Aarav's breath came out in short bursts, echoing in the suffocating silence of the old corridor. The house seemed alive now—every creak of the floorboards felt intentional, every shadow stretched like a predator waiting to pounce.
The diary weighed heavy in his hands, its pages fluttering though there was no wind. He forced himself to read, eyes scanning over words that blurred into shapes: "The mirror is not a reflection. It is a door."
His stomach dropped. A faint chill touched the back of his neck. He spun around—no one. Yet, from the cracked mirror on the wall, a whisper slithered out, "Aarav… we've been waiting…"
He stumbled back, nearly dropping the diary. The girl he had seen before—the one with the haunting eyes—appeared in the mirror's surface. But her lips did not move. Instead, the whisper grew louder, as if spoken directly inside his skull.
"You opened the path. Now you must step through."
Aarav shook his head, muttering to himself, "This isn't real. This can't be real."
The reflection smiled cruelly. Behind the girl's image, distorted figures writhed in the dark glass, clawing and writhing as if desperate to escape. Their eyes glowed faintly, hungry.
The diary pulsed in his hand like a beating heart. His own reflection slowly shifted—it wasn't him anymore. The mirrored Aarav grinned, his mouth stretching too wide, teeth too sharp.
Panic surged through him. He slammed the diary shut. The whispers cut off instantly. Silence pressed down on him so hard it felt deafening.
Then—
A knock. Three slow knocks on the door behind him.
He turned. The door at the end of the corridor, the one he swore had been locked since the beginning, now stood slightly ajar. A black void seeped from its edges like smoke.
The mirror flickered again. This time the girl's reflection leaned close, her eyes locking onto his. "If you walk away now, you will never be free."
Aarav's trembling hand reached for the door handle. The moment his fingers brushed the cold metal, the diary flipped open on its own. The last written line glowed:
"Those who enter, never return the same."
And with that, the door creaked open wider, swallowing the light.