Some of the versions of him hesitated at the door he had just walked through. Some never made it to this point. Others went further.
Jude's breath came faster. "This is some kind of trick."
The woman shook her head. "It's not."
The man crossed his arms. "You've felt it before, haven't you? The feeling that something was off. That things didn't quite line up. That the world around you felt… incomplete."
Jude clenched his fists. He had felt that. He had always felt that. A lingering unease, a sense of something being just out of reach. But he had never spoken about it. Never put it into words.
The woman stepped closer. "You are not the only one. There are others, people who have seen the cracks but ignored them. You didn't. That's why you're here."
Jude swallowed hard. "And what happens if I keep going?"
The man smirked. "Then you break the cycle."
