Rain lashed against the windows of the safehouse like claws. The storm outside was nothing compared to the one unraveling inside Lena's chest. Her heartbeat was a drumbeat of panic, echoing with one truth she didn't want to face:
Her sister wasn't her sister anymore.
"She's still in there," Lena whispered.
Kian leaned against the wall, hand pressed to the wound Alina had left him. "No, Lena. That was not Alina. That thing—whatever it is—was waiting inside her."
"She's not gone," Lena said, her voice cracking. "She can't be."
Meher paced back and forth, knife glinting under the flickering light. "She left a message written in blood, Lena. That's not your baby sister talking. That's something ancient. Something twisted."
"Then we find her," Lena said, stepping forward. "And we bring her back."
Kian met her eyes. "And if we can't?"
Lena stared at the open window, rain soaking the curtain. The cold wind bit her skin, but her voice was iron.
"Then we break the mirror she's trapped in."
---
Elsewhere – Underground Metro Tunnels
Alina walked barefoot through the abandoned metro, each step echoing against the forgotten walls. Her eyes glowed faint violet in the darkness, and her breath came out as mist.
Behind her, shadows followed. Not people—reflections.
Each one distorted.
Each one whispering her name.
"Nēra… Nēra… Nēra…"
The voice inside her head was not her own. It was older. More primal.
"Let them come," she said softly. "Let them believe I'm lost."
She smiled as a thousand reflections smiled with her.
"We will show them what forgetting a god looks like."
---
Safehouse – Hours Later
The group had moved underground.
The Vanished—those who were left—gathered in what was once a metro power station beneath the old city. Kian held a meeting, his face grim. Meher stood at his right. Lena, to his left.
"They've awoken something beyond the Watchers," he said. "Something we thought sealed centuries ago. The 'Vanishing' wasn't just a mutation—it was a prison. We were never meant to vanish. We were meant to contain what couldn't be destroyed."
"What is she?" Lena asked. "What did they turn her into?"
Kian paused, then unrolled an ancient scroll from the archives.
He pointed to a sketch: a girl with violet eyes and fractured skin, standing before a shattered mirror.
"Nēra," he said. "The first Vanished. The girl who made the world forget her existence. She wasn't just invisible. She erased her name from memory, language, time. Only reflections remembered her."
Lena's voice was a breath. "You think my sister is her reincarnation?"
"No," Kian said. "I think your sister was her vessel. And now Nēra is awake."
---
Somewhere in the city – A Forgotten Temple
Aarav stood in the middle of an ancient shrine buried beneath New Delhi's oldest ruins. The Watchers had long sealed it off, but the lock had been shattered.
He moved carefully.
On the stone walls, there were drawings.
A girl with a bleeding mirror.
A boy with golden eyes.
A woman fading into air.
And a symbol—etched over and over again—a spiral shattering outward.
He felt her presence before he saw her.
"You shouldn't have come," Alina's voice echoed, though she was nowhere in sight.
Aarav spun, drawing his blade. "You're not Alina anymore."
"No," she said, emerging from the shadows, violet eyes gleaming. "I'm what comes after the forgetting."
He didn't hesitate.
He attacked.
But his blade passed through her as if she were smoke.
Alina—no, Nēra—tilted her head.
"You once loved Lena," she whispered.
He froze.
She leaned in.
"That's why you'll die last."
---
Meanwhile – Rooftops of Old Delhi
Lena stood beneath a rusted water tank, drenched and breathless.
She could feel her sister. Not physically, but spiritually—like a tether had been frayed, not broken.
"She's in the city," Lena said.
"How do you know?" Meher asked, scanning the horizon.
"Because she's still dreaming," Lena whispered. "And I've always been in her dreams."
---
Midnight – The Mirror Gate
They found it in the ruins of an old cinema—an ancient mirror embedded in what used to be the projection room. It pulsed faintly with violet light.
Kian, breathing hard, placed his palm on it.
"It's not just a portal," he said. "It's a memory. A prison made of thought."
Lena stepped forward.
"She's inside."
"She's everywhere inside," Meher warned. "Go in there, and you might not come back out."
Lena met her gaze, jaw set.
"She's my sister. I will come back out. With her."
The mirror shimmered.
And then, without a sound, Lena stepped into it.
---
Inside the Mirror World
It was like stepping into a broken dream.
Everything shimmered in fractured reflections—skies twisted upside-down, staircases that led nowhere, trees made of glass.
And in the center of it all, Alina sat on a throne of mirror shards, eyes empty and glowing.
"I was never just her," she said, rising slowly.
"You were always her," Lena said. "But you were also mine."
Alina looked at her, a war raging in her expression.
"I don't know how to come back," she whispered.
"You don't have to," Lena replied, reaching for her. "I'll pull you. Just don't let go."
But behind Alina, the mirror cracked.
The world screamed.
And Lena realized—
Someone else had followed her into the mirror.
Someone not alive.
---
Quote:
"Even broken mirrors reflect the truth. But beware—sometimes, they reflect what was buried for a reason."
---