The Forgotten Door
518 Words
Kai didn’t want to believe it.
“Someone from the other side… is trying to break in,” he said, his voice like thunder under control.
Zai stared at the note. “But the thread was sealed. We saw it.”
Kai shook his head. “Sealed doesn’t mean forgotten. And you… you were important. Someone might still be searching.”
Zai tried to remember—anything. Her mind was like a locked room with no door. Only whispers remained.
But each day after that note, something strange happened:
A mirror reflected someone else's face.
A song played from nowhere that made her cry without knowing why.
A second note appeared:
> “You chose wrong.”
The ground beneath their world pulsed uneasily.
The magic was fraying again.
Someone—or something—was trying to remind Zai of the life she gave up. And if she remembered it all…
This world might fall apart.
And Kai?
He might unravel completely.
When Shadows Return
The mirror had never been there before.
Zai found it tucked between the roots of the old willow tree, half-buried, humming with a low vibration—like it was breathing. Its frame was black iron twisted into thorns. Its surface rippled like water.
Kai stood behind her, silent.
“I didn’t summon this,” Zai whispered.
Kai didn’t answer right away. He stepped beside her and stared into the glass. “It’s not from here.”
Zai reached out.
The moment her fingers touched the mirror’s edge, the glass rippled violently—and her reflection vanished. In its place stood a different version of herself. Same face. Same eyes. But… colder. Older. She wore a hospital gown and a wristband. Behind her, there was a metal bed, and on it—
A doll. With one button eye. Torn apart.
Zai stumbled back. Her chest squeezed with a pain she couldn’t name.
Kai caught her. “What did you see?”
“I… I don’t know,” she said breathlessly. “But I think it was me. From the other world.”
Kai clenched his fists. “It’s trying to bring you back. Whoever’s doing this… they’re reaching through the cracks.”
Then the mirror pulsed again.
A voice—her voice—echoed from the glass:
> “Zai… you left me behind. But I never forgot you.”
Zai dropped to her knees.
Suddenly, her memories weren’t just dreams anymore. They came flooding back.
The hospital.
The foster home.
The attic.
The pain.
The boy in the corner of her imagination—the one she had sewn from scraps and whispered stories to every night.
Kai.
Her Kai.
And then… the darkness. The decision. The choice.
Zai clutched her head. “I remember... all of it.”
Kai sank down beside her. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” she said, breath catching, “that everything we built… it wasn’t just magic. It was memory. And if the past is coming back…”
She looked at him, eyes wide.
“…then so is everything I tried to forget.”
- Writer
