Fractured, Yet Singular
Now, standing before her doppelgänger on this strange plateau of glowing gray sand, she wondered when the split had fully taken her. The other Callista mirrored her unease, though that smirk lingered, a crack in the masquerade of stability. "If you’ve come to fix everything, genius, you should probably reconsider."
"Who are you? Which… are you?" Callista demanded, instinctively gripping the metallic artifact tighter. It reacted almost sentiently, pulsing harder, a rhythmic vibration that jarred her psyche. It was as though the device and this dimension were arguing—and she was a piece on their chessboard.
"I’m the you who’s learned faster," the other replied, cocking her head. Her own clothing shimmered similarly—a teal blouse and golden silk overskirt—but hers bore dark rips at the seams, as though she'd barely escaped temporal fires. "I made better decisions. And now I see that *you* are here to screw it up all over again."
"Is that so?" Callista rolled her shoulders back and tried to mimic confidence, though the wind around them howled with whispers—other voices, too distorted to understand. "Well, 'better me,' care to explain why I'm still holding this thing instead of you? And why I’m still standing when the branches should have shattered into nothing?"
Her double sighed. For a nanosecond, a flicker of sadness crossed her otherwise brash demeanor. "Because you’re not unique. None of us are," she gestured at the artifact, fingers twitching toward its brilliant core. "*That* is what keeps us here at all. It’s rewriting each of us—a bricolage. A shattered mirror glued together by desperation."
"You’re a liar," Callista whispered, even as doubt coursed through her mind. "You're trying to manipulate me. You don’t get to decide who gets to exist!"
"Neither do you." The doppelgänger took two steps closer, raising her hand. With a blur too quick to process, she reached for her version of the object… and their realities collided.
A Universe Between Heartbeats
Callista gasped as the ground beneath her shifted. Sand turned to molten steel, then a field of paper stars and seas of glass under an iridescent sky. She knew she wasn’t where she began or where she would end. Her neural sync—primitive compared to the raw multiversal crossings she now attempted—remained faintly intact. Concepts surged into her thoughts, unbidden, as though the entirety of the multiverse was angry, breathing argument straight into her synapses.
Futures where her choices had broken all things. Futures where indecision turned nations into gray deserts. Futures where Dmitri had worked alone and brought unparalleled horror to humanity through technological breakthroughs gone rogue.
But among all futures, all the voices of her past selves, one remained steady.
Step forward. Seal the artifact. Choose.
It wasn’t herself she feared anymore; it was unlimited possibility.
The Final Branch
The plateau returned. Only one Callista remained, the teal and gold robes whipping violently in unseen gales. Her doppelgänger was gone, perhaps absorbed, and the artifact grew silent, its heartbeat ceasing. Decision complete.
Somewhere, distant in the fabric of constellations, she imagined other universes breathing easier, now firm paths instead of endless, fracturing potential. She fell to her knees, tears streaming as she realized the silence contained not just relief—but a deeper loneliness.
Her choices were hers alone now.
Genre: Sci-Fi/Psychological Thriller.
The Source...check out the great article that inspired this amazing short story: Unlocking Parallel Universes: How AI and Quantum Data Could Prove the Multiverse Theory
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