Salem’s eyes snapped open to a blinding light flooding his vision. The sensation was disorienting, like being pulled from the depths of a dream and thrown into a hall of shimmering glass and fractured realities. The place around him wasn’t any room he recognized—no familiar furniture, no comforting shadows. Instead, he stood surrounded by endless mirrors stretching infinitely in every direction, their surfaces flickering and wavering as if alive.
Each mirror reflected him differently. Some showed his current self, eyes tired but determined. Others revealed twisted, distorted versions—some younger, innocent and wide-eyed; some older, scarred and haunted; others, almost unrecognizable, grinning wickedly or crumpled with sorrow.
The air was thick, cold, and smelled faintly of ozone mixed wi
