Cold. Hard. Not my floor. The stone was rough under my hands, and the air smelled wrong — damp, stale, like something had been rotting here for a long time.
My head pounded. My mouth was dry. For a second, I didn’t remember where I was. Then it hit me.
The hallway. The other me. The voices.
I scrambled to my feet. The hallway was gone. No doors, no whispers, just an empty room with walls that looked too smooth, too clean, like they weren’t made of anything real.
The only thing in the room was a mirror.
It stood against the far wall, tall and old, the frame twisted and blackened like it had been pulled from a fire. The glass wasn’t right either — too dark, too murky, like it was holding something back.
I didn’t want to go near it.
But I couldn’t stop myself. My feet moved on their own, dragging me closer.
I stared into the glass.
The reflection stared back.
It was me. My face, my eyes — but something wasn’t right. My eyes looked dull, unfocused. My skin looked too pale.
Then my reflection blinked.
I didn’t.
It smiled. I didn’t.
The smile stretched, too wide for my face. The skin at the corners of its mouth cracked and tore, but no blood came out. Just blackness.
It raised a hand and tapped the glass, once.
The sound echoed through the room like a gunshot.
“Let me out.”
My heart slammed against my ribs. My throat burned, but no sound came out.
The reflection’s head tilted.
“You’re not real.”
I shook my head. “I am. I’m real.” My voice sounded wrong — too quiet, like it wasn’t really coming from me.
It laughed. The sound didn’t match my face. It was deeper, rougher, like it belonged to someone older. Someone dead.
“That’s what I said.”
It stepped back, fading into the darkness inside the mirror.
For a second, I thought it was over.
Then a hand slammed against the glass from the other side.
Not mine.
It was bigger, paler, the fingers too long. More hands followed.
Dozens. Hundreds. Pounding against the glass. Cracks spread across it like lightning.
The mirror screamed. Not a sound — a feeling. A horrible, twisting pressure that rattled my skull and made my vision blur.
The Stranger Who Wore My Face 11