THE ALGORITHM OF FEAR

4~the text!

Eve sat in the cafe her fingers tapping nervously against the table as she waited for Ivaan. Her mind raced with confusion and unease. Could she have forgotten such things? Was she losing her grip on reality? Or was something else entirely happening?

The door swung open, and Ivaan walked in, his expression a mix of irritation and concern. He spotted her immediately and strode to her table, pulling out a chair and sitting across from her.

"Alright, Eve," he said, crossing his arms. "What the hell is going on? First, you're drunk out of your mind last night, then you're calling me at random hours, and now you don't even remember half of it?"

Eve looked at him, her hands trembling slightly. "Ivaan, I swear I didn't talk to you last night. I haven't touched a drop of alcohol in weeks. And I definitely didn't call you to meet at the library. I've been swamped with work for days. I don't know who you were talking to, but it wasn't me."

He narrowed his eyes. "Don't mess with me, Eve. It was your voice on the phone, clear as day. You even said things only you would know."

She felt a chill crawl up her spine. "Ivaan, I'm not lying. Something's wrong here. Either someone's pretending to be me, or something is messing with us."He frowned, leaning closer. "Pretending to be you? That's insane. Who would do that, and why?"

"I don't know," she said, her voice breaking slightly. "But Ivaan, I swear on everything, it wasn't me. I've been too busy to even think about calling anyone. If someone is pretending to be me, they're doing a damn good job."

Ivaan leaned back, rubbing his temples. "Okay, let's say I believe you. Then who the hell is behind this? And why do they sound exactly like you?"

Eve shook her head. "That's what I need to figure out. Has this happened before? Any other weird calls or messages?"

He hesitated. "Actually... yeah. A few weeks ago, I got a random text from you in the middle of the night, saying something cryptic about meeting by the lake. I thought it was strange, but I didn't mention it because I figured you'd had a weird dream or something."

Her eyes widened. "I didn't send that either."

They both sat in silence for a moment, the weight of the situation pressing down on them.

"We need to figure this out," Eve said firmly. "If someone's playing games with us, we can't just let it slide. This isn't normal."

Ivaan nodded. "Agreed. Let's start by going through your phone. Maybe we can find something-call logs, messages, anything-that can give us a clue."

Eve pulled out her phone and unlocked it. Together, they began scrolling through her call history. To her shock, there were indeed calls to Ivaan's number, at times she didn't remember dialing.

"This doesn't make sense," she whispered. "I didn't make these calls."

"Check the messages," Ivaan urged.

She opened her text app. Sure enough, there were messages to Ivaan that she hadn't sent. Short, vague messages like "Meet me now" and "By the library."

Eve's heart raced. "Ivaan, this isn't me. I didn't send these."

Before he could reply, her phone buzzed. A new message appeared on the screen.

It was from her own number.

The message read:

"You shouldn't have told him. Now it's going to get worse."

Eve dropped her phone, her blood running cold.Ivaan picked up Eve's phone from the table, staring at the screen in disbelief. "What the hell, Eve? This is your number. How is this even possible?" Eve's face had gone pale. "I don't know! I didn't send that. I don't even know how it's happening."