Shattered Time-Chapter 23: Broken Versions of Me

He didn't wake up.

Because he hadn't slept.

Kael existed—halfway between memory and machine, body light as smoke, mind too full to think.

He stood in a white room, clean, sterile, humming like a dying neon bulb.

Dozens of monitors lined the walls. On each one: him.

But not just him.

Him smiling. Him crying. Him stabbing someone. Him kissing her.

"Which one is you?"

The voice was his.

But also... not.

Kael turned to see himself—same hoodie, same glitching watch, but this one smiled like he'd given up a long time ago.

"We're all Kael. Different failures. Different ends. They keep us here... to remind the real you of what you could've become."

Kael shook his head.

"This isn't real."

"Neither are you."

Suddenly the walls flickered—like reality forgot what it looked like.

The other Kael stepped closer.

"You know what Pulse is, don't you? It's not just a glitch. It's not just reality rejecting her. It's you rejecting yourself."

Kael clenched his fists.

"You don't know anything about her."

The other Kael laughed.

"She screamed the moment she was born into your world. Because it wasn't her world. Because you pulled her here."

Images flashed:

Him in a lab.

A machine.

A countdown.

A tear in space.

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She hadn't appeared.

She had been dragged.

"You brought her here for love... but broke the rules. And now? Now the world wants you both gone."

A door opened behind the mirror wall.

He saw her.

Blood on her hands. Glitching. Crying. Screaming.

And beside her—

A version of Kael.

Dead. Neck snapped. Eyes wide open. Watching.

Kael screamed.

This time not from fear, but from something worse.

Guilt. The kind that claws.

The room collapsed.

All screens flickered into a single word:

> REWRITE INITIATED.

Then silence.

And a whisper:

"You'll try again, Kael. Like always. Until one of you breaks completely."

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End of Chapter 23.