CHAPTER 2: The Mirror’s Secret-Part 1

Evelyn wakes up, eyes open, sweat all over her forehead. She sighs, a sigh of relief. 

“Thank God, it was only a nightmare.” She says, wiping sweat of her face as she gets out of bed. But one thing catches her eyes, her feet. They have dirt on them. And just like a snap of a finger, the remnants of the previous night start coming back, clinging to Evelyn like a shroud, as her thoughts are muddled by fear and confusion. 

She sits unsettled in the dimly lit bedroom, the faint sounds of the old mansion creaking around her. Her mind starts racing, sweat breaks out of her forehead. She starts losing her breathe bit by bit. She feels eyes that are hidden in the shadows watching her. The east wing feels like it’s watching her, calling her back, and though she tries to shake it off, memories of the mirror cracking, the thousand voices she heard, and the dark figures that came from the mirror, all cloud her mind, and she starts losing consciousness.

“I need to leave this place…. I…...I……I shouldn’t have come back, I should have gone to a hotel or motel or something else. But not here.” she stands all of a sudden, her body shaking, her hands trembling, she loses her strength and falls on the ground, pulling herself to the door, because she feels the shadows calling onto her name.

Just as she reaches the door, the door opens from the other side and a figure stands behind it. “Where do you think you’re going?” Alexander asks with a smirk on his face, and anger evident in his eyes.

“Ahhhhhhh……….aahhhhhhh” Evelyn screams pushing herself back on the bed, like she has seen a ghost. She enters under the bed to hide, but Alexander, on the other hand watches her as she screams and enters under the bed. He folds his hands and leans on the door.

“Screaming does not save you when shadows come for you, and so does hiding.” He says as he squats and looks at Evelyn who is hiding under the bed. Evelyn becomes silent and she peeps to look at the figure talking. She pulls herself out of bed slowly and looks at him closely. Then her memory remembers the man from last night.

“I have to leave this place, I…I must go” she says pulling herself out from below the bed completely. Alexander helps her sit on the bed, but her mind is screaming one thing, leave. She gets off the bed attempting to get closer to the door, her legs weak, until they finally give way and she falls down to the ground. Tears start streaming down her face, her mind racing as she whispers to herself in sorbs. 

“Why did I come back? I shouldn’t have gone to that place…...aaaaaaaaahaaahaahaah” she cries and ends up screaming because the fear and all that she has experienced in less than 24 hours is too much to bear.

“You shouldn’t have come here Evelyn Blackwood, all this wouldn’t have happened.” Alexander speaks with anger, clutching his jaws as he moves closer holding out his hand for her to hold on and stand up. The gesture pulls Evelyn back into a memory flashback of last night. 

………………………………………………………………………..

Alexander grabbed her arm urging her to move, as the shadows poured from the mirror. But she was frozen, her body refusing to respond as the dark mist crept closer, and the whispers grew louder.

Her mind was a chaotic swirl of fear and morbid fascination. She had seen these figures before—in her dreams, in her nightmares, and now it was reality. One of the shadowy forms whispered her name again and again, ‘Evelyn…………………….’ the sound sending a chill down her spin.

She felt a strange pull, every time the shadows called her name, they were drawing her towards them. Alexander called to her name, his voice cutting through the haze of fear, pulling her back into reality, until she was looking at him. 

“We need to go, now.” he commanded her. In an instant, the room plunged into darkness, the shadows spreading out like ink across the floor, reaching for them. Evelyn’s gaze went straight back to the mirror, and she let go of Alexander’s hand.

His face tightened with effort, his hand outstretched, trying to grab her hand again, but the shadows kept pulling him back, away from her.

“Evelyn, look at me” Alexander shouted out his voice deep with authority, that Evelyn broke her gaze away from the mirror. Alexander stretched his hand again to hold her, but the moment he did, the shadows around him bent to his will, creating way for his hand to reach Evelyn.

The darkness obeyed him. The shadows recoiled, parting as if commanded by some unseen force. But the effort was costing him something that was only evident on his faces. Evelyn watched in horror as the shadows turned on him—not retreating but latching onto him again with a much stronger force, crawling up his legs, his arms and his neck. His eyes flickered; darkening with each second the shadows consumed him.

With that in sight, Evelyn looked on in terror as Alexander was being consumed, but his eyes stayed on Evelyn. He looked at her until she lost consciousness and fell on the ground, she dared one last glance at the mirror as her eyes slowly closed, but her reflection stared back at her, and for a brief, terrifying moment, it wore an expression she didn’t recognize—a look of hunger, of possession., and then, she blacked out.

………………………………………………………………

Evelyn shakes her head, trying to rid herself of the image of Alexander being devoured by the very forces he seemed to control. She still doesn’t understand what happened—what he is, or what he’s hiding.

“What are you?” she snaps at him, pushing his hand away. She stands looking at him like he is the very shadows that tried to consume her, calling her name.

Alexander walks and stands by the window, his back to her. 

“I remember… what happened last night. Those things—they didn’t just come from the mirror. They… they were inside you. Why did they obey you? How did I hear your voice in that place? It’s like I was miles away………but……but…...but somehow, I heard your voice” her voice trembles with both anger and fear as she speaks.

“Ooh, so you do remember.” Alexander scoffs, his back still facing her. Evelyn waits on him to reply but he does not say a word.

“What is the meaning of ‘Klesrisyelley’? That’s the word I read when I turned to walk away. Alexander does not reply, but he turns and looks at her. The silence is unbearable. 

“Say something at least, I need to understand all this to make senses of it.” Alexander leans his forehead into his hand, annoyed and thinking whether to tell her or not.

“Why in God’s name would you read something that appeared out of nowhere?” Alexander asks, as calm as he can, with anger evident in his voice. He walks slowly towards Evelyn, dangerously, his steps slow and calculated. Evelyn backs away slowly until she hits the table behind her. Alexander stops mid-way, his face unreadable, but his eyes do not hide the anger and the rage in them.

“Normal people usually run away from things they don’t understand. But you………...” Alexander pauses, shaking his head. “You, Evelyn Blackwood, chose to read that statement, the one statement you shouldn’t have. Now see what that you have led us to.”

“I didn’t know I just…. just…...” Evelyn stutters.

 “Just what, Evelyn?” Alexander cuts her off, his voice calm and slow. He walks back to the window and faces Evelyn.

“I warned you. The mirror isn’t just a reflection. It’s a doorway.” he speaks, his voice low and measured.

“That’s not what I’m asking!” she snaps, her heart racing. She moves closer, trying to make sense of the terror that still grips her. “What are you? How do you control them? And where did you even come from?”

Alexander turns his expression dark but calm. “You don’t want to know.”

Evelyn laughs bitterly, the fear turning into anger. “Don’t I? You used them…you…you…you fought them, and then… they started consuming you.” Her voice cracks. “And I blacked out. Why did I black out? What did you do?”