The Mirror Of Lost Souls

Chapter One: The Reflection

The moment I laid eyes on the mirror, I knew something was wrong. It wasn’t just the way it looked—though that was strange enough. The glass was dark, almost black, with a faint sheen that made it seem as if it was covered in a layer of mist. The frame, old and intricately carved, was tarnished silver, depicting twisted vines and unfamiliar symbols that made my skin crawl. But it was more than that. There was something in the air, a heaviness that settled over me like a weight, making it hard to breathe.

I stood there in the dusty attic of my grandmother’s house, staring at the mirror, trying to shake the unease that was creeping up my spine. It had been hidden behind a stack of old boxes and a moth-eaten blanket, as if someone had deliberately tried to keep it out of sight. But now that I’d found it, I couldn’t look away.

“Lena, are you coming down?” My friend Jess’s voice echoed up the stairs, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah, just a minute!” I called back, forcing myself to tear my gaze away from the mirror.

I reached out to pull the blanket back over it, but my hand stopped just short of the glass. I don’t know why—I couldn’t explain it then, and I can’t explain it now—but something made me pause. It was as if the mirror was calling to me, urging me to take one more look, to see what was hidden in its depths.

My heart pounded in my chest as I slowly lowered my hand, my fingers brushing against the cool surface of the glass. And then, before I could stop myself, I looked into the mirror.

What I saw there made my blood run cold.

At first, it was just my reflection staring back at me—brown hair, wide green eyes, a face that looked pale and uncertain. But then, as I watched, something changed. The edges of the mirror seemed to blur, and my reflection began to shift. It was subtle at first, just a slight ripple, like a stone dropped in still water. But then the ripple spread, distorting my features, twisting them into something unfamiliar, something… wrong.

I tried to pull away, but I couldn’t. It was like I was rooted to the spot, trapped by the image in the glass. My reflection twisted and morphed, my eyes growing darker, my hair longer, wilder. And then, just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, the image solidified into something else entirely.

It wasn’t me. It couldn’t be me. The girl in the mirror looked like me, but she wasn’t. Her eyes were empty, hollow, like two black pits in her face. Her mouth twisted into a cruel smile, one that made my stomach churn. And behind her, where the attic should have been, was a dark, endless void, filled with shadows that seemed to move and writhe on their own.

I wanted to scream, to run, but I couldn’t move. The girl in the mirror raised a hand, her fingers reaching toward the glass, and I felt a cold chill race down my spine. She was coming for me, I knew it. She was going to pull me into that dark place, and I would be lost forever.

“Lena!”

Jess’s voice cut through the fog of terror that had settled over me, and suddenly, I was free. I stumbled back, nearly tripping over a box as I tore my gaze away from the mirror. My heart was racing, my breath coming in short, panicked gasps.

“Lena, what’s going on?” Jess appeared at the top of the stairs, her expression a mix of concern and confusion.

I tried to speak, to tell her what I’d seen, but the words wouldn’t come. I glanced back at the mirror, expecting to see that twisted reflection staring back at me, but it was gone. The glass was clear again, showing only my own pale, frightened face.

“Nothing,” I managed to say, though my voice trembled. “It’s… it’s nothing.”

Jess frowned, clearly not convinced, but she didn’t press the issue. “Come on, we should get back downstairs. Your grandma’s waiting.”

I nodded, trying to shake off the lingering fear as I followed her down the stairs. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the mirror, about the girl I’d seen in its depths. I knew I should tell someone—my grandmother, Jess, anyone—but something held me back. Maybe it was fear, or maybe it was something more. A part of me knew that whatever I’d seen in that mirror, it wasn’t finished with me.

As we reached the bottom of the stairs, I forced a smile and tried to act normal, but my mind kept drifting back to the attic. What was that mirror? And why did it seem so… alive?

Grandma was waiting for us in the living room, her frail form curled up in her favorite armchair. The room was filled with the scent of lavender and old books, a comforting smell that had always made me feel safe. But today, even that familiar scent couldn’t banish the fear that still lingered in the back of my mind.

“There you are,” Grandma said, her voice weak but warm. “Did you find anything interesting up there?”

“Just some old boxes,” I said quickly, hoping she wouldn’t notice the tremor in my voice.

Jess shot me a curious look, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she turned to Grandma with a smile. “I think Lena and I are going to head out now. We’ve got a lot of work to do before school starts.”

Grandma nodded, her eyes crinkling with a smile. “Of course, dear. You girls take care, and don’t be strangers.”

We promised we wouldn’t, and after a few more pleasantries, we left the house and started walking down the quiet, tree-lined street. The sun was setting, casting long shadows across the pavement, and the air was cool and crisp with the first hints of autumn.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching me, that somewhere, in the darkened windows of the houses we passed, that twisted reflection was lurking, waiting for the right moment to strike.

“Lena,” Jess said suddenly, breaking the silence. “What really happened up there?”

I hesitated, unsure of how to explain. “I… I found this mirror,” I began slowly, trying to find the right words. “It was strange. The reflection… it wasn’t right.”

Jess stopped walking and turned to face me, her expression serious. “What do you mean, ‘wasn’t right’? What did you see?”

I looked down at the ground, my thoughts a jumbled mess. How could I explain what I’d seen without sounding crazy? “It looked like me,” I said finally. “But it wasn’t me. The reflection was… different. Darker. And there was this… void behind it, like the mirror was a window into something else.”

Jess was silent for a long moment, her eyes searching mine. “Lena, that sounds… really creepy. Are you sure it wasn’t just a trick of the light or something?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But it felt real. Like the mirror was trying to show me something, or… or trying to pull me in.”

She frowned, clearly troubled by my words. “Maybe you should tell your grandma. She might know something about it.”

“Maybe,” I said, though the thought of telling Grandma filled me with an inexplicable sense of dread. What if she didn’t believe me? What if she did? What if she knew more about the mirror than she was letting on?

As we continued walking, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was just the beginning. Whatever that mirror was, whatever I had seen, it wasn’t over. It was only a matter of time before it came back for me. And when it did, I would have to be ready.