The Mirror Door

The night air was thick with the scent of wet grass and pavement as Daniel and Kaia sat on the swings at the park, the chains creaking softly beneath them. It was late, too late for anyone else to be out. The streetlights flickered, casting long, jittering shadows over the empty playground.

Daniel gripped the cold metal chains, glancing at Kaia. "You really think this will work?"

Kaia was staring up at the sky, lost in thought. "It has to," she murmured. "If we're both experiencing this… if we're both trapped in it, then there has to be a way to meet inside."

Daniel exhaled. They had been testing things for weeks, small experiments, little changes. First, he had managed to bring back the silver coin. Then, Kaia had recognized him before they even spoke. Now, they were pushing further, trying something more dangerous.

He turned to face her fully. "So, we both focus on the same thing when we fall asleep?"

Kaia nodded. "Same thought. Same image. If these dreams have any logic to them, then maybe intent matters."

Daniel swallowed. "And what image are we focusing on?"

She smirked. "A door."

"A door?"

Kaia kicked lightly at the ground, making her swing drift back and forth. "Think about it. Every time something weird happens, it's always a door. The door to your room being different. The one in the dream-world that led to your note. The one I saw in my last dream that led to nothing but black space."

Daniel frowned. She wasn't wrong.

Kaia leaned forward, her expression serious. "We imagine a door. One that connects us. If we're both real in that world, then we should be able to open it."

Daniel's hands clenched against the swing's cold metal. This was it. They were crossing a line tonight.

"Alright," he said. "Let's do it."

Kaia stood, brushing off her jeans. "See you in the dream, Daniel."

*****

*Daniels Bedroom*

Daniel opened his eyes

He was standing in a hallway.

It stretched in both directions, endless and silent, lined with mirrors.

The air was thick, heavy, humming with something just beneath the surface. The reflections in the mirrors weren't quite right—his movements were delayed, or slightly off. In some, his hair was longer. In others, his eyes were a different shade.

He turned slowly, heart pounding. This wasn't just a normal dream-world. This was something else.

A door stood at the very end of the hallway.

Kaia.

She had to be there.

Daniel started walking, the sound of his footsteps muffled by the thick carpet. As he moved, the mirrors beside him rippled, like the glass was made of water. Shadows shifted behind them—dark silhouettes of himself in other lives, other versions, other choices.

Then—

A whisper.

"Turn back."

Daniel froze.

The whisper had come from one of the mirrors.

His reflection in it wasn't moving. It was staring at him.

His pulse spiked.

This wasn't normal. This wasn't part of the usual cycle.

Then the reflection smiled.

Daniel took a step back.

The mirror shattered.

Glass exploded outward in slow motion, hovering in the air before collapsing like raindrops onto the floor. Where the mirror had been, there was nothing but a black, yawning void.

And from that void, something stepped forward.

Daniel barely had time to register it before—

A voice called out.

"Daniel!"

He turned sharply—Kaia.

She was there, at the far end of the hallway, standing by the door. She looked terrified.

"Kaia!" He took a step toward her—

The hallway tilted.

The mirrors on either side of him cracked and warped. The reflections inside them twisted, some screaming, some reaching out, others simply staring with hollow, empty eyes.

The thing that had stepped from the broken mirror moved toward him.

Kaia's voice rang out again. "RUN!"

Daniel bolted.

The hallway shifted as he ran, the ground tilting like a ship in a storm. The mirrors around him rippled and changed, now showing flashes of past dream-worlds.

A burning city.

A war-torn battlefield.

A quiet dock at sunset.

Kaia's face.

The silver coin.

Everything flickered like an old film reel splicing together at random.

But the door stayed the same.

Kaia was already pulling it open. "Come on!"

Daniel reached her just as something lunged from the broken mirror behind him.

A hand, thin, skeletal, dripping with black liquid. It grasped his shoulder.

Daniel's vision snapped.

For a split second—

He saw himself. Older. Scarred. Wearing a tattered jacket.

A future version of himself.

The older Daniel locked eyes with him, mouth moving, whispering something, but the words didn't reach him.

The door slammed shut.

And everything went black.

Daniel gasped awake.

His chest was heaving. His hands were shaking. He was in his bedroom.

But something was wrong.

He sat up, his pulse still hammering from the dream. His body felt heavy, like he had carried something back with him, but when he reached for the coin on his nightstand, his fingers met nothing.

Right. I almost forgot, it was already gone. Taken many weeks ago.

Instead, his hand brushed against something else.

His wrist burned.

Daniel yanked back his sleeve, his breath catching in his throat.

There, carved into his skin as if burned into him, a single symbol.

It was small, almost like a brand, slightly raised and pulsing faintly under his skin. A shape he didn't recognize.

Not a scar. Not a wound.

A mark.

His phone buzzed.

A text.

Kaia: Did you see it too?

Daniel exhaled sharply, heart racing.

Yes. Yes, he had.

And now?

Now, the dream-world wasn't just watching him.

It had left something behind.