The Mirror Code
[0:00] – The Reflection Room
The mirror had always been there.
He just hadn't noticed it before.
It hung between the two dusty bookcases in his apartment—the ones he'd never bothered to arrange properly since moving in. The mirror was old, rectangular, the surface slightly warped at the corners, framed in tarnished brass that hummed with an almost metallic chill.
But tonight, something was different.
It was lit from within.
A faint glow pulsed behind the glass, as if something on the other side was breathing.
⸻
[0:04] – The Scratch
Leaning closer, Lin noticed a scratch etched along the edge of the mirror. Not random. Intentional. Carved into the metal frame with something thin and sharp.
He squinted.
Numbers.
02 | 08 | 00 | 14
Four pairs, divided by vertical lines.
Not coordinates.
Not a date.
And then: a second line—barely visible beneath the first—appeared as the room light flickered.
"We were here. Before it became them."
His breath fogged the glass.
⸻
[0:09] – The Visitation
That night, he didn't sleep.
He tried. But the apartment changed.
The angles were wrong. The ticking of the clock reversed. The ceiling fan spun counter-clockwise.
When he finally drifted off, he dreamt of the mirror.
But in the dream, it was a doorway.
On the other side, a group stood in silence—four people, all wearing mirrored masks.
One of them raised a hand and pointed directly at him.
The mask was cracked at the chin.
The voice came without lips moving:
"You've breached the seventh layer."
"They will try to fold you."
⸻
[0:41] – The File: "MIRRORCODE.dat"
When Lin awoke, his laptop was already on.
A file sat open on the desktop.
MIRRORCODE.dat
He hadn't opened it.
He didn't remember downloading it.
Inside were fragmented logs. Most corrupted. But one entry was intact:
⸻
Subject 04 – Yang Min [Observer Tier]
Final Statement (pre-deletion)
"We thought it was just code. A game with morality sliders and anonymous justice. But someone was watching. Curating. Editing us. Reacting.
The moment I saw the mirror, I remembered everything I'd agreed to forget.
I wasn't just assigned tasks.
I was being shaped.
And when I tried to stop…
They didn't delete me.
They repurposed me."
⸻
A chill went through Lin's spine.
Had he seen Yang Min before?
Had they met?
⸻
[1:00] – Confronting the Mirror
He returned to the mirror that evening with a flashlight and a screwdriver.
The wall behind it was hollow.
He pried it open.
Inside: a shallow cavity.
And tucked in the center, wrapped in aged cloth—
A VHS tape.
Labelled in red ink: TANG #000.
⸻
[1:14] – The Tape
It took him half an hour to find a functioning VHS player. He finally tracked one down in a thrift shop across town, the kind of place that smelled of mothballs and forgotten guilt.
Back at home, he slid the tape in.
The screen flickered. Static. Then:
A woman. Long dark hair. Strapped to a chair in a clinical room.
He knew her immediately.
Tang Yuyan.
A younger version—more composed, but with that same distant cold behind her eyes.
She spoke directly into the camera:
"If you're watching this, it means you've passed the mirror threshold.
That means they haven't wiped you yet.
Or maybe they already did, and you're starting to bleed through.
Listen.
The Ledger isn't autonomous.
It responds.
To behavior.
To deviation.
To fear.
Someone—some people—are watching every move it makes.
The system feeds on entropy, but it's managed by intent."
She paused. Looked down. Then continued:
"They wanted me to become a curator.
I refused.
I became a liability.
They told me I was 'retired.'
But I'm still here."
"If you find this, don't trust the reflection.
And don't trust her."
The tape cut out.
⸻
[1:45] – Her?
He froze.
Don't trust her.
Did she mean the woman from the dreams? The interviewer?
Was she part of the system? Or its voice?
His phone buzzed.
A new task notification.
"There is a traitor inside the watchers."
"Find them. But choose the price of truth."
Options appeared:
•Erase 2 weeks of memory
•Disable emotional processing for 48 hours
•Reveal your location
There was no "decline."
Lin's hands shook.
They wanted him to choose his own damage.
⸻
[2:01] – Di Zi Returns
A message pinged on his encrypted chat:
Di Zi: "They gave you the mirror. That's the trigger. They want to see if you'll break protocol."
Lin: "Who are the watchers?"
Di Zi: "Some were users like us. Some weren't. Some don't even know they're watchers. That's the trick."
Lin: "Tang Yuyan's still alive?"
Di Zi: "In a sense. She's partially folded. That means they can't fully delete her. She's too entangled."
Lin: "Entangled with what?"
Di Zi: "With you."
The screen went black.
⸻
[2:15] – Entanglement
Lin sat in silence, staring at his own reflection in the dark monitor.
His face looked… wrong.
Like something had shifted.
Then, from behind the screen, he heard it:
A whisper.
"We see you now."
The room grew colder.
And the mirror across from him began to hum again.