"So, are you finally taking me to an antique shop?"
David remained silent for a while, then replied in an absent-minded voice.
"I'm taking you home."
The mirror fiend didn't make a remark. The word "home" seemed to keep him quiet... somehow.
Before going home, David walked past the noisy road, passing beside nightclubs and restaurants. The headlights of cars flashed by, followed by the sound of tires rolling on the granite road. Occasional honking and curses were also persistent.
He then stopped in front of a glass shop. On the glass revealing the shop's interior was a word painted in black:
CRESCENDO.
Through the glass, David could see the warm glow of chandeliers reflecting off the polished floors. Round tables were set neatly, each with a white tablecloth, crystal teacups, small candles, and simple floral arrangements. People in tuxedos and gowns moved around the room—some talking quietly, others swaying to the music. A few sat with their eyes closed, just listening, while others sipped tea or champagne.
At the center of the room, a man played the grand piano. His posture was straight, his movements precise. Every finger hit the keys deliberately, producing music that was both soft and powerful. The melody shifted smoothly from gentle, quiet phrases to louder, more dramatic moments. Each note felt carefully controlled, and the man's expression showed concentration and feeling at the same time. It was clear he knew exactly how to make the piano sound both emotional and polished.
David seemed obsessed with the playing, not the man.
The mirror fiend in David's hands hummed quietly, almost as if it was responding to the music.
"Fancy place," David muttered. The mirror fiend snorted but stayed silent.
David looked at the people inside. They were calm and focused on the music, completely absorbed. The contrast to his life—his crumbling apartment, Lily's illness—was striking. For a moment, he wondered what it would be like to live here, in a place like this. But the thought disappeared quickly, replaced by the weight of his responsibilities.
He adjusted the mirror carefully. The dark surface seemed to move slightly, reacting to the music. A part of him wanted to go inside, to see more, but he resisted. The mirror wasn't something to show people yet.
Outside, the city carried on with its noise and chaos. Inside Crescendo, everything felt orderly and calm. The piano player kept going, moving from quiet, soft passages to strong, dramatic sections. His face was focused, his eyes closed at times, but his fingers never missed a note. He played with control and clarity, drawing attention without needing to shout or overdo it.
David turned away from Crescendo and continued down the street. The music followed him for a few steps before fading, leaving an echo in his mind. The mirror fiend stayed quiet, its shadowed surface reflecting a tired but determined face of shadows. It felt like the night, the mirror, and the music were all connected and that he was already caught in whatever was coming next.
'What a weird and ominous thought.'
On getting to his street, he noticed a tense expression on people's faces. He didn't bother to start a conversation with one... he was better alone.
That, and... also he didn't want to get involved with anything that has to do with "problems."
The people in the street were all discussing the same matter with each other and frequently glancing or pointing at the end of the street.
At this time, the mirror fiend remained silent. Guess it knew maturity after all...
What was at the end of the street? It was a three-story building, designed with graffiti... David's house.
'What could be going on there?' he thought and hastened to the house, which was still a little bit farther from where he was.
Finally, he decided to eavesdrop on the conversation among the crowd.
"Really, you don't mean it."
"Yes, I heard the person was still a child."
'What the hell are they talking about?!'
David frowned.
Just then, three white vans with blue and white glowing sirens flashed by, driving towards David's house.
'Ambulances?!'
Simultaneously, someone from the crowd muttered:
"They said she was convulsing, which was the final stage of NDS before she enters a coma... Aah, a ten-year-old girl, for that matter... What sort of a parent—"
David didn't wait to listen to the last words of the commoner's message. Anguish, pain, horror, and other cold emotions washed over him. Only one word found a way out of his mouth:
"Lily..."
With that, he gritted his teeth and held back unexpected tears with extreme resolve. He ran as fast... no, in fact, he ran more than he could... Much, much more faster than a mundane human.
People watched as a man in his mid-thirties tripped over a trash can as the content of a used diaper spilled all over his body and face, yet, that didn't stop the man. The mirror fell off beside the trash and the shadow swaying in it... hissed, unbothered by the tension.
He stood up in the next second, forgetting to pick up the mirror, ramming into people and shoving them aside. Finally, David got to the graffiti-ruined house, where another set of crowds were gathered in front of the building.
David burst through the crowd and up the stairs of the graffiti-smeared building, his heart pounding like a war drum. The sirens painted his face in blue and white flashes, but he only saw red.
"Lily!"
Two paramedics were already at his door. One was shouting orders, the other tightening a mask over a small, trembling figure on a stretcher. His neighbors were also there, doing all they could to assist, as was the kind landlady.
David froze after seeing the state his daughter was in.
Her hair clung damp to her forehead. Her eyes were half-open, staring at nothing. Her small hand twitched against the straps holding her down.
The stretcher wheels squealed as they pushed her downstairs, towards the van.
He held the stretcher and also pushed. His eyes were already swollen and tiny drops of tears were already falling on the stretcher and his daughter's face.
"Stay with me, Lily... Stay... Be strong, Lily... Be strong for daddy."
When they got to the van, one of the paramedics questioned and reprimanded him.
"Sir, please... We know our jobs..."
"She needs me... I'm her father! ... I'm her father!! I'm her father!!" he yelled with outrage.
The paramedic didn't spare him a glance and just gestured to him to enter the van where his daughter was.
