Chapter 18: Zero-Mirror

The path to the Zero-Mirror did not run through corridors or streets.

It ran through the mind.

Lila, Echo, Kelvin, and Orane settled into the Silent Room of the Sanctuary.

They sat at the center of the ritual circle, surrounded by ancient cracked mirrors — fragments of minds left behind by former patients.

"To reach the Zero-Mirror," Orane explained, "you must abandon all ideas of who you are."

Kelvin frowned.

"Are we going to... die?"

"Not physically. But the mind will dissolve into the collective unconscious. The Zero-Mirror is the fusion point of all broken reflections. It's not a place. It's an echo."

Lila looked at Kelvin. She reached out her hand.

"We don't let go."

He gripped it. Hard.

Then the mirrors began to vibrate.

And the descent began.

They fell.

Not through space.

Through consciousness.

Reflections passed around them like liquid memories.

They saw childhood rooms, endless corridors, faces they no longer recognized.

Then, a white light.

A flawless surface.

They landed there.

Before them: the Zero-Mirror.

An endless expanse of mirror-floor, where everything was reversed. The sky below. Shadows above.

And in every reflection... a version of themselves, broken, rewritten.

Kelvin saw a version of himself dressed in white, smiling mechanically.

Echo saw himself as a child, face erased.

Lila saw herself as an adult, tied to a table, thanking Klinik-13.

They understood.

"This place..." Lila whispered. "It's not a trap. It's an offer."

Echo nodded.

"Each reflection is a version of what Klinik-13 wants us to become."

Kelvin clenched his fists.

"Then we break the reflections."

They stepped forward.

Each step was a struggle.

Voices tried to convince them.

Rewritten memories grafted onto their minds.

Kelvin was tempted by peace.

A normal life. Parents, home, warmth.

But he remembered: that memory never happened.

He screamed.

And the vision cracked.

One mirror shattered. Then another.

The illusions fell one by one beneath their steps.

But the more they advanced, the more unstable the floor became.

Then they saw it.

At the center: the Core.

A black floating column, surrounded by liquid shadows.

And in front of it... a silhouette.

The Director.

Not in a child's body this time.

Not even human.

An abstract form, a collage of floating faces, repeated smiles, fragments of eyes and mouths.

He spoke.

"You are the anomalies. The memories that refuse to be archived. The errors of the dream."

Kelvin stepped forward.

"And you are a lie trying to become truth."

"I am what you have allowed to be born. The echo of your wounds."

Lila stepped forward too.

"You want to make everything uniform. But pain does not disappear. It expresses itself."

"Then express it. Show me your refusal."

And the battle began.

But it was not a physical battle.

It was a battle of memory.

The Director projected imagined lives into their minds.

He tried to drown them in false memories:

A happy childhood.

A future without fear.

Loving parents.

But each time they faltered...

another pulled them back.

Echo whispered to Lila:

"He is not the one who decides what we are."

She nodded.

And together, they projected their true memories into the mental space:

The pain of isolation.

The screams in the corridors.

The experiments.

The silences.

The escapes.

The truth.

And the truth... made the Zero-Mirror tremble.

The Director screamed.

The reflections shattered.

The floor warped.

The Core began to implode.

Kelvin saw thousands of faces escape, as if freed.

Forgotten patients. Lost children. Fragments.

They all screamed silently.

But their screams were freeing.

Orane joined them in the mental space.

"This is now or never!" she shouted. "You must choose a new dream. Impose an idea stronger than the Director's!"

Kelvin raised his hands. Closed his eyes.

And thought of only one thing:

We have the right to remember.

The Zero-Mirror collapsed.

The light exploded.

And with a breath... they were projected out of the mental field.

They woke up in the Silent Room.

Breathless. Trembling.

But the silence was... pure.

The virus had been struck. Not destroyed.

But weakened like never before.

And in the city, the Sleepers stopped.

They no longer knew what to do.

Without a guiding dream... they were empty.

Kelvin looked at his friends.

"It's not over."

Lila smiled faintly.

"No. But now... we're not alone