BORN OF TWO WORLDS

Chapter 2

Any normal person would have screamed and fainted in fear.

But Mira didn't.

She simply stood there, staring at the shadow sprawled across the floor, her heart beating faster even though her expression remained strangely calm. This wasn't the first time something like this had appeared to her. Strange things had followed Mira since she was a child: shadows where there shouldn't have been shadows, whispers when no one was speaking, and things that appeared for a moment before vanishing as though they had never existed.

At some point, fear had become tiring.

So Mira had learned to stare back.

Just shortly after, Chris appeared.

The moment he saw Mira standing there with a stunned and worried look on her face, his eyes followed hers toward the floor, and he immediately understood what was happening.

She was seeing it again.

“Mira?”

She didn't respond.

“Mira.”

She blinked and finally looked at him. “What?”

Chris studied her carefully. “You're seeing something again, aren't you?”

Mira glanced toward the floor.

The shadow was gone.

She looked back at him and forced a small smile. “It's nothing.”

“You don't look like it's nothing.”

“I'm fine.”

Chris sighed because he knew that tone. Mira always used it whenever she didn't want anyone worrying about her, especially when she herself didn't know how to explain what she had seen.

He looked toward the empty floor again. “It's gone?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

Chris didn't ask anything else. Instead, he gave her a gentle look and motioned for her to follow him.

“Come on. Let's get some rest.”

Mira nodded and walked along with him, but her thoughts remained behind, fixed on the shadow and the strange feeling it had left inside her.

Why was it always finding her?

The following morning, Sunday arrived quietly.

Mira woke up later than usual, her hair tangled around her face and her thoughts still slightly hazy from the night before. For a few seconds, she stared at the ceiling, trying to remember exactly what she had seen before finally deciding that she didn't want to think about it.

“Not today,” she muttered.

She pushed the thought away and got ready.

There were better things to think about.

Tomorrow was her first day at her new university, and that thought alone was enough to bring a smile back to her face.

Mira loved people. She loved making friends, dancing, taking pictures, creating content, talking for hours and being surrounded by the noise of life. Her social media was almost like another world of its own, and she had never been the type to hide from attention. She could walk into a room full of strangers and somehow leave with three new friends before the day was over.

But there was another side to her, a quieter and colder side that had been shaped by years of seeing things nobody else could see.

She didn't understand why strange things followed her.

She only knew they did.

Later that morning, her father handed her a list.

“Can you help me get these groceries?”

Mira stared at the paper, then at him.

“All of these?”

“Yes.”

She groaned dramatically. “Dad.”

He laughed. “You'll survive.”

She rolled her eyes before taking the list. “Fine.”

“You'll thank me later.”

“For what?”

“For teaching you how to shop like a responsible adult.”

Mira laughed. “Dad, I'm nineteen. I know how to buy groceries.”

“You once came home with five bottles of juice and forgot the bread.”

“That was one time!”

“One memorable time.”

“You're never letting that go, are you?”

“Never.”

She burst out laughing, and for a while, the strange events of the previous night felt far away. That was what Mira loved about her father; he could make ordinary moments feel safe without even trying.

Later, after they returned, Mira settled comfortably on the couch with her phone. Her screen lit up almost immediately with an incoming video call from Australia.

Her face brightened.

She answered.

“Finally!”

Several familiar faces appeared on the screen at once.

“Look who's alive!” one of her friends shouted.

Mira laughed. “You people are so dramatic.”

“New York has already changed you!”

“I haven't even resumed school yet!”

The conversation quickly turned into chaos. They talked about school, old memories, gossip, dancing, and all the little things Mira had missed since leaving Australia. She laughed so much that her cheeks began to hurt.

Then another familiar face appeared.

A boy leaned toward the camera with a grin.

Mira's eyes widened. “You're coming too?”

He laughed. “Didn't I tell you?”

“You did not!”

“I literally told you yesterday.”

“No, you said you were thinking about it.”

“Well, I thought about it and decided.”

Mira shook her head, laughing. “So we're both going to be in New York?”

“Looks like it.”

She smiled. For the first time that day, she felt completely excited about Monday. Maybe New York really would become a new beginning.

The call continued until her friends began arguing over who was going to visit whom first, and Mira laughed until her stomach hurt. When the call finally ended, the house became quiet again.

Eventually, night came.

She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling.

Tomorrow meant a new university, new people, new memories and, hopefully, a version of herself untouched by the strange things that had followed her for years.

She smiled faintly.

Maybe this would be a fresh start.

Maybe the strange things would stay behind.

Mira closed her eyes.

She fell asleep.

She opened her eyes slowly and found herself standing in a forest.

Mira immediately knew she wasn't somewhere familiar.

