Everyone in Blackwood Village knew one rule...Never look into a mirror after midnight.People laughed at the superstition—until they disappeared.
No bodies left behind nor a scream...Only cracked mirrors left behind
Kai,a young boy who just transferred into the village of Blackwood after the divorce of his parents.He never believed in these long lost buried stories
When he first moved into this village's school all he excepted was boredom and not some ghost tales whispering in between the class
But there was a student that never joked about this things
Elias
The quiet boy who always wore black gloves,sat alone by the window,and never looked at his own reflection..
The whispers in the class called him a curse something they should avoid at all cost
Who knows if this rumor was because of the black gloves he wore or because of the scared face he wore.
And Kai found him mysterious
He always occupied the last seat beside the classroom window
No one sat beside him
It wasn't hatred
It was avoidance
The sort of instinctive distance animals kept from something they could not understand
Curiosity won over common sense
At luch time
"You mind?"
Elias looked up slowly.
His eyes were an unsettling shade of gray—not the soft gray of clouds, but the pale one.
"I usually eat alone."
"I noticed."
Kai smiled.
"I'm Kai."
"I know."
The answer came without hesitation.
Kai blinked."We've never spoken."
"I know."-Elias
Kai laughed awkwardly.
"So... do you always know people before they introduce themselves?"
For the first time, Elias's expression shifted.
Not into amusement
Into concern
"You've looked into too many reflective surfaces today."
Kai frowned
"...What?"
Instead of answering, Elias quietly asked,
"When was the last time you looked into a mirror?"
"This morning?"
"And after sunset?"
"...Yeah."
Elias closed his book with deliberate care."Don't do it again tonight."
There was no trace of humor in his voice
No attempt to frighten him
Before Kai could ask another question, the school bell rang.
When he looked back after gathering his bag...
Elias was gone
His lunch tray remained untouched
The first strange thing happened a week later
The rain settled over Black Hollow with such persistence at the night.
The old house Kai had recently moved into creaked softly as though adjusting to its newest occupant
His father had gone out for work, leaving him alone
The silence inside the house felt unusually heavy
He blamed the unfamiliar surroundings.
After all, old houses always made strange noises
Every sound had an explanation.
Didn't it?
At exactly 12:00 am.Kai woke to hear someone knocking at his door
Knock
Knock
Knock
Three slow but loud knocks echoed
Kael opened his bedroom door slowly yet carefully but he was nobody...a quite whisper was heard
Then he noticed the hallway mirror
A boy stood inside it
Not behind him
But Inside the mirror
The boy had pale skin,long black hair covering his eyes a liquid dripping from his face and the long smile streching across the guy's face was even creepier
Kai spun around after feeling a breath around his neck
He was met with nothing.A laugh suddenly echoed and Kai looked into that mirror again but the reflection was long gone..
Kai couldn't sleep as the incident that just happened kept reappearing in his mind just like that the night went by
The next morning dark fingerprints covered the mirror.
Kai's dad found them and scolded kai thinking it was just some children's prank..
But only kai knew the truth
In school only Elias believed him...
Elias looked at Kai with seriousness and said,"We're running out of time."
"What does that mean?"-Kai
"The thing in the mirror has seen your face."-Elias
Kai laughed nervously
"It's a ghost?"
"No."
Elias finally looked him in the eyes
"It's hungry."
Over the few nights every reflection that Kai looked into changed became scarier The phone screen,the puddle,spoons everything that could reflect only reflected fear
In every reflection Kai smiled but in reality his face was filled with fear
Sometimes it blinked seconds late
Sometimes it whispered
"Come closer."
One evening as planned Kai followed Elias into the abandoned church on the hill
Hidden beneath rotten floorboards was a room lined with hundreds of broken mirrors.Kai's eyes widened with terror when he noticed the reflection in those mirrors
Each shard reflected different peopl
Some crying
Some screaming
Some clawing at invisible glass
"They're alive?" Kai whispered
"Barely."Elias replied
"What trapped them?"with this question silence filled the loud room.kai became worried and Elias hesitatinngly replied.
"Someone opened the First Mirror two hundred years ago."
"The First Mirror?"
"The place where reflections are born."
The room suddenly became freezing
Every mirror shattered at once
A voice echoed from every piece
"Elias..."a whisper came
Kai watched in horror as blood seeped from the cracks in the mirror
The blood wasn't dripping like it should but it was Crawling like a repltile,like living vein.kai saw the horror unfold in front of him and became speechless and stunned
The pieces of the broken mirror floated into the air, forming a tall human shape with nothing humanly
Its face had no eyes
Only dozens of smiling mouths
"I've waited for you," it hissed
Elias stepped in front of Kai protecting him like a shield
Elias shouted,"No"
"I owe you..You're mine"The inhumanly figure whispered
"We made a promise"
Elias shouted,"I was only twelve."
"You were the one who made the bargain."
Kai was curious about the bargain that the horror has just mentioned
He asked,"A bargain?what does he mean by that?
