At the Edge of Darkness

23.10.2023

I opened my eyes beneath a crimson sky. Everything around me was blood-red, and it looked horrifying.

I immediately called out to my family from the room I was in, but there was no answer. I searched every corner of the house trying to find them, but they were nowhere to be seen. Just as I was on the verge of falling into a panic mixed with paranoia, I began to hear dozens of people talking outside.

When I stepped outside, the red sky almost blinded me. People out there were trying to make sense of what was happening.

Suddenly, emergency sirens began to blare throughout the entire city. These sirens sounded more terrifying than ever before, as if they were trying to kill us with fear alone. To escape the sound, we all began to run in terror and agony.

After running for quite some time, we came across thousands of people. They stood completely motionless, their backs turned to us. Honestly, none of us dared step in front of them. They looked frozen, unresponsive to anything.

I decided to get a little closer. As I did, I felt the atmosphere grow eerily silent. When I turned around, I saw that even the people who had been running alongside me had become just like these statuesque figures—utterly unresponsive. They didn’t react to anything at all.

It was so quiet that it felt like my ears would burst from the silence. Hoping nothing bad would happen, I began to slowly and calmly walk through them. Over time, I noticed that their mouths, eyes, and cheeks started to become grotesque and twisted in disturbing ways.

I stopped looking at their faces. Their eyes seemed terrifying enough to pull my very soul into them. The whole place felt unreal. Everything I saw began to morph according to my deepest fears.

I closed my eyes, but this only led to horrifying sounds echoing around me. I was on the verge of losing my mind. Unable to resist my curiosity and the strange noises by my side, I decided to open my eyes again.

A red mist had surrounded me, thick with the scent of blood. I began to walk aimlessly through the fog.

After a few minutes, I saw someone sitting on a couch right in the middle of the road. As soon as he saw me, he smiled—as if he had been waiting. This person looked exactly like me. He wore the same black t-shirt, black linen pants, and black shoes. There was absolutely no difference between us.

I was stunned. When I looked into his eyes, he said,

“So, you’re finally here.”

I couldn’t comprehend any of it. I just stared at him in shock. Smiling, he continued,

“You really have no idea, do you?”

I couldn’t answer. I was only worried about my family.

As if reading my mind, he asked,

“Are you looking for your family?” I narrowed my eyes.

“Do you truly not remember? It’s far too early for you to learn what happened to them. In time, you’ll find out.”

He locked his gaze on me, staring strangely for a few seconds. Then, suddenly, he grabbed a large knife and charged at me. Everything was so illogical—this person, who looked exactly like me, came rushing toward me. Just as I flinched and prepared to run, he stopped and began to speak again.

Keeping my eyes fixed on him, I slowly walked backward. Once I was sure he couldn’t see me, I turned and bolted. As I ran at full speed, I could still hear him talking.

I couldn’t quite make out his words, but they were something like:

“The one-eyed man will come. Blood will flood everywhere. God will not forgive you.”

Lost in this absurdity, I began to think. None of it made any sense.

All I wanted was to see my home, my family, and my friends again.

As the crimson sky grew even redder, people stood in fear and excitement, trying to make sense of what was happening, while all the children lay dead in terror. Suddenly, a powerful lightning strike hit right in the middle of where we were and threw us all to the ground. Dazed, I tried to grasp what had happened but I was in shock. I could not comprehend anything. Something was pouring down from the sky, soaking me completely.

When my eyes began to see more clearly, I noticed that everything was bright red. The redness of the surroundings made me feel threatened and alarmed deep inside. Rivers of blood had formed along the roads, and there were pools of blood everywhere. It was raining blood heavily, painting the entire scene in red. I searched for a covered place to hide and quickly took shelter under the first spot I found. From there, I could see many buildings in the city.

One of the windows of these buildings opened, and a person stuck his head out, shouting at me. I could not understand a word he was saying. He was frantically gesturing for me to come over. His hands moved at a constant pace. The sound he made was always the same, and he kept repeating the same words without stopping. I started walking toward the building in quick steps. It felt like something else was controlling my body. Unwillingly, I walked toward the person calling me.

