The Mirror Of Lost Souls

Chapter Six: Shadows Of The Past (Cecilia's POV)

I woke up to the sensation of cold fingers gripping my shoulder, but it wasn’t the darkness that greeted me. Instead, it was Lena’s wide, concerned eyes staring down at me. “Cecilia,” she whispered, her voice tinged with panic. “Are you okay?”

Confusion washed over me as I struggled to piece together what had happened. The memories were hazy, fragmented, like a puzzle with pieces that didn’t quite fit together. I sat up slowly, the world spinning slightly as I did. My body felt heavy, drained, as if whatever had taken hold of me had sucked all the energy from my veins. “I… I don’t know,” I managed to croak out, my voice unfamiliar to my own ears. “It didn’t feel like me. It was like something else was in control.”

Lena nodded, her face pale. I could see the questions in her eyes, but she didn’t push me to answer. How could I, when I didn’t even understand it myself? The truth was, I wasn’t sure what had happened last night. All I knew was that the darkness had crept into me, taken root in places it had no right to be, and now it was a part of me, lurking beneath the surface.

As if Lena and her family hadn’t already caused enough damage in my life, now I had to deal with this. I couldn’t help the bitterness that rose in my throat, but I swallowed it down. We had gone to the attic searching for clues about the sorceress, but all I could think about was home—if you could even call it that. It had been a nice place once, full of warmth and laughter. But that was before everything went to hell.

My mind wandered back to the day it all fell apart. Lena’s father and my mother had worked together at the same bank, their professional lives entwined. Things had been fine between them, or so I had thought, until one day everything changed. A scandal erupted—someone had embezzled millions of dollars, and my mother became the scapegoat. At the time, we had been living comfortably, perhaps even luxuriously. My mother had just bought a new car, we had a beautiful house, and life had seemed perfect. But perfection is fragile, and it shattered the moment Lena’s father pointed the finger at my mother.

He had claimed she was the one behind the embezzlement, and no one had questioned him. Not even for a moment. My mother, who had been the backbone of our family, was fired on the spot, and her reputation was ruined. She couldn’t find another job in finance, no one would hire her. We had to sell the car, move into a smaller house, and she took on part-time jobs just to keep us afloat. I’ll never forget the look of defeat in her eyes as she did everything she could to provide for me and my sister. We went from having everything to nothing, all because of a lie.

And now, Lena’s family had taken everything from us. They had ruined my mother’s life, and in turn, they had ruined mine. That’s why I never let anyone come to my house. I didn’t want them to see how far we had fallen, didn’t want Lena to know that her family was the reason my life had turned into a nightmare.

But now I was stuck. Stuck helping Lena. Stuck dealing with dark forces that I never believed existed until they had taken control of me. I looked down at my arm, where a faint bruise was forming. The entity had grabbed me last night, and the memory of its cold, vice-like grip made my skin crawl. What had I gotten myself into? What kind of person was I, that I was willing to risk everything for people who had taken so much from me?

We had gone to Mr. Whitlock’s house after Loraine found something—some clue that might lead us to answers about the mirror and the sorceress. The house was ancient, with an eerie, foreboding atmosphere that seemed to seep into my bones the moment we walked through the door. Mr. Whitlock himself was just as unsettling, a man whose fear was palpable as he laid eyes on the mirror we brought with us.

He was terrified, and I couldn’t blame him. Seeing that mirror, knowing what it was capable of, it sent chills down my spine. But what choice did we have? We had to perform the ritual, even if every instinct in my body screamed at me to run. I had wanted a simple night with friends, maybe even to try and forget, if only for a moment, the mess that had become my life. But instead, I found myself standing in a circle, holding hands with the girl whose father had ruined everything, as we summoned a force I didn’t understand.

The ritual started, and fear clawed at my insides. I kept thinking, what if it happened again? What if I lost control? What if I hurt someone? The lights flickered, a cold wind whipped through the room, and Lena’s body went limp. For a brief, terrifying moment, I thought she might be dead. But then she started to float, her body rising from the ground as if lifted by invisible hands.

Seraphina’s voice echoed in my mind: “Someone is going to betray you.” The words lingered, leaving me wondering. How did she know? Could she see the future?

The ritual seemed to drag on forever, though in reality, it was only minutes. When Lena finally came back to us, she looked pale, terrified, as if she had seen something unspeakable. And then Jess barged in. The look on her face was one I’d never forget—perplexed, confused, upset, and scared all at once. We tried to explain, but there was no time. The room’s energy was unstable, the air thick with something dark and dangerous. We didn’t need to be told twice before we sprinted out of the house, desperate to escape whatever horrors we had unleashed.

As we ran, the chill of the night air hit me, but it couldn’t shake the darkness that clung to me, like a second skin. We had gotten out, but I knew this was far from over. And as much as I wanted to believe we’d be okay, a part of me couldn’t shake the feeling that we had only just begun to unravel something much more sinister.