Silence took over elias his face looked like he was remembering something horrifying
After a while Elias finnally spoke up.
"When I was a kid my brother died after a mirror fell on him "
"I begged anything to bring him back to me i even prayed to the heavens to take me instead of him."
The inhumane mirror laughed and the laughter was so screeching and unpleasant
He rumbled,"You prayed and I answered little child."
"I gave you your brother back as per the deal."
Kai who was silent frowned and spoke up,"How's that possible??your brother was dead!"
Elias eyes went numb,"He didn't came back." His voice shaking," But he wasn't my brother anymore he was just some puppet and that too a creepy one."
The creature roared his patience was over.Now all he wanted was the deal to be completed and his hunger to be satisfied..
The creature pointed at Kai.
Kai became scared and his himself behind Elias..Elias frowned and questioned,"What do you mean,you Monster?!"
The creature's smile grew creepier
"A trade is only fair."
"NO!! DON'T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!"
Elias didn't hesitated because he didn't wanted to lose another precious person in his life to a mirror again..
The Monsters smile grew wider
"Very well then I'll take you both."
Elias shouted," RUN!!"
They both sprinted towards the gate of the church with all their might while holding each other's hands
Suddenly
The church exploded into darkness
The darkness did not fall
It unfolded
The walls of the ruined church seemed to peel away like old paint, revealing not the night outside but an endless void that had been hiding beneath the world all along. The flooor trembled beneath Kai's feet as if the earth itself were trying to shake them loose, while every broken shard of stained glass rose into the air, suspended by an unseen force.
Each fragment became a mirrors And every mirror showed a different ending.
In one,Kai was running alone around through an empty city
In another, Elias lay motionless beneath a rain of black glass
In a third, the smiling boy stood beside Kai with an arm draped casually over his shoulders, as though they had been friends for years
"Don't look at them!" Elias shouted
His voice echoed strangely, arriving a heartbeat too late, as though sound itself had begun to lose its way
The creature laughed
Its countless mouths opened together, filling the church with a chorus that sounded less like laughter than thousands of people remembering the same terrible secret
"You still protect him," it whispered. "Even now."
Dark tendrils spilled from beneath its feet, creeping across the cracked stone floor like ink spreading through water. Wherever they passed, reflections bloomed on every surface.
Kai looked down
His own reflection was no longer following him
It remained perfectly still.
Slowly...
It raised one finger
Not toward the creature
Toward Elias
"What is it trying to say?" Kai asked.Elias's face paled
"It remembers."
"Remembers what?"
Instead of answering, Elias drew a deep breath and stepped between Kai and the creature
"I made the bargain," he said quietly. "Not him."
"You made the first one," the creature replied. "He made the oldest."
Kai stared
"I've nevermet you before."
"Haven't you?"
The creature tilted its head
"Then why does every mirror know your name?"
A violent pain exploded behind Kai's eyes
Images burst through his mind without warning
A child standing before an antique mirror
Tiny hands pressed against cold glass.
Another boy—
Smiling.
Not outside the mirror
But Inside the mirror
Their palms touched one on each side of the glass but did they touched actually?
Then...Someone whispered,
"I'll wait until you remember."
Kai staggered backward
The memory vanished as suddenly as it had appeared
"What... was that?"
The creature smiled wider.
"A promise."
"No..."
"You made it long before you learned to fear reflections."
The church groaned
A crack split the enormous mirror behind the altar..
Instead of breaking apart, it opened like a doorway.From somewhere within that impossible city came a familiar sound
Three gentle knocks
Then another three
The smiling creature turned toward the opening with something close to reverence
"The First Reflection is waking."
Even Elias, who had stood firm until now, took an involuntary step back.
"What is the First Reflection?" he whispered
Elias answered without looking away from the doorway
"It isn't a monster."
"What do you mean?"
"It is the reflection that existed before humanity."
Kai frowned
"Before... people?"
"When the first still water reflected the first sky, something looked back."
That something was named as
"THE FIRST REFLECTION"
A voice came,quite soothing and almost gentle like that of a mother
"Kai"
Without realising kai moved forward staggered but stable
An arm grabbed him back to reality
Elias shouted,"What are you doing?"
"I..It called for me"kai replied.
"No..no it's trying to trap you and you're falling for it!!"
Kai shook his head,"it sounds like he knows me"
"That's what frightens me..he is a powerful creature.Kai do not believe him it's all a lie."
The first reflection spoke up,"YOU CANNOT PROTECT SOMEONE FROM THEIR OWN REFLECTION FOR FOREVER."
Suddenly thousands of Bells started ringing.
Every pair of reflection has their eyes on kai..
Their eyes filled with relief
"This is as if..." Kai whispered, "...they've been waiting."
The creature replied,"yes they have been"
Elias questioned from behind,"For who?"
"For their KING"
The words struck the silence like a knife
Slicing the reality that was created
Was it the truth or was it just a lie or illusion.....
