By me: The Unknown Traveler

On a moonlit night, four friends gathered on the outskirts of the city, in a small café overlooking a still river. Salem was the calmest and most contemplative, always reflecting on every word he heard and every feeling he sensed. Faris, the rational one, tried to make sense of everything, analyzing every detail. Ryan, the sarcastic one, hid his deep anxiety beneath a constant stream of laughter. And Maher, the bold adventurer, loved testing the limits of reality and feeding his curiosity.

They sat together, exchanging stories about legends and the mysteries that shrouded the world, until Maher suddenly spoke:

"Have you heard of the Cave of Worlds? They say it only reveals itself to those who seek it sincerely… and anyone who enters never comes out the same."

Ryan smiled wryly:

"Oh, so we’re getting a new version of ourselves—a version more terrifying, and perhaps stranger?"

But Salem looked at him deeply and said:

“Sometimes, curiosity is a mirror. We are not searching for the cave… the cave is searching for us.”

Salem’s words were heavy, but they did not stop Maher from insisting:

“We must see the truth for ourselves. Perhaps everything we heard is just a myth, but even a legend holds meaning.”

After hours, the four set off toward the desert. The road was long and desolate, and the sands shifted as if guarding ancient secrets. At the cave's entrance, it looked to them like the mouth of a dark mountain, swallowing light and time together.

As they entered, they immediately felt that time was no longer moving normally. Sounds lagged behind, their heartbeats synced with the echoes of the walls, and every step seemed to reshape reality itself.

Faris said, as he touched one of the walls:

"It’s… as if the wall itself is thinking."

Salem stopped and spoke in a low voice:

"Every stone here carries the echo of our choices. Perhaps every decision we’ve ever made brings us back to this place."

They ran through the narrow corridors until they reached a vast hall, where a still pool of water reflected like a mirror. Each of them saw a different reflection: Salem as an elderly sage, Faris as a lost child, Ryan as a sarcastic yet sorrowful version of himself, and Maher as a wandering figure with no direction.

Salem muttered:

“Are we reflections of the past… or messages to our future?”

Faris looked at the water and asked himself in an inner voice:

“If I returned to my past self, would I choose the same path? Or am I running from facing myself?”

Rayan laughed, but a frightening laugh, and said:

“This mirror… is more honest than any person I have ever met.”

And inside, he wondered:

“Perhaps every mockery I hid was my fear of facing the truth of my existence?”

Maher, the adventurer, felt something tearing at him from within:

“Isn’t it enough to keep moving without stopping? Shouldn’t I face this inner fear instead of just chasing thrill?”

They all felt that the pool was not just a reflection, but a gateway to stranger inner worlds. With a shared step, they moved into a new world: a city without time.

The buildings were familiar, the streets empty, cars parked, and people frozen like statues. Here, each one realized that the cave reshapes reality according to their desires and fears.

Salem looked at the city and said in a deep voice:

“The city is empty, yet it mirrors our minds. Perhaps everyone who passes through sees themselves alone within their choices.”

Faris said:

“I feel that every decision I ever made appears here. The mistakes, the opportunities, even the regrets.”

Ryan, who usually escaped with laughter, began to ask himself:

"Is the sarcasm I live by just a mask… and if the mask comes off, will I be able to face my true self?"

Maher, as usual, wanted to move forward, but he felt that the next step was heavy:

"Every step here leads me to myself… but am I ready to see what I’ll find?"

After their wanderings, they arrived at a luminous forest, its trees towering like skyscrapers, their leaves shimmering with an inner light. Every shadow told a story, every whisper carried a lesson, and every breeze seemed to ask:

"What will you do now? Will you choose to face yourself or run away?"

In the forest, their other selves appeared: Salem wiser, Faris more cautious, Ryan sadder, and Maher more aware of danger. Their copies remained silent and still, but they sparked questions in their minds:

"Can we become better if we face what we fear?"

"Where does consciousness begin and where does illusion end?"

"Do we create reality... or does it create us?"

Then they moved into the Hall of the Void, no floor, no ceiling, just endless white light. Here, each of them faced themselves directly:

Salem saw his entire life as a sequence of decisions, each small mistake carrying massive consequences.

Faris realized that his organized mind had constrained him more than it freed him.

Rayan saw all his past laughs, every time he used them to hide his fear, and began to feel the weight of it.

Maher felt that his adventures had been an escape from facing the inner chaos within himself.

Salem muttered:

“Perhaps every external adventure is merely a reflection of what happens within me.”

Rayan, in a quiet voice:

“Perhaps every laugh was an attempt to negotiate with fear… and now the cave forces me to face everything.”

Maher said:

“If we are here now, facing the void… it means that every choice I didn’t make is a real world, and every fear I didn’t face is real.”

Faris finally understood the meaning of reality:

“Reality is not what we see, but what we experience and understand… and here we are now, experiencing our depths.”

Then a glowing stone door appeared before them, engraved with philosophical symbols: an eye, a scale, a stopped clock. Each symbol posed a question:

The Eye: Will you dare to see your full truth?

The Scale: Can you reconcile your desires with your fears?

The Clock: Is time yours, or are you its?

Darkness began to creep in, and the blue light faded. Each of them knew that their choice would determine their fate… but before they could take any step, they heard a voice echoing from the depths of the cave:

“You did not enter the cave; the cave entered you. Every step, every decision, every thought… is part of the worlds you will create.”

Silence, then each of them faded into their inner world, where questions begin without answers, and endings without limits.

After a few moments, they all returned to the first pool hall, but something was different: each one carried a new perspective about themselves, about life, about the decisions they had made, and about the opportunities they had missed.

Salem looked at his friends and said:

“Perhaps the cave is not a place, but an experience… an experience to truly know ourselves.”

Rayan smiled sadly and said:

“And every laugh I used to hide my fear was not hidden here.”

Maher said:

“Perhaps courage is not in adventure, but in facing our depths.”

Faris, trying to make sense of what had happened, muttered:

"We are now part of the cave… and the beings we saw in our reflections—are they us… or are they part of a future we haven’t experienced yet?"

The blue light began to fade slowly, and the cave’s long shadows started to stretch, as if swallowing the moment, accompanied by a heavy silence that left the questions unanswered.

—

Questions for the reader:

"If you were in their place, which door would you choose? The Eye, the Scale, or the Clock?"

"Are you the one who creates your worlds… or do your worlds create you?"

"How would you face your inner reflections if you found yourself in a mirror that never lies?"

"Does curiosity bring wisdom… or chaos?"

"Is the cave a real place, or a mental journey for anyone daring enough to face themselves?"

"Perhaps the answer isn’t out here, but in your own world… where the mirror waits for you to gaze into it."

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