Echoes of the Unknown

Dr. Liora Hayes had spent years trying to decipher the anomaly—a cosmic fracture lurking beyond Mars, distorting time and space in ways no science could explain. At first, they thought it was a reflection of Earth’s past, showing echoes of long-dead civilizations, forgotten moments locked in history. But then, the images changed. They showed events that had never happened—cities burning without wars, lands sinking where no seas existed. And then, the anomaly became aware of them. The first message arrived, written in perfect human language: “You were not supposed to see this.” A ripple of unease spread through Liora’s research station in Antarctica. This was no passive cosmic remnant. Something was watching them.

The next transmission was worse. The images sharpened, revealing an impossible metropolis under twin moons—a world that had once thrived but was now erased. The people in its streets moved with eerie precision, almost rehearsed, as if reality itself had scripted their existence. And then, one by one, they began to vanish. A woman reached toward the sky—her fingers disappeared first, then her arms, then her body. Others followed, swallowed by an unseen force until the city stood silent, empty. It wasn’t destruction by war, disease, or disaster. This was something deliberate, something that had erased them completely. As Liora’s team watched in horror, the anomaly sent another message: “Curiosity led them to ruin.”

Panic settled over the research station. If the anomaly was showing them the last moments of a lost civilization, what did that mean for Earth? Were they seeing echoes of what had happened—or what was about to? Liora knew they had three choices: shut everything down and erase their findings, continue decoding in the hopes of understanding, or respond—reach back into the unknown and risk making contact. But before she could make a decision, a final message flickered onto their screens: “You are already seen.” It was no longer a question of avoiding detection. They were in its sights.

Then, for the first time, the anomaly showed real-time footage. The lost city wasn’t gone anymore. The vanished people returned—but they were changed. Their faces, their movements, the way they turned toward the camera—something about them was wrong. Liora couldn’t shake the feeling that they were no longer individuals, but reflections of something else, something trying to mimic humanity but failing in the subtlest ways. And then one of them, standing in the center of the frame, smiled directly at her. Every nerve in her body screamed at her to shut down the transmission, sever the connection, stop watching—but she knew, deep in her gut, that it was already too late.

The anomaly pulsed violently. The final message scrolled across the terminal, each word hitting like a hammer. “We are coming back.” And then—darkness. The anomaly went silent, the transmission ended, and for the first time in hours, Liora’s team sat in frozen, suffocating silence. Somewhere beyond the void, beyond space and time, something had awakened. And now, Earth would have to face whatever was returning.