The Mirror

scream. Sh

ering against her ribs. The figure within it-**not her**, not even close-stared back with an eerie calm. It had he

e figur

ntil she was down the hall, hand clutched over her chest as if trying to keep her

as r

of the light. Not

e

townsfolk. **She needed to see the mirror again.** Not from across the room in a panic-but face-to-face. *Un

awful, crawling sense

ays wanted

of the hidden door was untouched. Dust lay thick across its lid. She hesitated, then shoved the bookshelf

ched th

li

r creak

or towered at the center of the space like a shrine to something ancient. The twis

tepped

mirror loomed ahead, waiting. No reflection this time. Just a blank obsid

epped

early brushed the glass, an

gi

e sat on a swing, laughing in a garden full of

mbered t

een her

fore the

ed, her mother's smile twisted into something hollow. The younger Kira stopped laugh

look to

The image vanished. The

hell is th

ack pressed against the

he base, symbols had been etched into the wood. Delicate. Intricate. Some wer

ing their positions and spacing. Later, she'd try to decode them. Maybe at the library

ced before: a small, almost hidden latch beneath t

beneath the mirror shif

a f

mpar

small, leather-bound book, worn with age. The cover bore no title, jus

open

was scrawled in

now that I failed. And you will, too, unless

Elias

Observations. Experiments. Theories. Notes on dreams. Warnings not to look i

assage s

one gazes, the more it knows. The more

lias had studied this... *obsessed* over it...

the next

ere a

one last time, and left the chamber. As she sealed the h

n't *shown* he

own her a

*this was just