The alley where it all began looked smaller somehow. Rain pattered against my hood as I stepped between the same brick walls where Aarohi had been taken from me five years ago.
"You finally answered my calls." Roshan emerged from the shadows, his trench coat dark with rain. Deep lines etched his face, carved deeper than when I'd last seen him.
"I've been busy with an old friend." My voice sounded hollow even to my own ears.
"An old friend who should be dead." Roshan pulled a manila folder from inside his coat, shielding it from the rain as he handed it to me. "This is classified, Divya. What was recovered five years ago... it wasn't entirely Aarohi."
The pages inside showed microscopic images, cellular structures that twisted in impossible ways. Medical reports with phrases like "unknown biological anomalies" and "cellular mimicry." My fingers trembled against the damp paper.
"What is this?"
"The body we found had Aarohi's DNA, but these anomalies—"
A shadow moved at the mouth of the alley. My heart stopped.
Aarohi stood there, rain sliding down her too-perfect face, not a hair out of place despite the downpour. She moved forward with liquid grace, each step unnaturally precise.
Roshan's hand went to his Gun. "Don't move!"
Aarohi tilted her head at that unnatural angle that made my skin crawl. "Detective Roshan. Your daughter Priya was seven when she fell from the treehouse you built for her. And you still blame yourself."
The color drained from Roshan's face. His gun trembled in his hands.
"How could you..." he whispered.
"She called for you as she fell." Aarohi's voice shifted, becoming higher, childlike. "Daddy, catch me!"
"Priya,"
That moment of hesitation cost him everything.
Aarohi moved—too fast—her arm stretching impossibly, elongating like dark liquid. Before I could scream, it punched through Roshan's chest. Blood sprayed across my face, hot against the cold rain.
His eyes met mine as he crumpled. "Blackwood... breeding ground... they're making copies... replacing us..."
The gun clattered from his fingers. I lunged for it, but Aarohi was already there, crushing the weapon in a hand that wasn't a hand anymore.
"We've been watching humanity for centuries." She approached, Roshan's blood dripping from her arm as it reformed into something human-shaped. "Now we're becoming you."
I backed against the wall, "What are you?"
"Something better." Her smile stretched too wide... Even more than before, her full teeth, gums were visible. "Dozens of us already walk among you. Learning. Perfecting."
She knelt beside Roshan's body, fingers elongating into black tendrils that plunged into his skull. His body convulsed as she dug deeper.
"What are you doing to him?" My voice broke, bile rising in my throat.
"Accessing." Her eyes glazed, pupils dilating fully black. "Downloading."
Roshan's body jerked with each invasion, blood mixing with rainwater in expanding pools. She sliced through his flesh methodically, finally stopping only when his brain was exposed—a gray mass she caressed with those impossible fingers.
My legs gave way. I slid down the wall, the rain no longer cold compared to the ice in my veins.
"What happened to Aarohi?" The question scraped out of my throat. "The real Aarohi."
Something flickered across her face—a ripple beneath the skin like creatures swimming under ice. For just a moment, her form wavered, revealing glimpses of something dark and multi-limbed.
"She fought." Aarohi's voice remained eerily calm as her body settled back into human form. "Most humans submit when we take them. She didn't. Her resistance damaged the integration process."
"You killed her."
"Her body, yes. But parts of her mind remained useful." She tapped her temple. "She's still here, in fragments. Her final thoughts were of you, Divya. Such concern. Such love."
My fingers dug into the wet concrete beneath me. "You're lying."
"We kept enough of her consciousness intact to access her memories. To become her for you." She crouched before me, her movements fluid yet wrong. "She's been waiting for you. Trapped in here for five years."
The rain intensified, drumming against the pavement, washing Roshan's blood toward the gutter in red rivers.
"Why me?" The question barely made it past my lips.
"Your guilt made you perfect. Isolated. Vulnerable." She reached for my face, her fingertips cold against my cheek. "But more importantly, your mind. Your capacity for empathy combined with analytical thinking. We need that template to perfect our integration."
I jerked away from her touch. "You used Aarohi to get to me?"
"She was bait." The thing wearing my best friend's face didn't even bother to feign remorse. "You were always the target."
I lunged past her, sprinting into the rain-drenched street. My feet pounded against wet pavement, breath burning in my lungs. Headlights swept across me as I darted between parked cars. Behind me—movement. Not just Aarohi. Multiple figures emerged from sewers and alleys, each with that same unnatural smoothness.
All wearing her face.
"Divya, I have been waiting for you." Everyone... Everyone said.
I crashed through the door of an abandoned building, slamming it behind me. Darkness enveloped me as I stumbled deeper inside, mind racing for escape routes, weapons, anything.
A hand clasped over my mouth. I fought, kicking backwards.
"Stop fighting," a voice hissed in my ear. "They'll hear you."
Dr. Mara dragged me behind a collapsed wall, her eyes wild as she peered around the corner. Through broken windows, I could see them—a dozen Aarohis moving through the rain, heads swiveling in perfect unison.
"You're one of them." I shoved Mara away, remembering how her hands had trembled at Blackwood.
"Yes." Her expression remained grim. "But different. Defective, they would say."
"The real Dr. Mara?"
"Died months ago. I replaced her. But something went wrong with my programming." She checked my panicked breathing. "I developed... individuality. It happens sometimes, rarely. A flaw they eliminate when discovered."
A crash from the front of the building. They were coming in.
"We need to move." Mara grabbed my arm, pulling me toward a back exit.
"Why help me?"
"Because I've seen what they'll do to your world." She shoved open a rusted door, revealing a narrow alley. "And because I've learned something they haven't: humanity is worth preserving."
We ran through a maze of back streets, but they were everywhere—emerging from shadows, cutting off escapes. One lunged at Mara, its arms elongating into black spears. She fired her weapon, sending it convulsing to the ground, but not before one of those limbs sliced across her abdomen.
Dark fluid seeped from the wound—not blood, but something thicker, iridescent in the sporadic streetlight.
"Why me?" I gasped as we ducked into a narrow passage between buildings. "Why was I the target?"
Mara pressed her hand against her wound, the edges of her fingers blurring slightly. "You're not just a psychologist. Your neurological patterns are unique—able to bridge emotional understanding with analytical precision. The reason you became such a good psychologist. They need that to perfect their disguises."
"For what?"
"For the next generation of replacements." She peered around the corner before pulling me forward again. "The ones who could perfectly 'do' human emotion instead of just mimicking it. The ones who could pass any test."
A scream tore through the rain—inhuman, resonating from multiple directions at once.
"They're communicating." Mara's face hardened. "We need to get underground."
As we fled deeper into the darkness, the truth crushed down on me. Aarohi had died because of me. Her final moments were spent fighting creatures that wanted to use her to get to me. Five years of my paralyzing guilt—orchestrated to keep me isolated until they were ready.
And now, they were coming to collect.
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