Abhi’s words hung in the air, as weightless yet oppressive as the nightmare dimension itself. The dark ocean beneath them rippled faintly, a reminder of its strange dual nature—half illusory, half real. Nameless gazed at him, her translucent form flickering faintly. For a moment, neither spoke, the silence broken only by the distant, otherworldly hum of the eclipsed sun overhead.
Nameless finally broke the quiet. “So, let me get this straight,” she said, her voice slow and deliberate. “You think your body isn’t yours, your soul doesn’t belong in it, and you’re not from this world. But instead of explaining why, you just… drop that on me and expect me to what? Take it at face value?”
Abhi turned to her, his expression unreadable. “I didn’t say it would make sense. Not yet.”
Nameless rolled her eyes, though her body language betrayed her frustration. “Do you even know how insane that sounds? And what’s worse is, somehow, it doesn’t feel insane. That’s what scares me.”
Abhi’s lips twitched upward, a half-smile that carried no humor. “That’s because you’ve been here too long. The longer you stay in this place, the more the impossible starts to feel normal.”
Her expression hardened, and she crossed her arms. “You’re dodging the question. Start talking, Abhi. Tell me everything—about your theory, your flashback, and why you think this host body isn’t yours. And don’t hold back this time.”
He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was quieter, more contemplative. “It’s not just a theory, Nameless. It’s... a feeling. Like a splinter in my mind, something that doesn’t fit no matter how hard I try to make it. I look at this body, and it’s like wearing clothes that don’t belong to you. They fit, but they don’t feel right.”
Nameless frowned, tilting her head. “That’s vague. Feelings can lie, you know. Memories too.”
Abhi opened his eyes, his gaze sharp. “Then let me tell you about the flashback.”
Nameless motioned for him to continue, her skepticism tempered by curiosity.
----------------------------------------
“When I woke up in the host’s body,” Abhi began, “it wasn’t like waking up from a dream. It was... disorienting. Like being dropped into a movie halfway through and expected to play the lead role. I could feel everything—his emotions, his memories—but they weren’t mine. It’s hard to explain. They were like shadows of memories, impressions left behind.”
Nameless nodded slowly. “That’s not uncommon for souls that transmigrate. It’s called memory bleed. The stronger the host’s will, the more their memories cling to the soul. But that doesn’t prove your body isn’t your own.”
“I’m not finished,” Abhi said, his tone calm but firm. “There was a moment in the flashback—a specific moment—when everything changed. When I stopped being just a passenger and became... something else.”
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Nameless leaned closer, her translucent form pulsing faintly. “Go on.”
----------------------------------------
The scene came back to him in vivid detail. Abhi described it as if he were living it again, his voice steady but tinged with an undercurrent of unease.
The host—Abhi, as he’d come to call him—stood in front of the mirror, his reflection distorted by the tears streaking down his face. He was crying silently, his shoulders trembling as he struggled to hold himself together. But there was something off about the way he cried. It wasn’t grief—it was rage. A silent, simmering fury that seemed to consume him from the inside out.
Then, abruptly, he stopped. He wiped his face with one hand, the motion mechanical, almost robotic. The tears were gone, replaced by a cold, blank expression. It was as if someone had flipped a switch, and all the emotions drained from his face.
“That’s when I entered,” Abhi said, his voice dropping to a near whisper. “I didn’t know it at the time, but looking back... that was the moment. The host’s soul had been fighting, resisting something, and when he gave up... I took over.”
Nameless’s eyes narrowed. “You took over? What does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” Abhi admitted. “But it wasn’t voluntary. It was like I was pulled into the body against my will. And the memories that came with it—they weren’t mine. They were his.”
----------------------------------------
Nameless paced along the edge of the dark ocean, her form shimmering faintly in the dim light. “This still doesn’t explain why you think the body isn’t yours. If anything, it sounds like you’re exactly what you claim not to be: the host’s soul, with fragments of his memories.”
Abhi shook his head. “You’re missing the point. The body didn’t feel like mine because it fought me. It resisted me, even after I took over. Every movement felt... wrong. Like it was rejecting me.”
Nameless stopped pacing, turning to face him. “Bodies don’t reject their own souls, Abhi. That’s not how it works.”
“Maybe not,” he said. “But what if this body wasn’t meant for me? What if it belonged to someone else—someone the host took over before I arrived?”
Nameless’s eyes widened, her form flickering as she processed his words. “You’re saying... the host wasn’t the original owner either?”
“Exactly,” Abhi said. “What if this body has been passed from one soul to another, like a cursed object? Each time, the original owner’s essence is erased, replaced by a new soul.”
----------------------------------------
The thought hung between them, heavy and unsettling. Nameless stared at him, her expression unreadable. “That’s... a lot to unpack,” she said finally. “But let’s say, for argument’s sake, that you’re right. What does that make us? Parasites? Victims? Something else entirely?”
Abhi looked away, his gaze drifting to the dark ocean. “I don’t know,” he said. “But if I’m right, then this isn’t just about us. It’s about everyone who’s ever been part of this cycle. We’re not the first, Nameless. And we won’t be the last.”
Nameless shivered, her form dimming slightly. “That’s a grim thought.”
“It’s reality,” Abhi said. “And the sooner we accept it, the sooner we can figure out how to break the cycle.”
Nameless sighed, rubbing her temples. “You’re asking me to believe a lot, Abhi. But let’s say I do. What’s your plan? How do we break the cycle?”
Abhi turned to her, his eyes sharp and determined. “We start by figuring out who the host really was. And to do that, we need to go deeper—into the flashbacks, the memories, and whatever lies beneath them.”
Nameless raised an eyebrow. “Deeper? You mean... into the abyssal dimension?”
“Exactly,” Abhi said. “The answers are down there, Nameless. We just have to be brave enough to find them.”
----------------------------------------
The chapter ends with the two of them standing at the edge of the dark ocean, staring into the abyss. The water ripples faintly, as if alive, beckoning them to dive deeper into the unknown. The eclipsed sun overhead casts a dim, foreboding light, a reminder of the challenges that await.