The Mirror That Remembers:

The reflect arrived wrapped in velvet, its body carved with roses that had long seeing that faded into thorns. Elena determined it in an antique store tucked away on a forgotten avenue, attracted to it with the aid of some thing she couldn’t explain. The shopkeeper had smiled knowingly whilst she bought it, whispering, “It recollects.”

at the beginning, it was really beautiful. She placed it in her bedroom, in which the morning mild stuck its edges and shimmered across the walls. however quickly, she noticed some thing strange. The reflection become never pretty proper. Her movements lagged, her expressions lingered longer than they need to. from time to time, she noticed herself smiling when she wasn’t.

One night, after a long day, Elena stood earlier than the reflect and whispered, “I desire I may want to forget.” The reflection tilted its head, even though she hadn’t moved. Then, in the back of her photograph, another parent appeared—a person she had cherished and lost years ago. His eyes had been filled with sorrow, his lips parted as if to talk. Elena spun round, but the room become empty. when she looked lower back, the reflect become nonetheless.

The visions grew stronger. each night, the mirror confirmed her fragments of her beyond: her youth domestic, her mom’s laughter, the arguments she wished she could erase. It was as if the reflect had emerge as a diary of her soul, replaying recollections she had buried. a few had been soft, however others had been unbearable.

One night time, she noticed herself standing inside the rain, clutching a letter she had never sent. The reflection wept, even though she did not. She reached out to touch the glass, and the floor rippled like water. A voice whispered from within: “We recollect what you can't.”

Elena have become obsessed. She spent hours earlier than the replicate, attempting to find answers, reliving moments she thought have been long past. but the replicate did now not best display her past—it commenced to show futures that had no longer yet befell. She noticed herself by myself, her hair grey, her eyes hollow. She noticed a infant she had never met, calling her call. She saw herself trapped inside the reflect, pounding in opposition to the glass.

The suspense fed on her. She stopped leaving the house, stopped answering calls. friends concerned, but she brushed off them. The replicate become her companion, her confessor, her tormentor. every day, it demanded greater of her attention, pulling her deeper into its global.

One nighttime, the mirrored image refused to imitate her at all. instead, it stood nonetheless, looking. behind it, shadows amassed—faces of human beings she had wronged, forgotten, or abandoned. They pressed towards the glass, whispering accusations. Elena screamed, but the sound turned into swallowed with the aid of silence.

She tried to cover the replicate, draping it with cloth, however the whispers seeped through. She attempted to transport it, but it changed into impossibly heavy, rooted to the ground. eventually, she smashed it with a hammer. The glass shattered, but in preference to falling, the shards hung within the air, each piece reflecting a extraordinary reminiscence. Her mom’s smile. Her lover’s betrayal. Her own face, twisted in fear.

The shards swirled around her, slicing into her pores and skin, drawing blood. yet while she regarded down, there have been no wounds. The ache was internal, now not outdoor. The reflect had claimed her.

While the buddies eventually entered her home weeks later, they observed the room empty. The replicate stood entire again, its surface sparkling. And in its mirrored image, Elena was there—all the time trapped, her eyes pleading, her palms pressed in opposition to the glass.

The reflect remembered, and now, so did she.