"Stay with me, Lily... Please."
The words broke in his throat as they loaded her into the van. He climbed in after her, clutching the stretcher as though letting go meant losing her forever.
The doors slammed shut and the vans drove out of the street.
But just before they drove out, the mirror was kicked to the middle of the street with one of the twigs of wood plucked out and hanging in a curly manner.
Somehow, the mirror fiend was kicked to the middle of the road, and just when one of the vans passed over it, the twig immediately struck itself to the engine—as if it was under control—and coiled around it.
The shadow hissed and sighed.
"Aah... This is going to be a long ride..."
The sirens screamed through the night as the van tore down the main road. David sat hunched over Lily's stretcher, one hand clutching hers, the other gripping the edge of the frame so tightly his knuckles were white.
Her breathing was shallow, each rise and fall of her chest too faint and fragile. The paramedic beside her adjusted the mask, injecting something into the line fixed into her thin arm.
"Stay with us, sweetheart. Just a little longer," the medic murmured, voice tight with urgency.
David's lips trembled. He bent close, whispering fiercely into her ear.
"You hear that, Lily? Just a little longer. Daddy's here. Daddy's not leaving you."
But her fingers didn't squeeze back...
The van jolted over a pothole. The lights inside flickered. For the briefest second, David thought he saw a shadow flicker across the walls... not the medic's, not his own. It slithered like smoke, then vanished.
He froze, glancing at the corner. Nothing. Just the low hum of the siren, the rattling stretcher, and the hiss of oxygen.
But faintly, faintly, as though it was whispering through the engine itself, came a voice:
"A hospital... I haven't seen one of those in decades. Ah, how quaint. Let's see if mortal doctors can cure something so vile..."
'What the hell?!'
Was he hearing things? Did he just hear the voice of the mirror fiend come right from his own head?
'Come to think of it... I lost the mirror... That doesn't matter now... I was imagining the voice.'
The van screeched to a halt in front of St. Mercy's Hospital. White lights flooded the entrance as two more stretchers were wheeled inside... other patients, older men coughing violently, their skin tinged gray. David caught only a glimpse before Lily's stretcher was rolled out.
"Clear the way!" the paramedic barked. Nurses rushed to meet them, sliding Lily seamlessly into their care.
David stumbled after them, ignoring the forms shoved into his hands, ignoring the questions about family history, insurance, allergies. His only answer was a hoarse, broken:
"She's ten. Please. Just save her."
They rushed Lily through double doors marked "Intensive Care." The doors slammed shut in his face.
This... this was DNS. So dangerous and terrifying. DNS deals with stages ranging from the beginning stage where you only feel weak. The second stage—which Lily was in—hasn't even been named yet... It's neither death nor coma... just hollowness.
The last stage... it's what humanity calls... zombies, horror... But these ones are more vile, dangerous, and deadly...
Imagine ten-year-old Lily, having sharp, large fangs, bloody eyes, and crawling on the ceiling with murderous intent...
David's breath caught. He pressed his forehead to the cold glass, his palms flat against it, as the last glimpse of his daughter's pale form disappeared into a room of machines and masks.
If she can be saved to escape from hollowness into actual coma, then she... might just survive turning into a horror.
Behind him, faint but clear, came a chuckle. A low, rasping chuckle only he could hear. The mirror was hiding under a chair and said:
"You brought her here to be saved. But tell me, anguished human..." The voice of the mirror fiend coiled around him like smoke.
"Who will save her from something so vile?"
David's chest heaved. His fists tightened. For the first time since picking up that cursed mirror, he whispered back under his breath:
"Shut up. Or I'll find a way to shatter you."
The voice laughed again, amused, as if David's threat were a song it had heard before.
"Shatter me... Ooh... Classic. I'm already shattered, I'm already broken..."
Then the voice became silent for a while, then asked a question with an almost nonchalant attitude.
"So, anguished human, do tell me. Those who didn't survive, where are they...? Have you ever seen what happened to them?"
"They turn into horrors," David whispered.
The mirror fiend still heard him... somehow. It then continued with its questions.
"So have you seen any of those horrors before? Do tell me... Come on, speak, human."
David didn't reply, but that only made the mirror fiend more determined to add annoyance to David's sorrow.
"Come on, anguished human, speak up... Speechless?... Tell me... I really want to know."
Out of rage, David blurted out:
"Yes... I have, I have... My own wife..." He fell to his knees, his voice slowly becoming solemn. Tears rolled down his cheek as he couldn't stop crying.
"... My own wife... She turned into a horror and tried to kill me and Lily... She tried to eat us alive... That's what you wanted to know, right? So please... Don't make me feel more pain than I already have... Please..."
David lost his composure in seconds.
People in the hospital stared at him in bewilderment... Who was he talking to? They had no clue, still, they couldn't help but feel his pain.
Yet, what could they do? Nothing... They could do absolutely nothing...
The mirror fiend sighed.
"I never expected you to be so pathetic about it... Come on, it's just a wife... There are plenty of fish in the water, you know. And you could just buy a new daughter... That's how it works, right? So don't be a crybaby... stop it, we're in a public place."
David didn't reply... probably fed up by the mirror's nonchalance... in one night.
The mirror fiend remained quiet for a while then said:
"Still, if you don't mind, I can help you save your daughter, but on one condition... We're friends now... So we must help each other, don't you think?"