When I arrived, I finally understood what he had been shouting. He was yelling for me to run away immediately. The door opened, and I rushed inside. Three people stared at me in shock.

They began to bombard me with questions like What are you trying to do Are you trying to get yourself killed But their questions made little sense to me. When I did not answer, they explained what had happened.

While I was waiting for the blood rain to stop, they had seen someone trying to talk to me. This person was standing right behind me, making strange faces with a twisted expression. Then, in the same rhythm, he kept looking back and forth from me to them and from them to me. As I ran toward the building, they saw that this person was following closely behind me. Before I reached the building, the person behind me suddenly stopped and looked up at the sky. Under the falling blood rain, he lifted his head and opened his mouth as if trying to drink it.

After hearing all this, I was left frozen. Where had my mind been while all this was happening Why had the person behind me not harmed me Were they lying to me

On top of that, they said that in this terrifying nature, some extremely dangerous creatures had evolved. They told me many things. I had no idea how they knew so much.

They spoke of a man with a white hat who sat under any streetlight. If you ever saw this man, you would feel an overwhelming urge to ask him questions. This man knew everything. You could never see his face, and he would never stand up. He would give the correct answer to every question you asked, but as he answered, first his voice, then his face, and finally his entire being would start to resemble you. Then he would stand up and take over your identity.

He was seen every evening at 8 pm, and people struggled to stop themselves from asking him questions. According to one person, the man with the hat was now free and could walk the streets as he pleased. You had to be careful. If you wanted to be the one spending time with your family, not this man, then if you ever saw him, you had to run away immediately and never ask him anything.

To keep you from falling into this trap, they gave me more information about the man with the hat. He always walked at the same pace, and his hands moved asymmetrically. His hat was black and very large. He never looked ahead. His head always hung down. If you came within five meters of him, he would suddenly stop and remain still until you left. At that moment, you absolutely had to run away because he could easily seize your soul and control you.

The three people I was with were complete lunatics. They were prepared for everything and said that nature had created the ultimate versions of their own copies to kill them. It seemed my own copy was already on its way to kill me. One of them began to speak.

Tell me, friend, how are we going to fight our copies

I do not know said the other.

Then they both looked at a man sitting at the table who seemed very intelligent and intellectual.

Is it ready they asked.

I think it is ready said the man at the table.

What is ready I asked.

At first, they did not answer. A brief silence filled the room. Then the man at the table spoke.

Actually, it is a drug. It takes control of the amygdala in your brain and turns you into a being that fears nothing. Because of this, nature cannot kill us through fear. That is why it created our copies to kill us. Now, I am trying to improve the drug even more. I think it worked, but it is very dangerous. If you take it, you might end up in a far worse state than you are now. But you could also become invincible.

That is a huge risk I said.

This drug made a person smarter, faster, and fearless by enabling the hippocampus to work at full capacity, allowing them to store everything they saw, heard, and experienced into long-term memory. It made the brain work at full power, predicting hundreds of thousands of parameters and calculating the future.

The drug seemed very tempting. To be honest, after everything that had happened, I would have taken it without even blinking. I wanted to try the drug. I wanted to understand what was going on and fight this terrifying nature.

I want it too I said. Suddenly, they all fixed their eyes on me and laughed.

Are you sure they asked.

Friend, are you sure you can handle it The drug distorts your sense of time and space. When your brain cannot comprehend this substance, it will first react in the most terrifying ways. You will be exposed to fears far worse than those nature has forced upon you.

Suddenly, I lost all my memories. I did not recognize the three people in front of me. They kept laughing and trying to say something to me. I was frozen.

Friend, I told you that you were not ready.

Had I taken the drug I had no memory of when or how I took it. At first, everything became very quiet. Then I found myself sitting in front of an ordinary mirror. My reflection stood there, giving me a sinister look. It slowly rose from the chair and crept toward the mirror with strange eyes, never looking away from me. A force pulled me toward the mirror. I could not control my body. My reflection seemed to be smiling slyly, and I could hear its voices.

I stood in front of the mirror, but my reflection was already there. It seemed to be trying to speak. It said something. When my reflection spoke, my mouth moved involuntarily.

Are you sure your reflection is really you?