Li An stood frozen in front of the mirror, her pulse hammering in her ears. The voice—low, raspy, and distant—lingered in the room, echoing in her mind.
"You shouldn't have looked."
She swallowed hard, her hand still resting on the cold glass. The jolt of electricity that had surged through her arm now felt like a distant memory, but the sense of wrongness, the dread, was overwhelming.
For a long moment, she simply stared at her own reflection, the image distorted by the clouded surface of the mirror. Was it her mind playing tricks on her, or was the reflection... shifting? A faint outline moved behind her, dark and indistinct, like a shadow that didn't belong.
Li An's breath hitched. She took a step back, almost tripping over her own feet. The reflection remained unchanged, but her instincts screamed at her to leave, to run.
She forced herself to step away, the cold air of the apartment settling around her like a shroud. Her fingers trembled as she reached for her phone, dialing Chen Wei's number without thinking.
The phone rang once, twice. Then he picked up.
"Li An?" His voice sounded strained, urgent. "What happened? You sound... off."
"The mirror," she said, her voice trembling despite her best efforts to remain composed. "I saw something in it. A shadow. I—"
But she was interrupted by a soft, almost imperceptible noise from behind her. It sounded like a whisper, too faint to catch with her ears but unmistakable nonetheless. Li An spun around, her heart in her throat.
Nothing. The room was empty. Silent.
She felt a sharp chill crawl up her spine. "Chen Wei, I need you here. Now."
At the Lab
Chen Wei was waiting for her when she arrived at the lab. He hadn't looked this distressed since the first time he'd shared his findings about the mirror. His eyes were wide, bloodshot, as though he hadn't slept in days. He barely looked at her when she entered, his focus on a thick stack of papers spread across the table. The symbols from the letter—those same symbols—were now scrawled everywhere, hastily written, as though they had been studied obsessively.
"Li An, you don't know what you're dealing with." His voice was low, strained, as though he was struggling to keep his composure. "The mirror... it's not just a portal. It's something much worse."
Li An took a seat, her mind racing. "I saw something in the mirror. A shadow. It wasn't my reflection."
Chen Wei's expression faltered, and he glanced nervously over his shoulder. "That's what I was afraid of," he muttered, more to himself than to her. "The mirror doesn't just show your reflection. It shows... other things. Things that shouldn't be seen."
He pushed the papers in front of her, one of them marked with an ancient symbol that matched the one on the letter. "I've been going through Zhang Xian's notes. He believed the mirror wasn't just an object, but a key. A key to something hidden—something powerful. And he thought it could be unlocked."
Li An leaned in, her eyes scanning the chaotic notes. "And now you think Zhang Xian… he unlocked it?"
Chen Wei nodded slowly. "I'm not sure, but I think he made contact with whatever's on the other side. And now, whatever it is—it's reached through."
Li An swallowed hard. "What does that mean? What do we do?"
"We need to find out what Zhang Xian discovered, and we need to do it fast," Chen Wei said, standing up and walking to the far side of the room. He opened a drawer, pulling out a worn, leather-bound journal. "This is Zhang Xian's personal diary. It might have the answers we need. But be careful. He wasn't the same after he started studying the mirror. He became... obsessed."
Li An took the journal from him, her fingers brushing the cracked cover. She could almost feel the weight of Zhang Xian's obsession pressing against her chest. "I'll read it," she said, her voice resolute. "But we need to be prepared for whatever comes next."
Back at Li An's Apartment
Later that night, Li An sat alone in her apartment, the journal open in front of her. The faint glow of a single lamp illuminated the pages, casting long shadows across the room. Her eyes skimmed the notes, which grew more frantic as the days went on. Zhang Xian had written about his growing obsession with the mirror, about the strange, inexplicable visions he had seen.
"It sees me," one of his final entries read. "The reflection is not what it seems. It is not my own. I am no longer sure of who I am, or where I am. But the mirror... it has seen me."
Li An felt a chill wash over her as she read those words. Was this what Zhang Xian had been warning about? What had he unlocked, and how had it affected him?
Suddenly, the temperature in the room dropped, and Li An's breath clouded in front of her. She glanced up, her heart pounding in her chest. The mirror was once again standing in its usual place, the surface now completely clear, reflecting the room with unsettling precision.
And then, from the depths of the reflection, a figure appeared. A dark, shadowy shape, standing just behind her.
Li An whipped around, but no one was there.