Chapter 3 - 2: Echoes of a Stranger
The protagonist found herself in a dream, but it felt too vivid to be an ordinary one. She stood in the middle of a swirling, chaotic Hollow. The air was thick with Ether, and distorted voices echoed all around her—some familiar, some foreign, all impossible to pinpoint.
She looked down at her hands. They weren't hers. They were Ellen's—strong, calloused, and faintly trembling. She clenched them, trying to feel some semblance of ownership, but the sensation only deepened her unease.
"Who are you?"
The voice came from behind. The protagonist spun around to see Ellen standing there—not as a reflection or a memory, but as a separate entity. She looked the same as always, except her shark-like eyes glinted with an unnatural sharpness.
"Why are you stealing my life?" Ellen asked, her tone cold and accusatory.
"I'm not—" the protagonist stammered, taking a step back.
"Not what? Not trying to replace me?" Ellen's voice rose, and the Hollow around them seemed to ripple with her anger. "Then what are you doing here? Why do you look like me? Why do you feel like me?"
"I didn't ask for this!" the protagonist shouted, their voice breaking. "I didn't want to be here, in your body, in your world! I just—"
"You just what?" Ellen interrupted, stepping closer. "Wanted to escape your own? Or was it too easy to slip into someone else's skin and forget who you were?"
The Hollow twisted, and suddenly, the protagonist was surrounded by the rest of Victoria Housekeeping. Von Lycaon, Rina, Corin, and the others stared at her, their expressions unreadable but their gazes piercing.
"Who are you, really?" Rina asked, her calm tone laced with an edge that cut through the air like a blade.