Something Came Back Instead of Me
Callie had always been quiet.
She liked puzzles, astronomy, and locking her door.
Thoughtful. Careful.
Which is why what happened to her… shouldn’t have.
It started after the school camping trip.
Just two days in the woods.
But when she got home, something was off.
“Did you cut your hair?” her mom asked.
“No.”
But it was shorter.
Her little brother stared.
“You blink weird now. Too long. Too loud.”
She laughed it off.
Until that night—when she watched herself blink in the mirror.
It sounded like a click. Like a lock snapping shut.
At school, her best friend Emma pulled away.
“You replied to my texts… but now say you didn’t get them.”
Callie checked her phone.
Nothing.
Later, she found something in her backpack.
A pinecone—wet, warm, covered in black sap.
Something inside… squirmed. Whispered.
She threw it away.
But the next morning, everything broke.
She saw herself in the kitchen.
Another Callie—laughing with her mom, wearing her hoodie, living her life.
The other Callie looked up and smiled.
“Good morning.”
Her mom nodded. “There you are!”
Callie froze.
The other Callie… had no shadow.
She ran. Locked herself in the bathroom.
Looked in the mirror.
At first—no reflection.
Then it appeared.
Grinning.
It whispered:
“We needed space. One of you had to go.”
She screamed.
Opened the door.
Everything… normal.
No second Callie.
Just silence.
They said it was stress. Imagination.
But Callie knows better.
Because now, mirrors linger.
Her reflection smiles on its own.
Her voice sometimes sounds off.
And at night…
She wakes to see someone sitting at the foot of her bed.
Looks just like her.
Only watching.
Only smiling.
And sometimes she wonders—
What if I’m the replacement?