The apartment was silent except for the faint hum of the city beyond the glass walls. Marrin stood before the full-length mirror, her reflection staring back with unflinching clarity. Or was it? She blinked, and the reflection wavered, as if the glass itself were rippling like disturbed water. For a fraction of a second, she saw not herself, but another Marrin—her eyes cold, lips curved in a cruel smile, and the words whispered through the room, sharp and venomous: "You think you can control the outcome?"
Marrin's heart skipped a beat. She shook her head, willing the hallucination to vanish, but it lingered, a shadow hovering just behind her rational mind. She pressed her palms against the smooth surface of the mirror, feeling the cool glass through her fingertips. "It's not real," she mu
