Chapter 3: The Corridor That Shouldn't Exist
648 Words
Aryan had stopped trying to make sense of time.
Ever since the incident with the mirror, his days had blurred into a loop of paranoia, research, and insomnia. He’d stare into the mirror in Room 13B for hours, hoping it would shimmer again, hoping it would show him something.
But the mirror stayed still.
Cold.
Silent.
Dead.
Except at 3:12 AM.
At that exact minute, every night, a faint hum began behind the wall.
And the corridor appeared.
---
The first time, he thought it was a hallucination — a door-shaped outline slowly forming on the left wall of Room 13B, made entirely of light.
No hinges.
No knob.
Just light and vibration.
It would last for only a few minutes, then disappear as if it had never been there.
Tonight, Aryan didn’t hesitate.
As the hum began, he placed a small digital clock next to the wall.
3:12:01 AM.
The light bloomed again.
He stepped through.
---
The air shifted instantly.
On the other side was a narrow, endless hallway — its walls made entirely of glass, but the reflections showed different versions of himself walking beside him.
Some wounded.
Some laughing manically.
One dead.
Aryan forced himself to focus straight ahead.
Each step echoed like a drumbeat. His breath misted before him. The cold was no longer just physical—it was emotional. Heavy. Like walking through guilt.
Then the hallway widened.
And opened into a circular room of mirrors.
In the center, stood a girl.
Not Ria.
Not Anika.
Someone else.
She turned around slowly, her face pale but familiar — like he had seen her in the crowd somewhere in this case.
Then it hit him.
Tanya D'Souza.
A 17-year-old schoolgirl who went missing in 1995. Her case had gone cold before Aryan had even joined the force.
She had been missing 30 years.
But she hadn’t aged a day.
---
“Aryan?” she whispered.
“How do you know my name?”
“They told me you'd come.”
“Who told you?”
She looked up at the mirror above her.
“They’re watching. Always watching. Through the glass.”
He approached her carefully. “Tanya, I’m here to get you out.”
“You can’t.”
“Why not?”
Her eyes watered. “Because this place… it isn’t a room. It’s a memory. And once you’re in, it feeds on yours.”
He didn’t understand.
She walked up to a mirror. “This one shows what happened to me.”
Aryan looked.
The reflection showed a younger Tanya in a hotel lobby. She entered Room 13B, saw the mirror, and touched it.
Then… darkness.
In the mirror-world, she aged backward. Her memories replayed on a loop.
“I don’t remember my mother’s voice anymore,” Tanya said quietly. “I traded it for survival.”
Aryan clenched his fists. “I’ll get you out.”
But the room began to tremble.
The reflections cracked.
And that masked Watcher from earlier reappeared — now in every mirror.
Pointing again.
Except this time… it spoke.
“You were warned.”
Aryan grabbed Tanya’s hand. “RUN!”
---
They sprinted down the corridor. Behind them, glass shattered, mirrors exploded, memories screamed.
They didn’t look back.
Aryan didn’t stop until they passed back through the wall of light.
The mirror snapped shut behind them.
They were in Room 13B again.
He collapsed to the floor, gasping.
Tanya stood still.
But something about her had changed.
She looked… older now. Tired.
“I’m not supposed to be here anymore,” she whispered.
And before Aryan could speak—she vanished into mist.
Like she had never existed.
---
Scrawled on the mirror now were five names:
Anika Mehra
Ria Sen
Tanya D’Souza
Aryan Chauhan
?
There was one name left.
And Aryan had a feeling it wasn’t his choice who it would be.
- Writer
