The Mirror Crack
1711 Words
POV: Celine Ashvale - The Girl Who Saw Two of Herself
The mirror cracked.
Right down the middle.
My face split in two.
Left side: me. Brown eyes. Wet. Scared.
Right side: her. Gold eyes. Crowned. Calm.
Player Zero sat on the gold throne. Faceless. Because his face was the mirror.
“Choose which one lives,” he said.
The stone teeth above us closed. Slow.
We were falling toward him.
Toward the choice.
Kael’s hand was in mine. “Don’t choose,” he said. “Break it.”
“How?” I whispered. “There’s no stone. No key. Just me.”
“Then break you,” he said.
POV: Kael Blackthorn - The Man Who Wouldn’t Choose
Choose which Celine lives.
That was the trap.
Pick the human, the crowned one dies.
Pick the crowned, the human dies.
Player Zero wins either way.
The stone teeth were a hand’s width above us now.
Cold. Wet.
“Don’t look at him,” I said to Celine. “Look at me.”
She did.
Brown eyes. Real eyes.
“Kael, if I choose wrong—”
“There is no wrong,” I said. “There’s only us. Together.”
Player Zero’s mirror face rippled. “Touching. Useless.”
The teeth closed another inch.
POV: Celine - The Teeth Close
The teeth closed.
I could feel the air move.
Player Zero lifted his finger again.
“Brown eyes, or gold eyes? Human, or Queen? Choose.”
The crowned me in the mirror smiled.
Not cruel. Sad.
“Choose me,” she said. “And it stops. The falling. The running. The pain.”
The human me shook her head.
“Choose me,” I whispered. “And we stay free.”
Kael pulled me closer. “Then we choose neither.”
He let go of my hand.
And grabbed the mirror.
POV: Kael - The Mirror
I grabbed the mirror face.
No handle. No frame.
Just glass. Cold.
Player Zero didn’t move. “You can’t touch a reflection, Shield.”
“Watch me,” I said.
I pulled.
The mirror didn’t come off.
It came with me.
The whole throne.
The whole room.
Cracked.
POV: Celine - The Crack Spreads
The crack in the mirror spread.
Not just the glass.
The room.
The throne.
Player Zero.
His gold face split.
Left side: man. Old. Tired.
Right side: nothing.
Black.
“Impossible,” he said. “I am the mirror. I am the choice.”
“No,” Kael said. “You’re a cage.”
The stone teeth stopped closing.
Hung there
POV: Kael - The Cage Breaks
The cage broke.
Not with a key.
With refusal.
Player Zero screamed.
Not in pain.
In anger.
“You were made to choose!” he roared. “You were made to sit!”
“We were made to break,” I said.
The mirror shattered.
Glass rained.
Not down.
Up.
POV: Celine - The Glass Rains Up
Glass rained up.
Into the stone teeth.
Into the dark.
Each shard showed a different Celine.
One crowned. One dead. One old. One child.
All me.
All breaking.
The crowned one in the mirror reached for me.
“Don’t,” she said. “If I go, you lose me forever.”
Kael looked at her. “You’re not lost. You’re free.”
The shard with her face cracked.
POV: Kael - The Last Shard
The last shard.
Crowned Celine.
She looked at me.
“Thank you,” she said.
And she broke.
No sound.
Just gone.
Player Zero roared.
The throne under him vanished.
He fell.
POV: Celine - Player Zero Falls
Player Zero fell.
No throne. No mirror.
Just a man.
Old.
Eyes human.
Brown.
Like mine.
“Daughter,” he said. “You killed me.”
“No,” I said. “You killed yourself. When you made me choose.”
He hit the bottom.
No water.
Just stone.
And he didn’t get up.
POV: Kael - The Bottom
The bottom was stone.
Dry.
No water. No eyes.
Just us.
And him.
Player Zero lay there. Breathing.
“Is he dead?” Celine whispered.
“No,” I said. “But he’s not a god anymore.”
Player Zero opened his eyes.
Brown.
Tired.
“Why?” he asked. “Why didn’t you sit?”
“Because you did,” I said.
POV: Celine - Why We Didn’t Sit
“Because you did,” I said.
Player Zero closed his eyes.
“I sat for ten thousand years,” he whispered. “I thought if I made another Door, I could leave.”
Kael knelt beside him. “So you made her.”
“I made a cage,” he said. “And called it a daughter.”
The stone above us cracked.
Light came through.
Not gold.
Sun.
POV: Kael - The Sun
Sunlight.
Real sunlight.
Not torch. Not mirror.
Sun.
The ceiling broke open.
A hole.
Above us.
Celine looked up. “We can leave.”
Player Zero grabbed my wrist.
Weak. “No. If you leave, the cage opens.”
“Good,” I said. “Let it.”
POV: Celine - The Cage Opens
The cage opens.
