Chapter Twenty-Eight: Files of Broken Light
The night was quieter than usual.
The hospital corridors were flooded with a pale white light,
and the sound of monitoring machines echoed like a cold, lifeless heartbeat.
Dr. Haitham sat in his small office, reviewing the file labeled "Noor Al-Rifai."
The first page was ordinary—
a diagnosis of "Acute Perceptual Disorder," followed by general notes.
But among the papers was a very old sheet, yellowed with age, written in handwriting,
bearing a strange date: 1973.
He froze for a moment.
That date preceded the founding of the hospital by five years.
He opened the paper carefully.
It read:
"Case No. 07 — a girl who sees her reflection move without her.
Room No. 12 was sealed after the incident.
Looking into the mirror in the dark is prohibited.
Touching the glass after 3:00 a.m. is forbidden."
He slowly raised his head…
The same room where Noor was currently staying was Room No. 12.
He headed to the basement archive,
where old files had been abandoned for decades.
Darkness filled the place, dust covered everything,
and the generator's hum breathed slowly behind the walls.
He examined the shelves one by one
until he found another file, written in faint ink:
"Mirror Project — Experiment 0"
He flipped through the pages quickly, and the old photographs shocked him:
people in medical coats standing before a massive mirror,
and a small girl with metal wires attached to her head,
one eye wide open, staring into the glass, her face pale as ice.
At the bottom of the page was a handwritten note:
"The mind cannot see itself… unless there is a reflection that completes what it lacks."
Haitham stepped back.
A cold sensation crawled up his neck,
and he heard the sound of glass shifting behind him.
He turned quickly—
no one was there.
But in the corner stood a small mirror on a table,
reflecting the dim light and gleaming with an unsettling calm.
He approached it, staring closely.
His reflection looked normal…
until the head in the glass moved before he did.
He recoiled in fear.
The reflection smiled and whispered:
"At last, you found us, Doctor."
His breathing quickened.
"Who are you?!"
"We are not a person… we are the echo."
"An echo?"
"We are what remains of the first experiments.
The mirror does not reflect bodies… it reflects consciousness.
And when the soul breaks, the awareness remains there, inside the light."
There was silence for a few seconds.
Then Noor's face appeared behind the reflection,
smiling slowly as she placed a finger over her lips:
"Quiet… they will wake up."
The file slipped from his hand,
papers scattering across the floor like ash-colored wings.
He clutched his head, trying to comprehend what was happening.
Was this a hallucination?
Or did the mirror truly contain lingering consciousness from broken minds?
He rushed back to the upper floor.
But when he reached Noor's room—it was completely empty.
The bed was vacant, the windows closed, the surveillance showed nothing.
Only on the wall
was a sentence written in blood—or dark red paint:
"I am in your place now."
Haitham sank to the floor, stunned.
At that moment, all the lights in the hospital went out.
Darkness swallowed the corridors,
and the silence became so suffocating that breathing felt impossible.
Then a small mirror on the wall lit up.
Inside it, he saw all the patients asleep…
but their reflections were moving, smiling, waving at him as if they knew him.
Suddenly, the voices began to overlap inside his head:
"You are part of the experiment, Haitham… from the very beginning."
"The mirror was not created to observe… but to imprison."
"The next reflection will be yours."
He reached toward the glass, trying to shatter it.
But before he touched it, he saw his face in the reflection transform—
his skin tearing, his eyes turning gray like fog.
Then his own voice emerged from the mirror:
"You cannot treat what you are part of."
The next morning,
Dr. Layla entered Haitham's office,
but found it empty.
On the desk lay a small mirror, carefully placed.
When she approached it,
she saw her reflection…
and behind her stood someone wearing Dr. Haitham's coat,
smiling calmly,
with gray eyes.