Chapter 3: Natalia's Mirror

The light in the hotel lobby flickered like a dying animal. Every surge of electricity made the walls tremble, casting distorted shadows over the faces of the four. Natalia stared at her hands, which shimmered pale one moment and sickly green the next in the neon glare. Something was wrong with her reflection.

"Did you see that?" she whispered, pointing to a cracked mirror on the wall. Her reflection smiled back—mouthless.

"What?" growled Jacob, lighting a cigarette with trembling fingers. The lighter spat sparks, but the flame burned blue. "More of your damn ghost stories?"

"She's not imagining it," Sven cut in. He sat on the floor, the black stone clutched between his knees. The thing pulsed irregularly now, as if gasping its last breaths. "The hotel's changing us. It feeds on what we fear most."

Lucas secretly filmed Sven's stone. The camera whirred, but the display showed only static. Why was nothing working?

Click. Click. Click.

Footsteps from above. Natalia pressed herself against the reception desk. "She's back."

"Who?" Lucas asked, though he dreaded the answer.

"Me," whispered a voice. From Natalia's mouth. But it wasn't hers.

Jacob gaped at her. "What the hell?"

Natalia clamped a hand over her lips. "That… that wasn't me!"

The lights flickered. For a second, Lucas saw it—a girl standing behind Natalia. Ash-blond hair, eyes like coals. Then the room plunged into darkness again.

"We need to leave," Lucas said. Now.

But Natalia shook her head. Her gaze was glassy, as if hypnotized. "She says… she says I can go. If I give her what she wants."

"What does she want?" Sven asked.

Natalia turned to the mirror. Her reflection was no longer her. The girl wore Natalia's clothes, her red hair, but her face was a charred ruin.

"Cut it off," the reflection whispered in Natalia's voice. "Your face. Then you'll be free."

"No!" Lucas hissed, grabbing her arm. "This isn't the way!"

But she shoved him off. "You don't see her!" she screamed. "She's inside me! Crawling under my skin!"

Suddenly—laughter. Emilia's laughter. It came from everywhere. The walls, the floor, Natalia's throat.

The lights stuttered wildly. In the strobe effect, Lucas watched Natalia snatch a knife from the front desk. Rusty, with an antler handle. Why did it look familiar?

"Natalia!" Jacob roared, lunging for her.

But she was faster. With a fluid motion that wasn't her own, she pressed the blade to her cheek. "It doesn't hurt," she whispered—in the ghost girl's voice. "See? It doesn't hurt at all."

Blood spilled as she dragged the blade through her flesh. Snick. A strip of skin hit the floor.

"STOP!" Lucas screamed, grappling for the knife. But she was stronger. Unnaturally stronger.

"You want to save me, don't you?" Natalia giggled, her body no longer her own. She stabbed Lucas's hand, forcing him to let go. "Then let me work."

Sven hurled the stone at the mirror. "Leave!" he bellowed.

The mirror shattered—and Natalia's face shattered with it.

Shards of her flesh fell like porcelain, revealing something black and charred beneath. Her eyes were hollow pits now, her mouth a slit.

"Thank you," the girl whispered through Natalia's ruined throat. "Now I'm pretty."

The lights died for good.

When they flickered back on, Natalia was gone. Only a bloody handprint on the mirror remained.

And a final whisper:

"Lucas… you're next."

The lights spasmed as Lucas stared at the bloody smudge. Natalia's laughter still echoed in his ears—a childlike, mocking giggle that didn't belong to this world. Jacob stood frozen, his cigarette burning to ash between his fingers, while Sven picked up the black stone, now split like a broken heart.

"It has her," Sven muttered. "It's taken Natalia's body. She's… here now."

"What does that mean?" Jacob snarled. The tattoos on his arms seemed to pulse in the stuttering light—the wolf on his forearm bared its teeth. "We playing hide-and-seek with a fucking ghost now?"

Lucas pressed his bleeding hand to his jacket. The camera around his neck still showed only fractured pixels. But when he turned it on, an image flickered: Natalia, her face charred like the girl's, stood right behind them.

He spun around. Nothing. Just the empty hallway swallowed by darkness.

Click. Click. Click.

Footsteps from above. Then a sound that froze Lucas's blood: Natalia's voice.

"Luuucas…" it sang. "I'm so pretty now. Want to see?"

"That's not her," Sven hissed. "Don't speak to it. Don't listen."

But Jacob was already charging up the stairs. "Ending this shit now!"

"Jacob, wait!" Lucas yelled, too late. In the flickering light, he watched Jacob's shadow vanish onto the second floor.

Sven gripped Lucas's arm. "The stone… it's changed. It's bleeding." He opened his palm—the stone oozed black fluid, oily and gleaming. "I think… it's part of her. The girl. We woke her."

"What about Natalia?"

Sven didn't answer. His eyes drifted to the ceiling, where a faint scratching echoed. "She's toying with us. Wants us to kill each other. Like her father left her in the fire."

A phone suddenly shrilled. Lucas flinched—it was Natalia's iPhone, blinking from a corner. The notification showed an Instagram post: Natalia, face intact, posing before the mirror. But when Lucas opened it, the image warped. Her skin peeled away, revealing blackened flesh beneath. The caption: LIKED 666x.

"She's everywhere," Lucas whispered.

A scream made them jump. Jacob.

They found him on the second floor, crouched outside Room 309. His hands were coated in ash, as if he'd tried to bury something. "She… she used Tim's voice," he choked out. "Said… said I should say thanks. For abandoning my brother. That she understands."

"She's lying," Sven said. "She feeds on your guilt."

"And your guilt?" Jacob hissed, rising. "Why'd you bring the stone? Why?"

Sven backed away. "I… didn't know it would—"

Crash.

The door to Room 309 swung open. Inside stood Natalia—or what was left of her. Her body was intact, but her face was a mask of ash and gore. Her once-emerald eyes were black voids.

"Do you like it?" the girl's voice whispered through her. "Took me so long to get pretty."

Jacob stumbled back. "That's… not Natalia."

"Yes," the thing giggled. "She agreed. She wanted fame. Now she's immortal."

Lucas raised the camera. Through the viewfinder, he saw the truth: the girl stood before them, puppeteering Natalia's corpse. The ghost smiled, charred fingers coiled around Natalia's throat.

"Lucas…" she whispered. "Your camera shows the truth, right? Show them. Show how she really died."

The display blinded Lucas. Suddenly, he saw Natalia in a room of mirrors, pressing the knife to her cheek. Not forced—smiling. "I don't want to be me anymore," she said, before the blade cut.

"Why?" Lucas choked out.

"Because she hated what she saw," the girl replied. "Like you hated your mother when she died. Like Jacob hated his brother."

Jacob roared, seized a fire extinguisher, and hurled it at the creature. "Let her GO!"

The girl merely lifted a hand. The extinguisher froze midair, clattering to the floor. "Don't play hero," she sneered. "You're just a coward."

Suddenly, Sven lunged. He threw the bleeding stone at the wall. "Leave!" he screamed.

The stone shattered—and Natalia's body shattered with it. She crumbled to ash, scattering across the room. The girl's laughter echoed in their skulls.

"One down," she whispered. "Lucas… you're next."

The lights died. When they returned, only Natalia's phone case remained on the floor. Red, with a spray-painted logo: BEAUTY IS PAIN.