The Clock Inside the Mirror

Chapter 1: The Heirloom

When Elise's grandmother passed away, she left behind only two things in her will: a gilded full-length mirror and an old grandfather clock — both fused into a single, eerie relic standing nearly eight feet tall.

The mirror had a strange shimmer to it. A faint glow pulsed around its golden frame, carved with strange vines and crescent moons. Embedded into the top was the clock — black-faced, its hands frozen at 11:11. It ticked faintly, even without winding.

Elise’s mother never allowed it in the house. “It’s cursed,” she once whispered, eyes cold. “It doesn’t just reflect. It remembers. And worse — it predicts.”

But Elise was drawn to it. Maybe it was the strange way the mirror seemed to ripple like water, or maybe it was the ticking she heard in her dreams even before inheriting it.

She placed it in her hallway, across from her bedroom. By morning, the clock began ticking on its own.

Chapter 2: The Reflection

The first time Elise noticed something wrong was on the third night.

She passed the mirror on her way to bed. Her reflection was a beat too slow. It turned its head just a second after she did. It blinked slower. Smiled when she didn’t.

She stood still. So did it.

And then — a subtle twitch of its eye. It looked past her.

Elise turned around. Nothing there. Just the hallway.

When she faced the mirror again, her reflection had returned to normal.

But the clock? It had moved. Now it read 11:13.

Chapter 3: The Sound Behind the Glass

At 3:00 AM, she woke to ticking. Loud. Unnatural. Like the gears were made of bones and the sound echoed from inside her skull.

She stepped into the hallway. The mirror glowed slightly, reflecting the dark without showing her.

She approached it.

There was no reflection at all.

Just an empty hallway in the glass — but darker. Wet. Almost breathing.

And the clock above it now ticked backward.

Suddenly, she saw her reflection — or something wearing her face — sprint across the mirror's hallway. It vanished around a corner that didn’t exist in her home.

She stumbled back, heart pounding.

Chapter 4: Time Loops

The next morning, Elise called her aunt, the only one who’d dared to speak of the mirror.

“That thing doesn’t show you. It shows… what was, or what might be. It’s a warning.”

“A warning of what?”

“To not look too long. The longer you stare, the deeper it reaches.”

Elise covered the mirror with a blanket.

But the ticking didn’t stop.

And by evening, the cover was gone.

Chapter 5: The Other Elise

On the seventh night, Elise stood frozen in front of the mirror.

Her reflection wasn’t matching her.

This version of her wore a Victorian gown, stained with something dark. Her eyes were sunken, her hair gray. The ticking grew louder the longer Elise looked.

Then, the mirror-Elise smiled and held up her hand.

Written across her palm in blood-red letters: “RUN.”

Elise tried to turn away — but her legs wouldn't move.

Then the clock above the mirror chimed once.

The world warped. The hallway twisted.

And she saw something coming in the reflection. A tall figure with no face, its limbs bending unnaturally, its fingers scraping the walls of the mirrored hallway.

Elise screamed.

The clock struck 11:59.

Chapter 6: The Mirror Room

When Elise opened her eyes, she was no longer in her home.

She stood in an endless corridor made entirely of mirrors — every direction reflecting her, and yet… not.

Some showed her crying. Others — screaming. Some had her aged, others a child again. But in all of them, the clock above the mirrors ticked toward something.

And then she saw one version of herself — skinless. Screaming silently. The clock above that mirror hit 12:00, and the reflection burst into black ash.

The ticking stopped.

A whisper filled the hall: “The clock tells who you’ll become.”

Chapter 7: Bargain with Time

Elise wandered the mirror realm for what felt like days. She watched hundreds of versions of herself suffer, decay, vanish.

Some begged her to run.

Others tried to pull her into the glass.

Then — she saw her real self. Standing in her home. Looking into the mirror from the other side.

She screamed. Slammed her fists against the glass.

The Elise on the outside didn’t move.

Behind her, the faceless figure approached — the one that roamed the mirror’s hallway.

It whispered in her ear:

"You looked too long. Now you're the reflection. But a deal can be made..."

Chapter 8: Escape

It offered her freedom.

“One reflection must always watch. Trade places with another, and you may go.”

Elise refused. But the figure laughed. “Then time will choose.”

The mirrors around her began to spin. One lit up: a young girl, maybe ten, looking into a dusty old mirror in a thrift shop.

Elise screamed — “NO!” — and reached for another mirror instead, one with a version of herself asleep in bed.

She dove into it.

Chapter 9: Not the Same

Elise awoke in her own room, gasping.

The mirror was gone.

The clock, silent.

Everything felt… normal.

Until she looked in the bathroom mirror.

Her reflection blinked slower.

And smiled… when she didn’t.

Epilogue:

No one has seen Elise in weeks.

But sometimes, if you find an antique mirror in a dusty shop, and it ticks without a mechanism — and the clock above it reads 11:11 — they say if you look closely, you’ll see her.

Not your reflection.

Hers.

Still trapped.

Still waiting.

Because the mirror shows who you were.

And the clock?

It tells who you'll become.