Location: Darshan's Underground "Lab"Spoiler Alert: It's not a lab. It's a basement with 46 cassette players, a leaking ceiling, and a suspiciously self-aware toaster.
[Scene: Basement of Time, 6:21 PM]
Darshan pushed open a rusty door covered in old lottery tickets and peeled stickers that read "Karma Delivery – Next Day Dispatch."
Vicky coughed. "This looks less like a lab and more like a place where serial killers get emotionally vulnerable."
Inside:
An upside-down wall clock
A fridge full of expired cassette tapes labeled "Sync Trials"
A toaster… humming.
Mercer pointed. "That's not just a toaster."
Darshan nodded. "That's Shravan. Short for SHadow-Reactive Analog Visualiser and Neural-net."
Shravan (toaster voice, Siri-like):"Good evening, Mercer. Your brainwave pattern is 3.7% spicier than last loop."
Meera: "…WHAT."
Meera Discovers The Photo
Darshan handed her an old photo, curled with age.
It showed a girl who looked exactly like her—standing with Mercer, both dressed in colonial-era clothes, smiling next to a cracked mirror.
"Is this Photoshop?" she asked.
Darshan shook his head."No. That's 1937. And that mirror? It's the same one from your house."
Mercer: "That's impossible."Darshan: "So is using Shravan to make waffles, but I do it anyway."
Flashback Glitch via Shravan
Darshan inserted a cassette into Shravan's tape port.Shravan buzzed, then suddenly projected a hologram—grainy, flickering like a haunted CCTV.
They watched:
A black-and-white version of Mercer getting dragged into the mirror.Meera yelling something in Sanskrit.A masked figure with no face whispering:"Cycle 14. Break the bond, or relive it forever."
The tape snapped.
Shravan: "Warning: Memory instability detected. Please insert cheese slice to stabilize."
Vicky: "Did that toaster just ask for cheese?!"
Darshan: "Ignore him. He developed sarcasm last week."
Reveal Bomb: The Masked Figure
Mercer pointed at the masked figure."I've seen that mask before. It's… in the attic. My attic. Hanging behind the mirror."
Darshan: "Then you need to go back. Tonight. Alone."
Everyone froze.
Meera: "You mean we send him into a haunted mirror based on instructions from a meme toaster and a man who collects expired tapes?"
Darshan: "Yes."
Vicky: "Cool. Can I have chai while you die?"
Cliffhanger Hook:
Darshan handed Mercer a tiny cassette labeled:"Cycle 14. Reset, or remember?"
"Play this once you're inside the mirror," he said."But remember: don't trust the first version of yourself you meet."
Mercer blinked."The first?"
Next Chapter Tease (24):
Mercer returns to the mirror… only to meet himself—wearing different clothes, acting like they've never met.
Meanwhile, Vicky and Meera discover Shravan has secretly recorded all their conversations, and someone's been listening from another timeline.
And Darshan? He's missing.