Two Heartbeats

The heartbeat came again, and this time I knew I had not imagined it.

I froze with one hand on my bedroom door, my fingers curled around the brass handle while my heart hammered inside my chest. Beneath it came another rhythm, slower and deeper, as if something had settled inside me and was knocking from the other side.

I pressed my palm against my chest and held my breath.

“Please, not again,” I whispered. The second heartbeat answered immediately, and my stomach twisted.

It was not coming from the walls, the hallway, or the forest beyond my window. It was coming from inside me.

I stumbled backward until my hip struck the desk. “This is impossible,” I said, staring at my reflection in the mirror.

“I am tired. That is all. I have not slept properly since the night in the forest.”

I placed both hands over my chest. My heartbeat was uneven, but the other one remained steady, patient.

I swallowed and whispered, “Who are you?” Nothing answered me, yet the second pulse continued beneath my ribs.

I walked toward the mirror. My face looked pale, my hair tangled around my shoulders, and my eyes were wider than usual.

I raised one hand toward the glass and watched my reflection copy me. “You are not real,” I told myself. “Whatever this is, it cannot be real.”

When fear tightened my chest, the second heartbeat became faster.

I took one step backward, and the rhythm softened. I stepped forward again, and it quickened. I moved away from the mirror, and the heartbeat slowed. I moved closer, and it raced beneath my skin.

“You are reacting to me,” I whispered, a floorboard creaked outside my room.

My body went rigid, and my heart slammed against my ribs. The second heartbeat answered with the same urgency. Someone was in the hallway.

I stared at the space beneath my door and watched a shadow pass across it. Three knocks sounded against the door.

“Orelith?” Mara called from the other side.

“Mara, wait before you come inside.”

“Why are you talking like that?” she asked. “Are you all right?”

“I need to ask you something first. Have you ever heard two heartbeats at once?”

There was a pause before she answered. “No. Orelith, what kind of question is that?”

“Answer me honestly.”

“I am answering you. No, I have never heard two heartbeats at once, and now you are making me nervous.”

The second heartbeat became faster.

“Mara, move away from the door.”

“What?”

“Please. Just move away from it.”

I heard her footsteps retreat, and the second rhythm softened. My stomach tightened when I understood what was happening.

It was not simply reacting to my fear. It was reacting to danger, as if whatever lived inside me could sense something before I could.

“What are you?” I whispered. I turned toward the window and saw that it was open.

I knew I had closed it before going to bed, but the curtains were moving gently in the night air.

My heart raced, and the second heartbeat followed.

I grabbed the curtains and pulled them shut. “Stop doing that,” I whispered. “Whatever you are, stop.”

A low growl sounded behind me, i turned around, but the room was empty.

“Mara?” I called.

I looked toward the window again, but the curtains had stopped moving. The forest beyond them seemed darker, and I could not shake the feeling that something had been watching me.

I forced myself to look away and focus on Mara, whose frightened expression made the situation feel real.

The door opened, and Mara stepped inside. She looked at me before her expression changed.

“You look terrified,” she said. “I think something is wrong with me.” “You heard it too,” I said.

Mara nodded. “I heard something, but I do not know what it was.” “It is coming from me.”

She stared at my chest. “How long has this been happening?”

“I do not know. I first noticed it earlier, but it stopped.” “Why did you not tell me?”

“Because I was hoping it would disappear.” Mara reached for my hand, but the second heartbeat shifted again, and a warning instinct rose so sharply that I pulled away before her fingers touched mine.

“What happened?” she asked. I hesitated before asking, “How much do you remember from the night you found me in the forest?”

Mara’s face tightened. “I remember finding you unconscious. You were bleeding, and you had dirt all over your clothes.”

“Where was I bleeding?” “I do not know.”

Her eyes moved toward my neck. “Why did you look there?”

Mara hesitated. “There was a mark.”

“What kind of mark?” “A crescent-shaped mark. It was faint, but I remember seeing it.”

I touched my neck and felt warmth beneath my fingertips. “There is nothing there now.”

“I know,” Mara whispered. “That is why I am afraid.” The second heartbeat suddenly became louder.

Her eyes widened as she stared at my chest. “Orelith, was that you?”

“No.”  I said holding both my hands that were already trembling.

“What is that?” “I do not know.”

Mara took a step toward me, and the heartbeat accelerated so violently that pain tore through my chest. I gasped and grabbed the edge of the desk.

“Orelith!”

“Do not touch me!” The pain vanished as quickly as it had arrived, leaving me trembling. I pressed both hands against my chest and felt my own heartbeat slowly settle.

The other one remained strong, steady, and strangely calm. Then I heard a voice inside my mind.

“Run before it finds you.”

Mara grabbed my arm. “Orelith, what happened?”

I could not answer her. The second heartbeat began pounding beneath my ribs, louder than before, and I suddenly understood that it was not merely reacting to my fear. It was warning me.

“Something is coming,” I whispered. Mara’s grip tightened around my arm. “What is coming?”

“I do not know.” The voice returned inside my mind, and this time it sounded closer, more urgent than before.

“Run.”

I looked toward the door, unable to explain the terror spreading through my body. Whatever lived inside me knew something was coming, and for the first time, I wondered whether the thing I should fear was outside the room or already inside me.