CHAPTER TEN: Where the Silence Finally Rested
379 Words
The night they chose to end it felt different, not quieter, not calmer,
But certain.
Emilia stood at the edge of the old corridor with Tessa, Naomi, and Maxwell beside her. The same door Naomi had shown them days ago stood ahead, aged, locked, and carrying a presence that pressed heavily against the air.
“This is it,” Naomi said softly.
They had all felt it growing the tension, the whispers, the way the reflections had become more restless with each passing day. What once watched quietly had begun to stir, to push.
Maxwell stepped forward first, his hand gripping the cold handle. “If this works… it ends everything,"
Emilia glanced at her reflection in the faint shine of the metal then quickly looked away.
“It has to,” she said.
Naomi unlocked the door,
The sound echoed,
They stepped inside.
The room beneath St. Alderidge was not what Emilia expected.
It was worse.
Old iron beds lined the walls, Rusted restraints, broken glass, the air smelled like something long forgotten but never gone.
“This is where they kept them,” Naomi whispered.
Tessa wrapped her arms around herself.
Emilia’s chest tightened.
She could feel them.
“They’re here,” she said quietly,
The air shifted,
At the far end of the room stood a tall, cracked mirror its surface dull but alive in a way that made Emilia’s skin crawl.
“That’s it,” Maxwell said. “That’s the center.”
Emilia stepped forward slowly.
Her heart pounded,
And then,
She saw her again,
Standing inside the mirror,
Waiting,
“You came,” it said.
“We’re ready.”
The reflection’s eyes softened. “It won’t be easy.”
"Tell us what to do" said Naomi,
The reflection said,.
“Break what binds us,” it said. “The mirror holds us, but it also traps us.”
Tessa frowned. “So we destroy it?”
“Yes.”
“But once it breaks,” the reflection added, “everything inside will try to escape at once.”
Maxwell exhaled. “Meaning we won’t be alone.”
“Not at all,” the reflection said.
Shadows began to gather faintly along the walls.
“Then we don’t hesitate,” Emilia said.
Together, they moved..
- Writer
