To kiss a Ghost

Part I: The Unseen Room

Lena awoke sprawled across her bedroom floor, breath shaky and ribs sore. Blood traced a thin line down her cheek where a sliver of glass had nicked her. The room around her hummed faintly with energy—reflections twitching, crawling, shifting.

The mirror had broken. But the choice hadn't vanished. It had multiplied.

Every reflective surface—her phone screen, the glass on her desk, even the puddle of water near her spilled bottle—watched her.

Not like a presence.

Like a hunger.

Lena staggered to her feet and stared at her own tired reflection in a shard.

She didn't recognize the girl looking back.

Her eyes were darker. Her aura quieter. The storm within had settled into something colder, more calculated.

And then—

A knock.

Three short raps at her window.

She turned, heart leaping. No one should've been able to reach the third floor, but someone stood there, framed by moonlight.

Kian.

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Part II: Inhale the Fire

Lena yanked open the window and pulled him in.

"Kian!" she hissed. "What are you doing? You're hurt—"

"I had to see you," he said, voice raw. "You weren't answering your phone. I knew something was wrong."

His hand trembled as he touched her face. "You're bleeding."

"So are you," she said. "And your shirt—what happened?"

He looked away. "Dev and I… we fought."

"What?"

"I saw him talking to one of the Watchers."

Lena's blood turned cold. "That's not possible."

"Oh, it is," Kian said, his jaw tightening. "He's not the same person anymore. Something's changed him."

Or maybe, a voice whispered in her mind, he's exactly what he always was. You just never saw it.

Lena pushed the thought aside. "You can't accuse him without proof."

"I'm not asking you to pick a side, Lena," Kian said. "I just want to keep you safe."

He stepped closer.

So close she could feel the warmth of him, even through the chill of the room.

"I love you," he said suddenly. Quietly. Like it had been burning on his tongue for too long.

She froze.

Not because she didn't want it. But because another voice—another name—had echoed in her mind before his did.

Riven.

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Part III: Smoke in the Wind

That night, Lena couldn't sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she dreamed of reflections burning, boys bleeding, her own heart breaking.

This is too much, she thought. I can't choose. I won't choose.

But the world didn't care what she wanted.

By morning, news had spread.

One of the Watchers had been murdered.

And the weapon used? A silver shard—cut from the same kind of mirror Lena had shattered the night before.

The principal called an emergency assembly.

Everyone was tense. Silent. Even the loudmouth boys from Class 12C didn't dare mutter.

Dev sat beside her on the bleachers, his fingers laced with tension. He hadn't spoken a word to her since Kian's visit.

He didn't need to.

The air between them was poisoned now. Heavy with betrayal. With doubt.

Lena turned her head just slightly, and met Dev's eyes.

And what she saw there was not forgiveness.

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Part IV: The Ghost and the Garden

After the assembly, Lena fled to the old school garden.

It was a dying place, overgrown with weeds and ghosts of color. But it had always been hers.

A place where she could disappear.

Except… she wasn't alone.

Riven was already there—sitting in the lotus pond, fully clothed, arms resting against his knees. Soaking, but serene.

"Nice of you to join me," he said without looking up. "Had a feeling you'd come."

She hesitated. "I didn't come for you."

"Liar."

She knelt beside the edge of the pond, their reflections distorted in the water.

"They think I killed someone," she whispered.

"Did you?"

"No."

"But part of you wanted to."

She didn't answer.

Riven stood, dripping, walked toward her. "You're changing, Lena. The girl who wouldn't even break curfew now watches people bleed without blinking."

"I hate that," she said. "I hate what this is doing to me."

"No. You hate that you're starting to like it."

And then—

He kissed her.

It wasn't tender. It wasn't soft.

It was fire.

A kiss full of anger and passion and fear. A kiss that screamed you'll never be the same.

Lena shoved him away, heart hammering.

"I'm not yours," she spat.

Riven smiled, water dripping from his lips.

"You will be," he said. "When you finally stop running from the ghost inside you."

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