The wind howled through the desolate streets of Hollowbrook, a town that once breathed with life now left in ruins. The void's echoing words still lingered in the air, sending shivers down my spine. I glanced over at Evelyn, her face pale and drawn, her eyes wide with the same fear that gnawed at me.
"This place… it's different," Evelyn murmured, her voice barely audible over the howling wind. "Even without the creature, it feels… wrong."
I nodded, trying to steady my thoughts. The air was thick with unease, and every shadow seemed to stretch out, as though trying to grab hold of us and drag us back into the darkness. Despite the twisted forest being gone, a sense of foreboding hung over the town, as if it were teetering on the edge of a precipice.
"We need to keep moving," I said, taking a step forward. "Standing still won't get us anywhere."
Evelyn followed, her eyes darting around as though expecting the shadows to leap at us any moment. We walked in silence, the once-familiar streets now foreign and threatening. Hollowbrook was like a reflection of itself—recognizable, but only just, and distorted beyond repair. Houses that once stood proud were now nothing more than crumbling walls and shattered windows. The remnants of the past were everywhere, reminding us of what we had lost.
As we turned a corner, I caught a glimpse of something in the distance. It was faint, almost like a mirage, but unmistakably there—a tall, solitary building that stood intact amidst the ruins. The church. Its steeple, though leaning slightly, still reached up toward the blood-red sky, a beacon in the middle of destruction.
"The church…" Evelyn whispered. "It's still standing."
"Barely," I muttered, but there was something compelling about it, something that drew us in. Perhaps it was the last refuge, or perhaps it was the next trap laid out by the void. Either way, we had no choice but to investigate.
We approached cautiously, the wind growing stronger, whipping at our clothes and biting at our skin. The closer we got, the more the feeling of dread intensified. The doors of the church were slightly ajar, creaking ominously as they swayed in the wind. I pushed them open wider, and they groaned in protest, revealing the dim interior of the church.
Inside, the air was thick with dust, and the smell of decay was overpowering. The pews were overturned, and debris littered the floor. But the most unsettling sight was the large, cracked mirror that hung on the far wall, directly behind the altar. It was out of place, a relic that didn't belong in the sacred space, and yet it dominated the room.
"We shouldn't be here," Evelyn said, her voice trembling.
"We don't have much of a choice," I replied, though the sight of the mirror filled me with unease. Something about it seemed… alive, as though it were watching us, waiting for us to come closer.
As we walked down the aisle, the wind outside intensified, rattling the church's windows. The closer we got to the mirror, the more distorted our reflections became. My face twisted and warped, as though the mirror were peeling away the layers of reality to reveal something darker beneath.
"Don't look at it," I warned, but it was too late. Evelyn had already caught sight of her reflection.
"Marcus…" she whispered, her voice choked with fear. "That's not me…"
I turned to look, and my blood ran cold. The reflection staring back at us wasn't Evelyn—not really. It was a grotesque version of her, her eyes hollow and lifeless, her skin pale and stretched tight over her bones. Her reflection reached out a hand, as though trying to claw its way out of the mirror.
"Get away from it!" I shouted, grabbing her arm and pulling her back. But as I did, something in the mirror shifted. The reflections twisted and contorted, then solidified into something far worse. The mirror's surface rippled, and dark figures began to form within the glass—figures that looked like us, but weren't us. They were shadows, twisted versions of ourselves, their eyes glowing with a malevolent light.
The figures stepped out of the mirror, their movements jerky and unnatural. They were like living nightmares, reflections come to life with only one purpose—to drag us into the void.
"We need to get out of here!" Evelyn cried, backing away as the shadowy figures advanced.
But the doors behind us slammed shut with a force that shook the entire building. The wind outside roared, drowning out all other sounds, and the shadows kept coming, their forms growing more solid, more real, with each passing second.
"Fight them!" I shouted, though I wasn't sure how. I grabbed a piece of broken wood from one of the pews and swung it at the nearest figure. The shadow recoiled, its form shattering like glass before reforming almost instantly.
"They're reflections!" Evelyn yelled, panic in her voice. "They're not real!"
But they felt real enough as they closed in on us, their faces—our faces—twisted into grotesque smiles. One of them lunged at me, and I felt its cold, shadowy hand wrap around my throat, squeezing with a strength that was impossible to resist.
Desperation gave me strength, and I swung the piece of wood with all my might, breaking free of its grip. The figure shattered again, but this time it didn't reform. Instead, the shards of shadowy glass dissipated into the air.
"They can be beaten," I gasped, though my voice was weak. "But we have to destroy the mirror. That's the source!"
Evelyn nodded, grabbing another piece of debris. Together, we charged at the mirror, the remaining shadows converging on us in a last-ditch effort to stop us. I felt one claw at my back, another at my arm, but I pushed through the pain, knowing this was our only chance.
With a final, desperate swing, we struck the mirror simultaneously. The glass exploded in a shower of dark shards, the shadows within howling in rage as they dissolved into nothingness. The wind outside died down instantly, leaving an eerie silence in its wander
As the last of the shadows faded, I turned to Evelyn, relief flooding through me. But before I could say anything, I noticed something chilling—where the mirror had been, there was now a doorway, leading into a dark, endless corridor that hadn't been there before. The air around it pulsed with a cold, malevolent energy, and I realized with growing dread that the void wasn't finished with us yet. The mirror had been only the beginning, and whatever lay beyond that doorway was waiting to drag us deeper into the darkness.