That’s what he said.
But I was tired of cages.
I took Kael’s hand.
“Let’s go.”
We walked to the light.
Player Zero didn’t follow.
He just watched.
“One last thing, Door,” he said.
We stopped.
POV: Kael - One Last Thing
“One last thing,” he said.
“What?” I said. I didn’t turn.
“The key,” he said. “You broke it. Two halves.”
“I know,” I said.
“One half is with you,” he said. “The other…”
He smiled.
“It’s with her.”
POV: Celine - Her
Her.
The word hit like ice.
Kael turned. “Who?”
Player Zero pointed up.
Not at the hole.
At us.
At my shadow.
My shadow moved.
On its own.
And from it, the girl stepped out.
Lyra.
POV: Kael - Lyra Again
Lyra.
The child.
White dress.
Eyes brown.
She held the other half of the key.
“Daddy,” she said. “Mommy.”
Celine stumbled. “You’re not real. We didn’t choose you.”
Lyra smiled. Sad. “You didn’t. But he did.”
She pointed at Player Zero.
POV: Celine - Player Zero’s Move
Player Zero smiled.
“I couldn’t make you sit,” he said. “So I made her choose.”
Lyra held up the key half.
“It’s whole now,” she said.
The two halves flew together.
Click.
POV: Kael - The Key Whole Again
Click.
The key was whole.
Black iron.
Glowing.
Lyra held it up.
“The door is open, Mommy. Daddy. Come home.”
Behind her, the hole in the ceiling changed.
Not sun.
Not sky.
A door.
Wood.
With a handle.
POV: Celine - The Door
A door.
In the ceiling.
Wood.
Handle.
Lyra reached for it.
“Please,” she said. “Don’t make me go back alone.”
Kael stepped in front of me. “Don’t touch it.”
But Celine was looking at Lyra’s hand.
At the birthmark.
Hers.
POV: Kael - The Birthmark
The birthmark.
Celine’s.
On Lyra’s wrist.
That wasn’t a trick.
That was blood.
Celine took a step forward.
“Kael,” she said. “What if she’s real?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
Lyra turned the handle.
POV: Celine - The Handle Turns
Click.
The door opened.
Light poured out.
Not white.
Not gold.
Warm.
Inside: a house.
Small.
Table.
Two chairs.
And a bed.
And on the bed: a crown.
POV: Kael - The Crown on the Bed
The crown.
Bone white.
Again.
Lyra looked back. “It’s for you, Mommy. If you sit, I can stay.”
Celine’s breath caught.
Kael grabbed her arm. “No. That’s the same trap.”
“Is it?” Lyra asked. “Or is it the only way I get to live?”
The door widened.
POV: Celine - The Choice Again
The choice again.
Sit. Rule. Have a child.
Or refuse. Be free. Be alone.
Kael looked at me.
“Whatever you choose, I’m here.”
Lyra held out the key.
“Last chance, Mommy.”
POV: Kael - Last Chance
Last chance.
The key in Lyra’s hand.
The door open.
The crown waiting.
Celine looked at me.
Then at Lyra.
Then at the door.
She reached out.
POV: Celine - My Hand
My hand reached out.
Not for the key.
For Lyra.
“Come here,” I said.
Lyra smiled.
And dropped the key.
POV: Kael - The Key Drops
The key dropped.
Hit the stone.
Clang.
It didn’t break.
It sank.
Into the floor.
Gone.
Lyra’s smile vanished.
“No,” she whispered.
The door began to close.
POV: Celine - The Door Closes
The door closed.
Slow.
Lyra ran for it.
“Wait!”
It shut.
Thud.
Silence.
Lyra turned to us.
Her white dress grayed.
“I’m sorry, Mommy,” she said.
And she fell apart.
POV: Kael - She Falls Apart
Lyra fell apart.
Not blood.
Not bone.
Light.
Dust.
Gold dust.
It blew away.
Celine didn’t scream.
She just stood there.
Empty.
Player Zero’s voice, faint: “You chose nothing. Again.”
POV: Celine - Nothing
Nothing.
No child.
No crown.
No door.
Just stone.
And Kael.
“Was it right?” I whispered.
Kael pulled me to him.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But it was ours.”
POV: Kael - The Ground Moves
The ground moved.
Not a crack.
A shift.
Stone slid.
Revealing stairs.
Down.
Player Zero’s voice, last time: “The cage is open. The game is over. Or it’s just beginning.”
The stairs went dark.
POV: Celine - The Stairs
Stairs.
Down.
No light.
No sound.
Kael looked at me.
“Do we go?”
I looked at the empty space where Lyra was.
Then at him.
“Yes,” I said. “Together.”
POV: Kael - Together
Together.
We stepped onto the stairs.
The stone closed above us.
Darkness.
And from below, a sound.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Not a door.
A heart.
- Writer
