Chapter 13
1041 Words
Amber couldn’t move.
The shadow beneath the door twisted unnaturally, stretching too far across the floorboards before pulling back again like it was breathing.
Another bang rattled the house.
Her mum screamed downstairs.
“Mum—”
“Don’t.” Lucian’s voice cut sharply through the panic rising in her chest.
Amber turned toward the mirror. “She’s downstairs!”
Lucian’s silver eyes stayed fixed on the door. “If you open it, they’ll see you.”
“What do you mean they? What are they?”
But deep down, part of her already knew.
The whispers.
The mirror.
The thing that kept saying her name wrong.
It wasn’t alone anymore.
A slow scratching sound dragged across the other side of the wood.
Amber’s stomach twisted violently.
Not claws.
Fingernails.
Human fingernails.
“Amber…”
The voice outside the door sounded almost normal now.
Almost.
It sounded like her mum.
Tears instantly burned her eyes.
“Mum?” she whispered instinctively, taking a step forward.
Lucian’s expression hardened. “That is not your mother.”
The scratching stopped.
Silence swallowed the room whole.
Then—
A soft laugh drifted through the hallway.
Amber froze.
It was wrong.
The sound glitched halfway through itself, dropping deeper before rising again like multiple voices trying to speak together.
“Amber,” it whispered sweetly. “Please open the door.”
Her hands trembled violently.
“How does it know my name?”
Lucian didn’t answer immediately.
Which terrified her more than if he had.
The bedroom light flickered overhead once… twice…
Then went out completely.
Darkness slammed into the room.
Amber gasped softly.
The only light now came from the mirror itself, silver and faint, casting shadows across the walls.
And Lucian—
He looked different in the dark.
Less human somehow.
His eyes glowed brighter now, silver threaded with something darker beneath.
Ancient.
Dangerous.
Real.
Another slow scrape sounded outside the door.
“Amber…”
Closer this time.
As if its mouth was pressed directly against the wood.
Her breathing became shallow. “Lucian…”
“You need to listen carefully,” he said quietly. “No matter what you hear, do not let it inside.”
“What is it?”
He hesitated.
Then finally:
“A Hollow.”
The word settled heavily in the room.
Amber swallowed hard. “That doesn’t exactly explain anything.”
Lucian’s gaze darkened slightly. “They were once human.”
Ice slid through her veins.
“What?”
“They feed on fear, grief… loneliness. The more emotion they consume, the less human they become.”
Amber stared at the door in horror.
Another scratch.
Another whisper.
“You left me downstairs…”
The voice sounded exactly like her mum now.
Exactly.
Amber’s chest tightened painfully.
“What did they do to her?” she whispered.
Lucian looked away for the first time.
That alone was answer enough.
“No…”
A loud thud slammed against the bedroom door hard enough to shake the frame.
Amber jumped backward with a scream.
The handle twisted slowly.
Once.
Twice.
Then stopped.
Lucian stepped closer inside the mirror. “Amber, look at me.”
She did.
And instantly the panic eased slightly.
Not disappearing completely—but enough that she could breathe again.
“You are stronger than it,” he said softly.
“How would you know?”
A faint sadness flickered across his face.
“Because it fears you too.”
Amber stared at him.
“That makes absolutely no sense.”
“You think this started tonight?” he asked quietly.
The room seemed to grow colder around them.
“What are you talking about?”
Lucian didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, he lifted one pale hand toward the glass.
Slowly—
Carefully—
Amber raised hers too.
The second her fingertips touched the mirror, pain exploded through her head.
Images crashed into her mind so fast she nearly screamed.
A forest burning silver beneath a blood-red moon.
Black water.
Ancient stone ruins.
Dozens of glowing eyes in the dark.
And Lucian—
Standing in the centre of it all covered in blood.
Then another image.
Amber herself.
But older somehow.
Different.
Golden light burning beneath her skin while voices whispered around her in a language she didn’t understand.
The visions vanished instantly.
Amber staggered backwards gasping.
“What the hell was that?!”
Lucian looked shaken now too.
Which frightened her more than anything else tonight.
“You saw it,” he murmured.
“Saw what?”
“The bond.”
Amber’s pulse thundered in her ears.
“No. No, absolutely not. I don’t even know you.”
“You knew me before this life.”
The words hit harder than they should have.
Amber stared at him like he’d lost his mind.
“That’s impossible.”
Another violent bang exploded against the bedroom door.
A crack splintered through the wood.
Amber spun around in horror.
Something long and thin slowly slid through the opening.
Fingers.
Too many fingers.
Bent at unnatural angles.
Her scream caught in her throat.
The thing outside laughed softly.
“Found you…”
The bedroom walls suddenly shook.
Not from the creature.
From the mirror.
Silver cracks raced across the glass around Lucian’s reflection as though something was trying to force its way through from his side too.
Lucian’s expression changed instantly.
Fear.
Real fear.
“Amber,” he said sharply. “Get away from the mirror.”
“What?!”
“NOW.”
The glass shattered.
A wave of freezing air burst outward, knocking Amber backwards onto the floor.
Darkness poured from the broken mirror like smoke.
And through it—
A hand reached out.
Not the Hollow’s.
Lucian’s.
Real.
Solid.
Impossible.
Amber stared up at him in shock as he stepped halfway into her room for the very first time.
The Hollow outside the door shrieked violently.
Lucian’s silver eyes flashed toward it with sudden fury.
Then he looked back at Amber.
And for the first time—
She saw exactly what he truly was.
Not human.
Not ghost.
Not vampire.
Something older.
Something the dark itself answered to.
And somehow—
It still looked at her like she was the only thing keeping it from becoming a monster.
- Writer
