EPISODE 11
THE REAL ELIAS DIED FIRST
The knocking began at exactly 3:13 AM.
Not on the front door.
Not upstairs.
Inside the walls.
Slow.
Precise.
Three knocks.
Then silence.
Elias sat frozen in the darkness while dozens of smiling copies stood motionless around the house.
None of them moved now.
None of them blinked.
They only watched him.
Waiting.
The hallway lights flickered weakly above their faces.
Then every copy slowly turned their heads toward the kitchen at the exact same time.
The knocking returned.
Three more knocks.
From inside the walls.
One of the copies suddenly whispered:
He found the entrance.
A deep crack echoed through the ceiling.
Dust fell onto the floor.
Elias backed away from the staircase, gripping the strange black book tightly against his chest.
What is happening? he whispered.
The copies smiled wider.
Not naturally.
Like the skin around their mouths was tearing slowly.
Another voice answered from somewhere upstairs.
You opened the corridor again. Again.
The word hit Elias hard.
Again?
The pressure inside his skull exploded violently.
Images flashed through his mind. A dark hallway.
Red emergency lights.
Steel doors.
People screaming.
His own hands covered in blood.
Then
A body lying motionless on the floor.
His body.
Elias staggered backward.
No…
The copies began whispering together.
You don’t remember dying.
Every light in the house burst off instantly.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Then the book began glowing faintly in Elias’ hands.
New words burned themselves onto the pages.
THE ORIGINAL HOST TERMINATED 42 DAYS AGO.
Elias stopped breathing.
His hands trembled violently.
No… no, that’s not possible…
But deep inside
Something already knew the truth.
Another memory slammed into his mind.
Rain pouring outside an underground facility.
A door marked:
SECTOR C CORRIDOR RESEARCH DIVISION
Men shouting.
Alarms screaming.
Then a voice over the speakers:
THE COPIES ARE LEARNING HUMAN MEMORY.
Elias dropped to his knees.
The headaches.
The missing memories.
The nightmares.
None of them were accidents.
He looked slowly toward the smiling figures surrounding him.
One of them stepped forward.
It wore his face perfectly now.
Almost perfectly.
We tried to keep you stable, it said calmly.
Its voice sounded smoother than before.
More human.
But the corridor kept leaking through your mind.
Elias stared at it in horror.
What are you?
The thing smiled.
We are what came back.
A loud metallic bang exploded upstairs.
The entire house shook violently.
Then
Heavy footsteps.
Fast.
Running across the ceiling again.
But bigger this time.
Much bigger.
Even the copies stopped smiling.
The creature upstairs moved unnaturally fast from one side of the house to the other.
Walls cracked.
Furniture trembled.
Then complete silence returned.
One of the copies whispered nervously:
It knows he remembers.
The black-eyed version of Elias suddenly looked toward the ceiling in fear.
Fear.
For the first time.
Elias noticed it immediately.
Whatever was upstairs
Even the copies were afraid of it.
The lights flickered once.
Twice.
Then a voice echoed from directly above them.
Not human.
Not even close.
Return my skin.
Every copy inside the house froze instantly.
Their smiles vanished.
The ceiling above Elias slowly bent downward.
As though something massive was crawling across it.
Long cracks spread through the plaster.
Dust rained onto the floor.
Then a hand pushed through the ceiling.
Thin.
Pale.
Far too long to belong to a human being.
The copies stepped backward together.
Panicking now.
The thing upstairs forced more of itself downward through the broken ceiling.
Its arms bent incorrectly.
Its bones cracking constantly.
And slowly. Very slowly
It lowered its face into the room.
Elias felt his blood turn cold.
Because the creature had no face at all.
Only shifting skin.
Moving endlessly.
Trying to become someone.
Anyone.
The faceless thing tilted its head toward Elias.
Then all the copies spoke together in terrified voices.
DON’T LET IT SEE YOU.
Too late.
The creature stopped moving.
Its empty skin began changing rapidly.
Eyes forming.
Teeth stretching.
A smile appearing.
Elias’ smile.
And in a soft broken voice
The faceless thing finally spoke.
Found you.