The Unburied Reflection

THE CURSE THAT FOLLOWED HIS NAME

Kevin doesn’t remember walking home.

One moment he’s standing by the car window, heart hammering against ribs that feel too tight—

and the next, he’s in front of his apartment building, staring up at the flickering entrance light like it’s trying to warn him not to enter.

He wipes a trembling hand across his face.

He tells himself it’s exhaustion.

Stress.

Lack of sleep.

Anything but the truth.

Because the truth is colder:

The mirror didn’t just mimic him.

It knew him.

He steps into the elevator. The doors close. The metal walls catch his reflection on all sides—pale, shaken, eyes too wide.

He avoids looking at any of them.

He fails.

One reflection—far left, near the corner—blinks late.

A heartbeat behind him.

His stomach flips violently.

“No,” he whispers. “Not here. Not now.”

The elevator hums upward. Soft. Mechanical. Safe.

But the reflection’s delay grows longer, like it’s struggling to keep up, like reality is pulling it apart.

Then it happens.

The reflection lifts its hand.

He doesn’t.

Cold slides down his spine like a drop of ice.

The mirrored hand presses flat against the metal surface.

Fingers splayed.

Reaching.

For him.

Kevin steps back so fast he hits the opposite wall.

“Stop,” he chokes out.

The reflection tilts its head—not wrong this time, but gentle. Familiar. As if it’s trying to soothe him.

Then it mouths something.

Three silent words.

He can’t hear them.

But he knows them.

He’s heard them before—

in nightmares,

in half-memories,

in the quiet moments when he feels watched.

“Don’t trust him.”

The elevator jolts.

The lights flicker.

Every reflection snaps back into perfect sync.

Kevin gasps, stumbling out the moment the doors open. He doesn’t dare look back. He rushes down the hallway, fumbles the keys twice, and slams the apartment door behind him.

Silence swallows the space.

He drops to his knees, hands shaking against the floor.

“Don’t trust who?” he whispers.

No answer.

Only the faint, almost imaginary sound of metal creaking—

like a reflection leaning against the inside of a mirror,

waiting.

⸻