Chapter 10 10.Chapter 10:The Voice Beneath the Glasw

Chapter 10: The Voice Beneath the Glass

The voice started as a hum-barely audible, like wind echoing through a keyhole. Kira sat in the attic with the locket clutched tight in her fist, the obsidian shard inside it trembling slightly. The mirror before her had dimmed, its surface a dull, smoky gray. But the voice was alive.

At first, she thought it was just another trick. Another lie wrapped in a memory.

But then she heard it-clearly, softly.

"Kira..."

Her name.

Not whispered like a predator in the dark.

But spoken like a plea.

She staggered back. "Who's there?"

No reply. Only silence and the ripple of black glass.

Kira paced the room, heart pounding. She glanced at the journal, flipping back through Elias Vane's final entries. She stopped on a half-torn page with three hastily scribbled words:

"The mirror listens."

She swallowed.

If it could listen-could it speak back?

She moved closer. The air was colder now, the crack in the mirror pulsing gently like a wound trying to close. She placed her hand just inches from the surface.

"Who are you?" she asked.

Nothing.

But then the voice came again-closer this time. Clearer.

"It's me... Evelyn."

Kira's breath caught.

Her aunt?

Dead. Buried. Lost to madness.

"No," she whispered. "You're gone. You died protecting this thing."

The voice faltered. "I tried... but it took something from me. Left me between."

Between reflections.

Kira's knees nearly buckled. "How do I know you're real?"

There was a pause. Then the voice said, softly:

"When you were six, you snuck a kitten into the cellar and named it Ink. I helped you bury it when it died."

Kira froze.

No one else knew that.

Not her friends. Not her parents. Not even her childhood self had written it down.

Only Evelyn.

She reached out and touched the surface.

It was freezing.

"You're inside the mirror?"

"Not in," Evelyn answered. "Beneath. The space behind the reflection. The void it feeds with memories. But I've anchored a piece of myself."

Kira tried to breathe. "Why are you still here?"

"Because you haven't made the same mistake I did," Evelyn said. "You haven't given up."

The mirror shimmered. Its surface deepened, and Kira saw a vague silhouette-thin, flickering, like a candle flame behind water.

"But you're running out of time."

Kira pressed her palm to the glass. "How do I stop it?"

A long pause.

Then: "You must break it... from both sides."

Kira blinked. "But how? You're trapped."

"You must draw it in," Evelyn said. "Let it reach far enough to grab you, and in that moment of full contact, strike the core. From this side, I'll do the same."

Kira shook her head. "That could kill me."

"It might," Evelyn admitted. "But if we don't, the mirror will feed until Wyndgrave is nothing but reflections. No people. No time. Just hunger."

Kira sat back, silent.