Ash's hands trembled slightly as he locked the dorm room door behind him, the leather-bound journal heavy in his grasp. The stranger's words echoed in his ears soft, almost taunting. "Oliver Kane did too. Look where it got him."
The journal felt old, but beneath its worn surface was a pulse of something darker, as if the very pages carried the residue of the vanished student's desperation. He swallowed hard, brushing aside the creeping thought that Oliver might not be gone at least, not in any conventional sense.
Settling into his desk chair, Ash hesitated before flipping the journal open. The first page was covered in frantic scrawls ink splattered like blood droplets.
"The mirror hungers. Don't trust your reflection."
His lips curled into a bitter smirk. Of course. Another warning, another cryptic message. As if he didn't already know something was wrong.
The second page was worse drawings, rough and jagged. Mirrors, shattered glass, and outlines of shadowy figures with no faces. Beneath one sketch, written in bold slashes, was a phrase that made Ash's stomach twist:
"The one who watches is no longer trapped."
A chill slithered down his spine. Was the figure in the mirror whatever it was breaking free? And if so… what did it want with him?
He slammed the journal shut, rubbing his temples as his thoughts unraveled. Rationally, he should dismiss it exhaustion, paranoia. But deep down, some part of him knew better.
Something was already wrong.
His mind flicked back to Oliver Kane. A student no one remembered, wiped clean from history. Had Oliver tried to escape whatever this was and failed?
A sharp knock at the door jolted him from his thoughts.
Alice stood on the other side, her brow furrowed. "I found something," she said without preamble, brushing past him and dropping an armful of books on his bed. "You're not going to like it."
Ash closed the door, pulse quickening. "What did you find?"
She flipped open a brittle, leather-bound tome. "Mentions of an old rite called the Mirror Rite. Supposedly, it was a ritual to peel back reality's surface." She paused, glancing at him. "But the warnings are… severe."
Ash's mouth was dry. "How severe?"
"Anyone who attempts the rite risks being… replaced." Her voice faltered. "By something else."
Ash exhaled slowly, the pieces clicking into place. The distorted reflection, the messages. Was the mirror trying to replace him? Was that what happened to Oliver?
A dark, cynical voice whispered in his mind. You should stop. Walk away.
But he knew himself too well. He couldn't leave this unfinished.
"Is there a way to reverse it?" he asked, his voice sharper than intended.
Alice flipped further. "Maybe. It's vague, but…" She pointed to a faded passage. "If the original reflection isn't fully severed, there's a way to reclaim yourself."
The words sent a cold ripple through him. Fully severed. What happened if it was too late?
As if on cue, the mirror on his wall groaned softly glass straining under an unseen pressure.
"I need to find out more about Oliver Kane," Ash muttered, already moving. "He's the key to this."
Alice grabbed his arm. "Ash… you're barely holding it together. If you go too far"
"I'm already too far." His voice was cold, final. "I need to know what happened to him."
They returned to the library after nightfall, the towering shelves casting long, skeletal shadows across the floor. The restricted archives loomed in the back a place that even professors avoided.
Ash's fingers trailed along the spines of forbidden texts until they found an unmarked black volume. He opened it carefully, revealing faded student records.
Then he found it.
Oliver Kane.
The name stood alone, but beneath it, scrawled in a different hand, was a single chilling phrase:
"Reflection incomplete."
A cold sweat broke across his skin. Had Oliver failed to reclaim himself or had something else taken his place?
Alice scanned the page, frowning. "There's another note."
Ash leaned closer. Below the last entry, in red ink, was a final cryptic instruction:
"The first reflection is never lost. Seek the place where light dies."
His heart pounded harder. He knew that phrase. It was a nickname for the abandoned observatory on the edge of campus.
Without another word, he closed the book and stood. "We're going there. Tonight."
Alice hesitated but followed. "You really think we'll find answers there?"
"If we don't," Ash said grimly, "I might not be me much longer."
The night air was thick with mist as they approached the crumbling observatory. Broken windows yawned like empty mouths, and the silence stretched too deep.
Inside, the atmosphere felt… wrong. The air was heavy, crackling with unseen tension. Ash's breath hitched as they reached the center where a tall, blackened mirror stood against the far wall.
It pulsed faintly.
Alice reached for his hand. "Ash, be careful."
He barely heard her. The mirror's surface rippled, and beneath it he saw a face.
Oliver Kane.
But the expression was hollow, eyes glassy and distant.
A shudder wracked Ash's frame as the mirror warped. For a moment, his own reflection bled into Oliver's and something else tried to push through.
Ash forced his mind to stay sharp. "You failed," he said quietly. "Didn't you?"
Oliver's reflection twitched, lips parting soundlessly.
A whisper brushed against Ash's thoughts thin, fragile. "It's still there… waiting…"
He clenched his jaw, pulling back before the mirror's pull grew stronger. "We're not done," he muttered, turning away.
Alice exhaled shakily. "You're playing with something you can't control."
"I don't care." His voice was steel. "If it wants me, it'll have to try harder."
But as they left, Ash couldn't shake the feeling that the mirror wasn't finished with him. Not yet.