The Days That Were Never Mine - The Messages He Never Sent - Part 6
Aarav didn’t pick up the phone immediately.
It lay on the floor where it had fallen.
Screen still glowing.
The message still there.
“You’re the one who doesn’t belong here.”
“No…” he whispered.
“That’s not possible.”
But nothing about the last 24 hours had been possible.
And yet… it was happening.
Slowly, he bent down and picked up the phone again.
His fingers felt colder now.
Less certain.
He opened the message.
Tapped on the number.
Unknown.
No name.
No history.
“Good…” he said quickly. “That means it’s someone else.”
He pressed Call.
The phone rang.
Once.
Twice.
And then—
A vibration.
Not from the call.
From his hand.
Aarav’s eyes dropped slowly.
His own phone…
Was ringing.
The screen flashed.
Incoming Call: Unknown
His breath stopped.
“No…”
The phone in his hand was both calling…
And receiving.
The ringing continued.
Loud.
Sharp.
Impossible.
Aarav didn’t answer.
He couldn’t.
The ringing stopped on its own.
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Final.
And then—
A new message appeared.
“That wasn’t necessary.”
Aarav stumbled back, nearly losing balance.
“You’re not real…” he said again, but his voice was breaking now.
“You can’t be real.”
The reply came instantly.
“Then stop responding.”
His mind went blank.
Because he was responding.
Every action.
Every reaction.
He was playing into it.
Aarav dropped into the chair, staring at the phone.
Thinking.
No—forcing himself to think.
“If this is me…” he said slowly,
“…then there has to be a record.”
Messages don’t appear from nowhere.
Calls don’t just happen.
There had to be logs.
Proof.
Something concrete.
He opened his call history.
Scrolled.
Stopped.
There it was.
An outgoing call.
To the same unknown number.
Time: 3:26 a.m.
The exact time of the photo.
Aarav’s stomach twisted.
“I didn’t make that call…”
But the record said he did.
He opened his sent messages.
Nothing.
No trace.
No image.
No conversation.
“Okay…” he whispered, trying to steady himself.
“Maybe it’s hidden. Maybe it’s some glitch.”
But deep down, he already knew.
This wasn’t a glitch.
He went to his gallery.
Scrolled again.
More carefully this time.
Every photo.
Every video.
Every detail.
And then—
He saw it.
A hidden folder.
His heart skipped.
“I’ve never seen this before…”
He tapped it.
Locked.
A password prompt appeared.
Aarav hesitated.
Then typed instinctively.
0 1 0 7
His birthday.
The folder opened.
Aarav felt something inside him drop.
Photos.
Dozens.
All taken in his room.
At different times.
Different angles.
But always the same subject.
Him.
Sleeping.
Sitting.
Staring.
And in some—
Smiling.
That same smile.
The timestamps varied.
Late nights.
Early mornings.
Moments he didn’t remember losing.
But one thing was consistent.
Every single file…
Was taken from his own phone.
Aarav’s breathing became uneven.
“No… I would know… I would remember…”
But the evidence didn’t lie.
He scrolled further.
Videos.
His hand trembled as he pressed one.
The screen flickered.
There he was.
Standing in the room.
Phone in hand.
Recording himself.
But his expression—
Calm.
Collected.
Different.
He spoke.
“If you’re watching this…”
Aarav’s throat tightened.
“…it means you’ve started noticing.”
Aarav shook his head violently.
“No… I never recorded this…”
The version of him in the video smiled faintly.
“Good.”
Aarav froze.
“That means I’m ahead.”
Silence filled the room.
The video continued.
“You’ll try to figure this out. You’ll look for patterns, reasons, logic.”
His voice was steady.
Certain.
“But you’re asking the wrong question.”
Aarav whispered under his breath,
“What question…?”
The answer came immediately.
“It’s not ‘what’s happening to me.’”
A pause.
“It’s ‘when did I stop being me?’”
Aarav felt something inside him snap.
“No…” he said, louder now.
“I’m Aarav. I’ve always been Aarav.”
The video version tilted his head slightly.
Almost… sympathetically.
“That’s what I used to think too.”
The video ended.
Aarav stared at the blank screen.
The room felt smaller now.
Closer.
Not because the walls moved.
But because the space inside him… had changed.
He wasn’t trying to figure out what was happening anymore.
Because the evidence was clear.
Someone else had been living in his time.
Recording him.
Watching him.
Speaking through him.
And now—
Leaving messages.
Aarav looked at his own reflection in the dark phone screen.
“Which one of us started first…?” he whispered.
The phone vibrated again.
One final message.
“You did.”
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