We are not reflections

There are three rules when you start hearing your own voice whispering your name from inside a window:

1. Do not answer it.

2. Do not turn your back to it.

3. Absolutely do not whisper back.

So naturally, I broke rule three before breakfast.

---

It was the window above the kitchen sink. Foggy from the morning chill, cracked slightly in the corner. I wasn't even looking at it—just washing a spoon, pretending I was a functioning human being.

Then I heard it.

"Kael."

Quiet. But not soft.

Familiar. But too… smooth.

My name.

In my voice.

But not my voice.

I froze.

Looked up.

Saw myself.

No reflection, remember?

And yet—there I was.

Grinning.

---

I blinked and it was gone.

Just the foggy window again.

Just my pulse trying to escape my body.

I dropped the spoon. Didn't even care. It clattered into the sink like a scream that didn't want to stay quiet.

I was still shaking when I got to school.

---

It was worse there.

Reflections in locker doors flickered like broken lights. Someone's phone screen turned black and showed a face that wasn't theirs. And the janitor's bucket water?

Started bubbling when I walked by.

I tried to find Noelle.

But she found me first.

---

She grabbed my wrist between classes and dragged me into an empty stairwell like it was a heist.

"They're moving," she said without preamble.

"Cool," I wheezed. "Who's 'they'? And can they move... away from me?"

She ignored that. Classic.

"They sent a message. Didn't you hear it?"

"Hear what?"

Her eyes went flat. "They hijacked the intercom this morning."

I blinked. "Wait—like the cult cult?"

She nodded. "It wasn't the principal speaking. It was a Glassbound elder."

***

Now, when I say everything in my soul left my body, I mean I nearly astral projected.

I grabbed the railing for support.

"What—what did they say?" I asked.

She hesitated. Then pulled out her phone. Played a recording.

At first, it was just static.

Then a voice.

Deep. Echoed like it came from a cavern full of ghosts.

"We are the truth beneath your shadow.

The world of glass remembers.

And the Key has heard the Call."

The voice paused. Then added—

"He is among you."

****

I think I stopped breathing.

"That's about me," I said, very calmly, like a normal person.

"You think?" Noelle deadpanned.

I leaned against the wall. "I'm gonna throw up. Then disappear. Then maybe spontaneously combust."

"They know who you are," she said. "They've known longer than I have."

"Okay," I said. "Cool. So I'm, what, The Mirror Messiah? Chosen One of the Shiny Demons? This is fine. I'm fine."

She sighed. "You need to see the gate."

---

We left campus.

Walked to the edge of town, past where the buildings grew old and forgettable. She led me to an alley with a door that looked like it hadn't been opened in years.

Inside?

Just a dusty storeroom. One long mirror. Covered in chains.

It pulsed.

Like it was breathing.

And carved into the floor beneath it were the words:

Only the unreflected may enter.

---

"This is it," Noelle said quietly. "The Mirror Gate. They're trying to open it."

"And let what out?" I asked.

She looked at me.

"No," I said. "Nope. Never mind. I don't wanna know. I wanna go home. Or to a dimension where none of this is happening. Ideally one with snacks."

"It wants you, Kael."

"Oh, of course it does. Why wouldn't a haunted mirror cult gate want me, a perfectly average depressed teenager with control issues and unresolved trauma?!"

The mirror pulsed again.

Faintly, it whispered—

"Kael..."

---

I backed up.

"I'm not going in there."

"You will," she said.

"Do I look like Harry Potter to you?"

"Worse," she said. "You're real."