It began as a rash.
Small. Just under the eye.
A red irritation that pulsed like a heartbeat.
Doctors said it was dermatitis.
But soon, others started reporting the same thing.
Always in the same place.
Always after looking too long into a mirror.
---
The disease spread fast.
Not by air.
Not by touch.
By sight.
If you looked at someone infected—really looked—you felt your skin itch, just beneath the surface.
And then, days later, your reflection began to… change.
---
At first, the changes were subtle:
A blink when you didn't.
A delayed smile.
A twitch in the wrong eye.
But within a week, the mirror-you was living its own life.
People claimed their reflection whispered at night.
Others said it mimicked their darkest thoughts, even ones they'd never speak aloud.
Then came the reports of the switches.
---
Victims started vanishing.
Their reflections stayed.
Behind the glass.
Trapped.
Screaming silently while the thing that wore their face lived freely in the real world.
> "It has my voice.
It knows my memories.
But it's not me.
It's better."
---
Hospitals refused mirror patients.
Glass was banned in homes.
People covered bathroom mirrors with sheets or scratched them out entirely.
But the infected ones?
They became obsessed.
Drawn to mirrors like addicts—
Staring. Always staring.
Waiting for their "real self" to come through.
---
In the end, scientists called it a neurovisual parasitic disease.
But the truth came from one survivor locked in a psych ward, whispering:
> "It's not a virus…
It's a door.
And mirrors were never meant to be windows."
---
She clawed her own eyes out three days later.
Said she finally felt alone again.
---
Classified Research Note (recovered from Mirror Containment Lab 3-B):
> *"The reflection mimics with perfect accuracy—
but expresses subconscious malice.
When its host becomes mentally unstable…
the 'Mirrorskin' no longer wants to reflect.
It wants to replace."