The Echo Chamber

The Echo Chamber

The first thing Maya noticed when she woke was the silence. Not the peaceful kind that wraps around you like a blanket, but the hollow kind that swallows sound whole.

She sat up in bed, her fingers instinctively reaching for her phone. Nothing. No notifications, no messages, no connection to the outside world. The screen reflected her face back at her—confused, disheveled, alone.

"Hello?" Her voice sounded different, flatter somehow. It didn't travel properly, as if the air itself was denser than it should be.

Maya slid out of bed and padded to the window. The view outside was exactly as it should be: the neighborhood waking up, people walking dogs, cars pulling out of driveways. Normal. Except she couldn't hear any of it.

When she tried to open the window, her fingers passed right through the glass. Not breaking it—moving through it, like it was made of nothing at all. Yet when she pulled back, the window remained solid, unbreached.

A knock at the door made her jump. Three precise taps, evenly spaced.

She approached cautiously. "Who's there?"

No answer. Just three more knocks, identical to the first set.

When she opened the door, she found herself staring at... herself. Another Maya, dressed exactly as she was, with the same confused expression.

"Who are you?" they both asked simultaneously.

The other Maya smiled first. "I'm you, of course. The version of you that made different choices."

"What choices?"

"The ones you were too afraid to make." The other Maya stepped inside, moving with a confidence the real Maya hadn't felt in years. "I'm here to show you what happens when you stop letting fear echo in your head."

Maya felt something shift in the room—like reality bending at the edges.

"Are you ready?" the other Maya asked, extending her hand.

Maya hesitated for only a moment before reaching out. Their fingers touched, and the world around them began to dissolve and reform into something new, something unexpected, something entirely her own making.

And in that moment, Maya understood: sometimes the most terrifying echo chambers are the ones we build inside ourselves.

...... The Beginning......

-S.B.