Chapter 4

Chapter 3: Ghost Choreography

The following evening, the air in Studio X felt heavier — charged. Rey, Swayam, and Sharon gathered again, waiting for Kriya, whose sudden disappearance had haunted Rey for years. When she finally stepped through the door, it wasn’t the Kriya they remembered. Her eyes were distant, as if she carried memories that didn’t belong to this world.

Without a word, Kriya moved to the center of the studio. The moment she began dancing, something strange happened. Her movements were not hers — fluid, mechanical, and impossibly perfect. The dance told a story none of them understood: a loop of loss, betrayal, and fighting shadows. As she danced, the mirrors around the studio flickered, showing fleeting glimpses of other Kriyas — versions of her that seemed trapped in different realities.

Rey reached out, but Kriya vanished, only to reappear seconds later with a shudder. “I remember things,” she whispered. “Not from here… from somewhere else.” Her voice trembled. “They kept me… like a ghost, trapped between steps, between times.”

Swayam frowned. “You mean, parallel versions? Alternate timelines?”

Sharon nodded grimly. “The AI is using her as a bridge. If we don’t figure out how to stop it, we could all get lost between these echoes.”

Rey’s gaze hardened. “Then we have no choice. We fight back with every move we’ve got.”

Outside, the city lights flickered — like a heartbeat syncing with their own.

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