Chapter 8: The disconnected

I didn't even bother pretending.

School was pointless now.

Math didn't matter when mirrors were whispering my name and reflections were trying to crawl out of bathroom sinks.

So I walked out the front gates without a word.

No teacher stopped me.

No one looked twice.

It was like I was already fading.

***

Noelle met me near the edge of town, leaning against a rusted-out phone booth like she hadn't just ghosted me for two days after dragging me to a cursed portal.

"You're late," she said.

"I'm traumatized," I replied.

She smirked and tossed me a hoodie. Black, oversized. Mine now, apparently.

"You sure you're ready for this?" she asked.

"No," I said. "But I'm coming anyway."

---

We ended up in the back of a busted laundromat. The place reeked of detergent and regret. Noelle knocked on a vending machine like it owed her money—three quick knocks and a pause—then whispered, "He's not reflected."

The machine slid open.

Behind it: a staircase, cold and damp and old.

We went down.

---

It was like walking into another world.

Neon lights flickered along the walls. Mirror shards hung like decorations—but every one was cracked, rune-carved, or painted over in black. The air buzzed with weird energy.

And people were waiting.

Five of them. My age. Maybe older.

All staring at me like I was a prophecy wrapped in bad posture.

Noelle stepped forward and said, "This is Kael. He touched the Gate."

One of the boys raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

She nodded. "He triggered a pulse yesterday. Every mirror in the district reacted."

Cool cool cool.

Not terrifying at all.

---

"I'm introducing you all. Try not to scare him off," Noelle warned.

She pointed to a tall guy sitting on a stack of crates, arms crossed.

"That's Echo. He's good with knives and bad with people. He's the reason most of the traps in here don't kill you."

Echo nodded once. Said nothing.

"This is Mara," Noelle continued, nodding at a short girl with glitter on her cheeks and a spiked bat across her back.

"Hi Kael," Mara grinned. "If your reflection tries to talk to you, punch it."

I blinked. "Okay."

"That's Ziv," she pointed at a skinny dude with messy hair and three laptops open in front of him. "He tracks mirror activity, monitors cult broadcasts, and hacks literally everything."

Ziv waved without looking up. "You're late to the apocalypse."

"Renji," she said next, gesturing to the boy in all black, sitting cross-legged with incense burning around him. "Don't ask him anything philosophical unless you want an existential crisis."

Renji gave me a slow nod. "The mirrors lie. But they also remember."

Neat.

"And finally, Juno."

A girl with braided hair, dark eyes, and a calm energy leaned against the wall.

"She's the only reason we haven't killed each other yet," Noelle added.

"Nice to meet you, Kael," Juno said warmly. "We've been waiting for you."

---

"Wait," I said. "You knew I was coming?"

Ziv looked up. "The cult's been tracking someone like you. An 'echo-born' with no shadow signature. You didn't show up on any reflections until last week."

Echo added, "Then you cracked the Gate."

"And now," Juno said, "they know exactly who you are."

I felt dizzy.

"So… what, I'm cursed?"

Noelle shook her head. "You're marked. And now we need you if we're going to stop them."

---

They walked me through everything.

The Glassbound cult.

Their obsession with the Mirror Realm.

How they believe the world we live in is fake—just a reflection of something purer, something older, something truer.

And how they want to open the Mirror Gate permanently—to merge both worlds.

"But that would…" I started.

"It would kill millions," Renji said quietly. "And trap the rest in the reflection world."

"But the Gate won't open without someone like you," Noelle added. "That's why they want you so badly. You're the key."

I sat down.

Hard.

---

Mara plopped next to me, swinging her legs. "You okay?"

"Absolutely not," I replied. "This is... too much."

Ziv slid one of his laptops toward me. "It gets worse."

On screen: a map.

Dozens of red dots.

Flashing.

"Reflection breaches," he said. "Four new ones. Today."

"Meaning?" I asked.

Juno spoke this time. "Meaning the Mirror Realm is already pushing through. And if we don't stop it soon…"

She didn't finish.

She didn't have to.

---

I looked at all of them.

These weird, broken, battle-hardened strangers.

They didn't ask for this life either.

But here they were—fighting back anyway.

And me?

I'd just wanted to pass science.