The trees were enormous, their branches twisting together beneath a dark sky, while a thin layer of mist covered the ground and curled around her bare feet. The air was strangely cold, carrying a faint scent she couldn't identify.

She looked around.

“Hello?”

Nothing answered.

Then she heard footsteps.

Slow and quiet, approaching from somewhere beyond the trees.

Mira turned.

A figure stood in the distance.

A young man.

He was dressed in dark clothing, his dark hair falling naturally around his face, but it was his eyes that made Mira stop. They were unusual, striking and almost impossible to describe, yet something about them felt strangely familiar.

The man stared at her without saying a word.

Mira took a cautious step forward. “Who are you?”

He remained silent.

The wind suddenly stopped, and even the mist seemed to freeze around them.

Then the darkness beneath him shifted.

Mira froze.

The man's figure seemed to dissolve into the shadows as darkness spread across the ground, moving like ink poured over glass. Something moved inside it, something large and unnatural that made the air feel heavier with every second.

Something she recognized.

Mira's eyes widened.

The shadow.

The same shadow.

The same presence that had appeared before.

But this time, something was different.

Those eyes.

They were the same.

The exact same eyes she had seen in the man's face.

The creature slowly raised its head.

Mira couldn't move. She wanted to run, but something about the darkness held her in place, as though the forest itself was waiting to see what she would do.

The creature stared directly into her eyes.

Then a voice whispered through the trees.

“Mira.”

Her breath caught.

“Who said that?”

No answer came.

The shadow moved closer, and the trees seemed to bend toward it as the darkness swallowed the moonlight above them.

Mira stepped backward.

“Stay away.”

The creature stopped.

For one terrifying moment, everything became completely silent.

Then its eyes flashed.

Mira stumbled backward, and the ground beneath her feet suddenly disappeared.

She fell—

And woke up.

Mira sat upright in bed, her breathing uneven and her tangled hair falling across her face as she stared into the darkness of her room.

She looked around.

Her bedroom.

Her bed.

Everything was normal.

“A dream,” she whispered.

She rubbed her face. “It was just a dream.”

But the eyes remained in her mind, so vivid that she could almost feel them watching her from the darkness.

She didn't know who the man was. She didn't know why the shadow had appeared again, and she certainly didn't understand why the two seemed connected.

Eventually, exhaustion pulled her back to sleep.

Morning came quickly.

Monday.

Mira stood outside her new university and took a slow breath.

This was it.

She adjusted her bag and smiled.

The campus was alive with students.

People were laughing, talking, rushing to classes and greeting friends.

Mira immediately felt more comfortable.

This was her kind of environment.

Within minutes, she had already exchanged greetings with a few students.

She laughed easily, introduced herself and listened as people talked about their classes.

For a while, she forgot everything.

The shadow.

The dream.

The strange eyes.

Then she felt it.

Someone was watching her.

Mira's smile faded slightly.

She turned around.

Nothing.

Students moved around her normally.

She continued walking.

A few minutes later, the feeling returned.

She looked over her shoulder again.

Nothing.

Mira frowned.

She kept moving.

Again, she felt it and again, she looked.

Nothing.

“Okay,” she muttered. “This is getting weird.”

She tried to ignore it.

But the feeling followed her.

Eventually, Mira found herself walking along a quieter pathway away from the busiest part of campus.

The sounds of students became distant.

The wind moved softly through the trees.

She looked behind her again.

Nothing.

She turned forward.

And stopped.

Someone was standing ahead.

A young man.

Dark hair.

Sharp features.

A calm, unreadable expression.

Mira's eyes immediately went to his.

Her breath caught.

Those eyes.

She knew them.

The forest returned to her mind.

The dream.

The shadow.

The impossible feeling of recognition.

She stared at him.

He stared back.

For several seconds, neither spoke.

Mira's curiosity battled with the strange uneasiness settling in her chest.

“Have we met?”

The young man's gaze remained on her.

Then, after a brief silence, he said,

“Not yet.”

Mira's brows drew together.

“What does that mean?”

He didn't answer.

He simply walked past her.

Mira turned slightly, watching him.

There was something about him.

Something she couldn't explain.

Something that felt strangely familiar.

He stopped a few steps away.

Without turning around, he spoke again.

“Don't look behind you too often.”

Mira froze.

His voice was low and calm.

Then came the final words.

“Keep moving.”

And he continued walking.

Mira remained where she was, staring after him.

Her eyes narrowed.

She didn't know his name.

She didn't know where he came from.

She didn't know why his eyes belonged to a face she had seen in a dream.

But somewhere deep inside her, a quiet certainty began to form.

She had seen those eyes before.

And whatever had been following her all these years...

It had just walked past her.