Chinonye_Esther

A YA horror fantasy with cults, mirrors, sarcasm, and a boy who just wanted a normal damn life.

Kael isn’t special.
He’s not chosen, he’s not brave, and he’s definitely not ready to be hunted by his own reflection.

When the world’s mirrors begin glitching—reflections pausing, lagging, smiling—everyone starts to panic. But Kael’s reflection doesn’t just misbehave.
It disappears.

Now he’s the only person with no mirror image, and everyone’s noticing. That would be bad enough—until he finds out why.

There’s a secret cult called The Glassbound, and they’ve been waiting for this moment for centuries. They believe the mirror realm is the true world—and they’re letting the reflections out, one body at a time.

Kael?
He’s the key to opening the final gate.

And he is not okay with that.

Teaming up with a sharp-edged rebel girl with her own haunted past, Kael must dodge cultists, rogue reflections, and the thing that’s wearing his face—before the entire world is replaced by perfect, smiling copies.

This is not a glitch.
This is an invasion.
And Kael’s already one step behind his reflection.

We are not reflections

Not just because I kept staring at the envelope with You're the key written in fancy serial killer font.

Not even because the reflection I didn't have was still haunting every shiny surface.

No. I didn't sleep because around 3 a.m., I heard laughter.

Like my voice, if you handed it to something with teeth.

Like everything was slightly tilted, and no one else noticed the floor wasn't level anymore.

People whispered like someone had died, but no one said who. The school had this heavy stillness, like it was holding its breath, waiting for something to shatter.

Now, Liam's not important. He's… background noise. The guy who always asks to copy your homework and somehow still fails. The type to vape in the bathroom and call it "spiritual meditation."

Like someone ironed the personality out of him.

He walked down the hall like he'd been programmed. Same backpack. Same walk. Same haircut.

And when he smiled at me—slow, symmetrical, perfect—my skin went ice cold.

Because I realized something horrifying:

I backed away. Tried to act normal. You know, like you do when someone might be a reflection trying to possess your face.

"You noticed," the girl said before I even opened my mouth.

She was already sitting in the back corner. No books. Just her boots on the table and a mirror in her lap—wrapped in velvet and string, like a murder gift.

I sat down hard. "You didn't tell me they could fully replace people."

"I did," she said. "You just weren't ready to hear it."

"Well, I'm definitely not ready now either," I snapped. "So congrats on consistency."

"Yeah. We lost him two nights ago."

I blinked. "You KNEW? And just—what? Let him walk around being possessed like a walking Google ad?!"

She held my gaze. "We can't save everyone."

Oh. Cool. That's totally comforting.

Not traumatic at all. Thanks, mirror goth girl.

She slid the mirror toward me. I didn't want to look.

She nodded once. "It's safer in here than out there."

"I disagree with literally every part of that sentence," I muttered.

Still nothing. Just my hoodie, my messed-up hair—and no reflection.

Just blank space where I should be.

A handprint smudged the inside of the glass.

I jerked back. Nearly knocked over my chair.

"You're waking it up," she whispered.

"The more you know," she said, "the more it knows you."

"So what do we do?" I asked, breath shaky.

She met my eyes, her voice cold as cracked glass:

Chapter 5: Smile like you mean it