I stared at the yellow tape, still spinning, even though the audio was gone.
It didn't end.
It was cut off.
Elena's voice had vanished mid-sentence, like someone had ripped her out of the air.
And in that silence... another voice returned.
Not from the tape.
From my head.
> Don't stop. Don't think. Just feel.
That line again.
But now it sounded deeper.
Familiar.
Like my own voice echoing back at me.
---
I grabbed my notebook and flipped through the pages.
I wasn't sure what I was looking for — some proof I still remembered her the way she actually was.
Then I saw it.
A scribbled line I didn't recognize, wedged between two lyrics we'd written:
> To erase the voice, you must erase the host.
What host?
I didn't write that.
She didn't either.
I checked the handwriting.
It was shakier. Cramped.
Like someone writing in a panic. Or... someone trying to mimic me.
---
My heart started pounding.
I opened my laptop. Clicked through every audio file. Every backup.
All of them had been renamed.
None of them were hers anymore.
Just cold, clinical titles like:
Track_001_A
VocalTest_clean
Ezra_VoiceCopy_3
Wait—what?
Ezra_VoiceCopy_3
That wasn't Elena's voice at all.
That was me.
---
I played it.
I expected a vocal warm-up. A test. Anything.
But what I heard was... a full conversation.
Between me.
And myself.
> Voice 1 (Me): "It's happening again. I heard her in the static."
Voice 2 (Also Me): "That wasn't her. That was conditioning. Stay with me."
Voice 1: "But I miss her."
Voice 2: "No. You miss who she made you believe you were."
Voice 1: "What if I've been the echo all along?"
The audio ended abruptly.
I hadn't recorded that.
Had I?
---
I ran to the mirror again.
That damn mirror.
Because I didn't trust my voice anymore.
I needed to see my mouth move.
I said out loud:
> "I am Ezra. I am not part of this."
My reflection smirked.
Only for a second.
But I saw it.
---
I slammed the mirror with my fist.
Blood. Shards. A quiet scream I didn't know came from me.
Then my phone vibrated.
Airdrop request from UNKNOWN.
One file.
No name.
No sender.
Just a title:
> ERASE HIM FIRST