, dark and ominous.

You can’t escape from me.

My breath hitched, and I stumbled back, the world spinning. The words lingered in the air before dissolving, the room falling eerily still. A faint breeze brushed past me, chilling my sweat-soaked skin.

A scream shattered the silence, a blood-curdling wail that tore through the walls, leaving them trembling. It was a sound of pure despair, one I couldn’t place but felt deep in my soul.

I covered my ears as the laughter started a few seconds later. Dark, guttural laughter layered with malice. It filled the room, overlapping the scream until it drowned everything else.

I staggered forward, gripping the wall to steady myself. My voice was barely a whisper as I pleaded into the suffocating air.

“What... what the hell is happening?”

The shadows writhed across the room, alive with laughter as dust fell from the ceiling above me as I heard the voice call out again.

‘We need you, Alex. Please… Wake up.’

I felt my body jolt forward as pain arched through my chest. I gasped as I collapsed. My head bounced off the floor.

“Ahh.” I groaned weakly as I felt another jolt shoot through my body. Darkness crept along the edges of my vision as I rolled over. The pain was coursing through my body entirely now.

“Why…” I croaked one last time before I finally let the darkness take me.