That night, I dreamt I was falling.
Plunging from an endless grey corridor towards a door—behind which lay the sound of water, echoes, and whispers.
When I awoke, the police badge was affixed to my chest, pulsing faintly as if alive.
The heat it emitted no longer felt metallic, but like a heartbeat.
> ["Did you hear it?"]
Lucas's voice echoed in my mind.
I sat up, my forehead drenched in cold sweat.
"...Hear what?"
> ["The breathing beneath the earth."]
Those words jolted me fully awake.
The computer screen remained frozen on last night's interface—that Forbidden City File.
I tried to open it again, but a prompt appeared: "File locked. Biometric authentication required."
Biometric? This was an archive sealed away for years—why was it still active?
Lucas fell silent for a moment before murmuring:
> ["Because it's no ordinary archive."]
> ["It's a gateway. Only those who can see it may pass through."]
I clenched my police badge. In that instant, the lock screen flashed crimson:
> [ACCESS GRANTED.]
The computer fan whirred furiously. The screen flickered as images began loading automatically.
An ancient map of Beijing, overlaid with underground utility schematics.
At the deepest level, one area was marked: [Layer-2].
Beside it, a note read:
> "Structure beneath the Forbidden City. Sealed off in 1949. Access prohibited in any form."
I could hear my own heartbeat.
This was the place Lucas had been investigating before his death.
---
Six o'clock in the morning, police headquarters conference room.
Outside, dawn was breaking, the light cold and piercing.
I sat at the far end of the table, facing a mountain of files.
"Evelyn." The captain fixed me with a cold stare. "You entered the cordoned-off site alone last night. Unauthorised action. Any explanation?"
I looked up. "I was investigating Lucas Yuan's old case."
"That case is closed." His tone was as stifling as ever. "He was ruled an accidental death during mission. You have no authority to reopen it."
I did not argue further.
Because they would never understand.
Yet a voice in my mind chuckled softly:
> ["They only ever see the surface."]
Beneath the conference table, I touched my police badge lightly. It vibrated faintly beneath my fingers.
A peculiar sensation spread through me—
a feeling of "connection".
---
Afternoon. I drove alone to the sealed-off perimeter outside the Forbidden City.
No markers on the satnav, but Lucas guided me through my mind.
> ["Turn left. Two hundred metres ahead lies an abandoned metro entrance."]
> ["That's the earliest passageway to Layer-2."]
Sand swirled through the air. The area had been demolished years ago, leaving only broken iron railings.
As I stepped over them, the badge grew warm again, as if responding to some energy field.
The underground entrance door was welded shut, yet a faint low-frequency vibration emanated from the metal gaps.
Like breathing.
Like some colossal creature slumbering beneath the earth.
I retrieved my tools and pried it open with force. The moment the lock shattered, a blast of cold air hit me.
My torch beam pierced the darkness—
Stairs descended endlessly into the void.
> ["Don't be afraid."]
["I'll lead the way."]
Lucas's voice wavered, distant yet close, stretched thin by the wind.
I took a deep breath and stepped onto the first rung.
---
The deeper we descended, the colder it grew.
The walls were covered in old cables and rust stains, yet the floor bore fresh footprints.
I crouched to examine them—fresh, no more than three hours old.
"Someone's been here," I murmured.
> ["Not just one."]
Lucas's tone shifted, growing cold with caution.
["That thing is luring people down."]
"That thing?"
He didn't answer.
A red light flickered at the end of the corridor ahead. It flashed three times before going out, as if deliberately warning us.
I advanced, gun raised, the light dancing on the walls.
Just then, I heard dripping—drip, drip, drip—as regular as a heartbeat.
One step further, and I saw lines of English carved into the wall:
> "THE SECOND LAYER IS ALIVE."
Alive? I frowned.
What on earth was this place?
Suddenly, all the lights went out.
I was swallowed whole by darkness.
---
> ["Evelyn—back off!"]
Lucas's shout rang out almost simultaneously.
The ground gave way beneath my feet, dragging me into another kind of "space".
The air around me seemed to liquefy; my body plummeted yet felt suspended.
When I opened my eyes again—
I was no longer underground.
I stood upon an ancient street.
Red walls, glazed tiles, palace lanterns—all distorted beyond recognition.
The entire "Forbidden City" was submerged in mist, like a mirror image of the real world.
The sky was greyish-white, devoid of sun.
Lucas appeared at the street corner.
He wore his police uniform from before his death, his expression composed, yet no sound of footsteps accompanied him.
"Where... is this?" I asked.
> ["This is Layer-2."]
> ["We call it the 'Mirror City'. It is reality's reflection, the convergence point for all forgotten memories."]
He points towards the palace gates ahead: "That is where the files are located."
Just as I prepare to step forward, a voice echoes through the mist—
a series of overlapping whispers:
> "He is not your ally..."
"He is the key, and the cage..."
I halted.
"Lucas, the day you died—who were you chasing?"
He fell silent. After a long moment, he murmured softly:
> ["I was chasing myself."]
In that instant, the mist surged violently, and the entire sky above Mirror City began to collapse.
A colossal shadow emerged from behind the palace gates, humanoid in form yet composed of thousands of faces—
weeping, roaring, numb.
> ["Run!"] he shouted.
I drew my gun and fired, bullets slicing through air with no effect.
The shadow loomed closer, my spirit vision spiralling out of control as all sound exploded within my mind.
Images flickered before my eyes—
Lucas's final moments, police surveillance footage, the instant he fell,
and a stranger woman, bearing the same badge, watching him from the shadows.
That woman—she looked exactly like me.
---
Screaming, I stumbled backwards as Mirror City disintegrated.
Gravity vanished instantly, and I plummeted into darkness.
When I opened my eyes again, I lay on the steps of a subway entrance.
Morning light filtered through, the city's noise returning to normal.
Everything seemed as though nothing had happened.
But I knew it wasn't a dream.
Because the police badge in my pocket remained scorching hot.
On its reverse, new text had appeared:
> [File 02: The Mirror Woman]