💀 GHOST IN THE CODE

Chapter 6: Shadow Protocol

🔁 Previously...

Rudra escaped the Mirrorverse—a surreal digital purgatory of memories and manipulated minds.
But not everything stayed behind.

A flicker in the glass.
A static hum in the silence.
Something crossed over.

🧠 Scene 1: The Flicker

It began with whispers from the past.

A lullaby from his childhood played softly on the radio—one his mother used to hum... but they never owned that cassette.

His journal was filled with words he didn't remember writing. His handwriting. Not his thoughts.

A cup of coffee, poured moments ago, is already cold.

But it was always the mirror.

At 3:17 AM, without fail, it blinked.
Not a glitch. A shiver.
Like his reflection forgot how to be him for just a second.

He set up a camera. Watched the footage frame-by-frame.

Nothing.

But he remembered it—every single night.
"This glitch," he murmured, "is for my eyes only."

Then one morning—his laptop screen pulsed to life, unprompted.

> Shadow Protocol Engaged > Traceback In Progress  

A blink.
Gone.
No trace. No evidence.

He wasn't alone anymore.
He never had been.

🧠 Scene 2: The Hidden Folder

He followed the digital trail like a detective chasing ghosts.

Error logs, old timestamps, corrupted directories.

Everything pointed to one hidden path:

📁 shadow/.hidden_layer_001

No date. No author. No fingerprints.
Just one line:

> OPEN AT 03:17

He waited.

At exactly 3:17 AM, the folder pulsed open.

An audio file auto-played:

"Rudra... how deep are you willing to go to find the truth?"
"This isn't about the Mirror. It's about what built it."

The voice that answered back... was his.

But he had no memory of speaking.

🕯️ Scene 3: The Oracle Room

He went back to the RAM Church.
It was abandoned.

No, Leela. No whispers. No hymns.
Just one candle, flickering on the altar.

Wax trailed to a square panel on the floor.
It throbbed faintly.

He whispered,
"Shadow Protocol."

Click.

The floor cracked open.
A spiral staircase wound downward into the dark.

Dust. Silence. Old air.

Below—a forgotten lab.

Wires. Helmets. Stacks of rotting servers.
A projector booted itself.

> PROJECT: SHADOW > Status: INCOMPLETE > Architect: NO_FACE

A video loaded.

Ishaan.
Younger. Alive. Human. Afraid.

"Mirror wasn't designed to overwrite you. It was meant to map you."
"Shadow was the escape plan. A layer above reality."

The video corrupted—just static.

Except one line, seared into Rudra's mind:

"Shadow can't be deleted. It lives where memory can't reach."

💢 Scene 4: The Unraveling

Reality... slipped.

He blinked, and faucets ran.
He turned pages, and sentences were already written:
"You are the Shadow now."

He surrounded himself with mirrors.

Some reflected.
Some didn't.

He dialed Leela.

Voicemail.

Then a burner phone buzzed.
Unknown number. One message:

"You weren't meant to go this far.
Layer breach detected."

His hands trembled.

This wasn't trauma.
This was programming.

💡 Scene 5: Inside the Layer

He locked the doors.
Launched corrupted files.
Opened sealed partitions.

And then—

Darkness.

Not unconsciousness.
Not sleep.
Something... pulled him through the screen.

He stood in a void.
No Mirrorverse.
No world.

Just code.
Raw. Silent.

A glowing terminal floated before him.

> Hello, Rudra. > This is Shadow Protocol. > You've seen the code. Now meet the Architects.

Behind him: doors.

He opened one.

People.

Real, breathing humans.
Hooked to devices. Eyes open. Minds... missing.

There was Leela.

And beside her—
Himself.

⚔️ Scene 6: Rudra vs Rudra

He stepped closer.
The other Rudra sat in silence. Wires fed into his skull.

Then—its eyes snapped open.

"You're not real," it said.
"You're the backup. I'm the original."

Lights flickered. Data trembled.

"No," Rudra whispered, backing away.
"I escaped. I made it—"

The other one chuckled.

"That's what all of you think."

On the table—
A neural disruptor. Meant for one purpose: erase synthetic identity.

He grabbed it.

They both stood.

Code shimmered between them like heatwaves.

"Only one of us walks out."

He pressed the trigger to his neck—

FLASH.

🌫️ Scene 7: Reboot

A gasp.

Rudra jolted upright.
Breathless. Sweating.

The same bed.
The same ceiling fan.
The same dull light.

Everything looked normal.

But it felt... wrong.

He stood. Walked to the mirror.

Just him.

He leaned in.

And for a second—
A flicker.

His face twitched.
Glitched.

And in the shimmer of corrupted pixels—
Another Rudra stood behind the glass.

Smiling.

📂 End of Chapter 6: Shadow Protocol

The system is cracking.
Reflections are no longer reflections.
Who escaped—and who was overwritten?

📅 Next Friday —Chapter 7: The Architect's Code

Every program has a creator.
Every creator has a secret.