The Days That Were Never Mine - The Life That Didn’t Match - Part 5
Morning came without permission.
Aarav didn’t remember sleeping.
But the sunlight spilling across the floor said otherwise.
He sat up slowly, his body heavy, mind clouded.
For a brief moment—just one—everything felt normal.
Quiet.
Still.
Then he saw the notebook.
It lay open on the table.
The word still there.
“WHICH ONE?”
Aarav looked away immediately.
“No…” he muttered. “Not today.”
If his present couldn’t be trusted…
Then he would go to the past.
“Memories don’t lie,” he said, grabbing his phone.
But even as he said it, something inside him disagreed.
He opened his gallery.
Scrolled.
Stopped.
A photo of him and his parents.
Smiling.
Standing in front of their old house.
Aarav stared at it, something already feeling off.
Not wrong.
Just… unfamiliar.
He zoomed in.
His own face stared back at him.
But the smile—
It didn’t feel like his.
“I don’t remember this,” he whispered.
He checked the date.
Two years ago.
“That’s not possible…”
He clearly remembered that time.
Or at least… he thought he did.
There was no trip.
No visit.
No photo like this.
His fingers moved faster now.
Scrolling.
Searching.
More photos.
Birthdays.
Office events.
Casual selfies.
All of them had one thing in common.
They looked real.
Perfectly real.
But none of them felt experienced.
It was like watching someone else’s life.
From the outside.
Aarav’s breathing grew shallow.
“No… this is wrong…”
He opened his messages next.
Maybe that would make sense.
Maybe conversations would ground him.
He tapped on Riya’s chat.
Messages loaded instantly.
Casual talks.
Work discussions.
Jokes.
Aarav read them quickly.
Then slower.
Then again.
His expression changed.
“What is this…?”
The tone—
The way he spoke—
It wasn’t how he remembered himself.
Short.
Detached.
Almost… distant.
But Riya’s replies told a different story.
“You’ve changed lately.”
“You don’t talk like before.”
“Everything okay?”
Aarav’s hand trembled.
Changed?
When?
He scrolled further up.
Weeks.
Months.
The shift was gradual.
Subtle.
But undeniable.
At some point…
He had become someone else.
“No…” he said quickly. “This is just stress. I’ve been busy. That’s all.”
But the voice inside him didn’t argue.
It simply… waited.
Aarav exited the chat abruptly.
Opened his call logs.
Missed calls.
From his mother.
Multiple.
His chest tightened.
He called back immediately.
The phone rang.
Once.
Twice.
“Hello?”
Her voice.
Warm.
Familiar.
“Aarav? Finally. Why haven’t you been answering?”
Relief flooded him instantly.
“Ma… I’ve just been busy. Work—”
“You’ve been saying that for weeks,” she interrupted gently.
Aarav froze.
“We haven’t seen you in months,” she continued. “You don’t visit. You don’t call. Even when you do… you sound so far away.”
His throat went dry.
“That’s not true,” he said quickly. “I came home… recently.”
There was a pause.
“Aarav…” she said softly, confused,
“You haven’t come home in over a year.”
Silence.
Aarav’s grip on the phone tightened.
“That’s not possible…” he whispered.
“You okay?” she asked, concern rising now.
He didn’t answer.
Because something inside him had just shifted.
Not broken.
Not cracked.
Replaced.
The memories he trusted…
The ones he was holding onto as truth…
Didn’t match reality.
“I’ll call you later,” he said abruptly, ending the call before she could respond.
The room felt unfamiliar now.
Not physically.
But personally.
Aarav looked around slowly.
The furniture.
The walls.
The objects.
“How long…” he whispered,
“…has this not been my life?”
The silence didn’t answer.
But his phone did.
A notification.
A new message.
From an unknown number.
Aarav hesitated.
Then opened it.
There was no text.
Just an image.
His breath stopped.
It was a photo.
Taken inside his room.
From last night.
Him.
Sitting in the chair.
Staring at the mirror.
But that wasn’t what froze him.
What froze him was—
The timestamp.
3:26 a.m.
A time he remembered being awake.
Fully conscious.
And in the photo—
He wasn’t looking at the mirror.
He was looking at the camera.
Smiling.
A slow, familiar smile.
And beneath the image…
A single line of text appeared.
“You’re the one who doesn’t belong here.”
Aarav dropped the phone.
Because for the first time…
He didn’t feel like something was taking over his life.
He felt like he had entered someone else’s.
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