Chapter 34: Echoes of the Unseen

Elias sat up, his breaths shallow, his skin clammy with sweat. The room was silent, yet the whisper still echoed in his mind.

"The hardest truth has yet to be faced."

The words unsettled him. He had woken up, but something felt… displaced. His surroundings were familiar—his desk, the books stacked haphazardly, the dim light filtering through the rain-speckled window. But there was an undercurrent of wrongness, like an off-tune melody in a song he had known his whole life.

He turned toward the cracked mirror across the room.

For a moment, nothing seemed out of place. His reflection stared back at him, his own dark eyes wide with uncertainty. But then—

A flicker.

A delay.

As if his reflection had hesitated before moving.

Elias's breath hitched. He leaned closer, gripping the wooden edge of his desk. The reflection mirrored him, but the unease gnawed at his thoughts.

Then, as if the universe conspired to unravel his sanity, the reflection smiled.

Not him.

Not his expression.

Elias jerked backward, knocking over a stack of books. His pulse pounded like war drums. The grin in the mirror faded, returning to his normal, fearful expression. Had he imagined it? Was the dream still clinging to him like mist refusing to lift?

His fingers trembled as he reached for the mirror.

The glass was cold against his skin. Solid. Real.

But as his reflection's fingertips met his own, a whisper slithered through the silence—low, chilling, and unmistakably his own voice.

"You are not supposed to be here."

A sharp knock on the door shattered the moment.

Elias whirled around, his heart hammering.

Who else was awake at this hour?

The knock came again—urgent, insistent.

With one last wary glance at the mirror, he steeled himself and approached the door. His fingers hesitated on the handle before he finally turned it.

The door creaked open.

Standing in the dim corridor was Lucien.

His expression was grave, his eyes shadowed by something Elias couldn't quite place.

"Elias," Lucien said, voice low. "You need to come with me. Now."