Clutching The Darkness

Chapter 28: Cosmic Fate

With the whisper's presence, I knew he was near. Just past the corner and...

"YOU! What have you done!? How dare you go against our wishes?" a deep and dreary voice confronted me. But no matter how many modifications and attributes given to the voice, in the end, it always was my voice.

I turned to see a reflection of myself. No, this image was slightly different. He was covered in gore. Although sporting the red hoodie, no white under shirt was noticeable. Only the flesh of a body like mine, except pasted with hues of blood. He has...he has Iustitia's eye as well. It's on his right eye though, unlike my left. Does he...does he believe himself to be correct? Or is that the way I've always interpreted myself? An eye on the right, makes a viewer believe he has the correct vision. Economists and historians agree that perspective is key. And often, the viewers think they're in the right. Often, they're wrong.

"There is no 'our' anymore. I'm my own spirit. My own person. I've survived this thirty times. And I'll make sure that this is the last time the cycle repeats," I steadied the sword, my inexperienced hands shaking with the weight of it.

He shot me a glance. Neutral. And then the corners of his lip began to curl mischievously. A grin. A chuckle. Then laughter. Throughout the night I often heard the same noise accompanied with the vibrations of my body heaving with delirium. It was sickening to see another man chortle with such delight while being covered in blood. What a sicko.

"Hahaha! YOU survived? I can't believe you haven't realized it! Those memories you thought you pieced together! They're all just images you can't find a common connection to. Who's to say they're YOUR memories anyway?"

"What!?"

Then his eye glared and pulsed convulsively. His laughter became almost demonic, and his demeanor infantile. His voice teasingly dripped out like toxic sludge.

"YOU IDIOT! HAHA. Did you forget the rules of reality shifting? When one shifts, they leave a clone behind, and their memories are linked. What you thought you experienced never happened. Or let me guess, did you forget what happened to 'them'?"

My eyes widened. What does he mean? What does he mea— then the thought hit me. All those memories of me almost dying. They weren't me at all. In fact, it wasn't 'almost' dying. It WAS death. Those memories, those events, happening over twenty-eight times. It...it couldn't be—

"But it is! Do you understand!? Calidris has been dead for months! And so have the other twenty-seven clones! You're just one of them as well. The original Calidris, the one who lived in the original reality of One, had our same desire and shifted into the second reality. He left behind a clone, a perfect copy, who then also shifted into the third reality.

"They would all die in their realities, but each time they left, they would leave a clone in reality one, the base reality, who would then shift into the next reality. After all, even if clones, the same reality cannot be achieved through shifting. A separate world but almost a carbon copy."

He was right. I remember now. My memories...they've been fogged. Because the clones kept dying and transferring memories into other clones, there's been a disconnect. The symptoms of reality shifting have also affected us and what we can recollect.

No wonder why I could never remember anything when I studied. Each time I would pass out or sleep, I remember longing for a different world. Longing for a reality out of my misery. I've been shifting and leaving clones for over a month!

Which means: I'm also a clone. I'm the twenty-eighth clone. The twenty-ninth Calidris.

A gaping hole summoned in my chest. It was the feeling of emptiness. My knees dropped as if in obedience. I laid there like a defunct animatronic, staring soulessly at Synkronus. I didn't even care when Iustitia's sight began to revolutionize his appearance. It should have done so to begin with— but perhaps the changes in my psyche affected my powers. My powers...given by him. Powers only granted to me just to accomplish his narrative. The previous thoughts that nothing mattered started to flow back into my head.