"Some battles are not fought with fists or fire—but with memory, guilt, and the hope that love might still be louder than the void."
The air inside the abandoned boarding school reeked of mildew and memory. Old boards creaked beneath Lena's feet, the sound echoing like gunshots in the hollow halls. She passed empty classrooms where ghostly chalk outlines remained on blackboards, and old ceiling fans hung like forgotten timepieces, stilled in rust and dust.
Her phone had no signal. Not that she expected one here. This place existed somewhere between reality and a nightmare, a fragment of a story erased from the world. And yet, Lena walked toward its heart, her footsteps deliberate.
Meher had begged her not to go alone.
"Lena, whatever's in there—it's not just a memory. It's feeding off you," she'd warned.
But Lena had already made up her mind. If there was even a fragment of Amaya left… she would find her.
The last door at the end of the corridor stood slightly ajar. A flickering bulb buzzed above it, casting long shadows that danced like spirits. She pushed the door open with a trembling hand.
Inside, the room was bathed in silver light, reflected from the countless mirrors lining the walls. Some were shattered. Some were fogged. But all of them showed Lena—dozens of her, all staring back. Some looked like her past. Some looked like her fears. But one mirror—larger, untouched, standing tall in the center—showed something different.
It showed Amaya.
Her sister stood inside the mirror, pale and still, her eyes like ink, her expression unreadable. Her long black hair spilled like water around her shoulders, and her presence pulled at Lena's chest like gravity.
"You came," Amaya said softly.
Lena took a breath. "I never stopped looking."
A ghost of a smile touched Amaya's lips. "You shouldn't have."
"I had to."
"Why?" Amaya asked, tilting her head. "You have a new life now. New friends. You could've moved on."
Lena stepped closer. "I don't move on from the people I love."
Amaya's face twisted. "Love?" she said, her voice brittle. "Where was that love when I screamed and no one heard me? When I disappeared, and you couldn't even find the door?"
Lena flinched. The words cut like knives.
"I was fourteen," she whispered. "I didn't even understand what was happening. But I never stopped searching. I never gave up on you."
Amaya's image flickered. Cracks crawled across the mirror's edges like veins of shadow.
"You still don't understand," Amaya said, her voice breaking. "I didn't just disappear. I was taken. This place... it fed on me. On my fear. On my silence. It made me silent."
Tears welled in Lena's eyes. "Then let me take you back. Please, Amaya. Just come home."
But the mirror began to shudder. Something stirred behind Amaya—dark tendrils, writhing and snarling like serpents made of ink.
"She doesn't belong to you anymore," the mirror hissed. "She chose us."
"No," Lena said, stepping forward. "She didn't. You stole her."
The tendrils lashed out, slamming into the edges of the frame. Amaya reached out, her hand pressed against the glass. Lena matched it. A barrier of shimmering energy sparked between them.
"I can't hold on," Amaya said, voice trembling. "It hurts."
"Then let me hurt with you," Lena said. "I'd rather bleed beside you than live without you."
With a scream, Lena slammed her hand into the mirror.
Glass exploded. Time fractured. Reality shattered.
---
Lena awoke in a world of nothingness.
The sky was a void. The ground shimmered like liquid silver. Shapes swirled in the distance—echoes of people, of moments, of memories playing in slow, haunting loops.
She was inside the Mirror Realm.
Amaya lay a few feet away, bound by the tendrils now revealed to be faces—screaming, shifting faces of the forgotten. Every whisper was a lost soul. Every tear was a memory consumed.
Lena crawled toward her. "Let her go!" she screamed.
The world growled. "Give us your silence, and we will release her."
Lena froze. The Mirror wanted what it had stolen from Amaya—her voice, her identity. It wanted Lena's now.
She looked at Amaya. Her sister's eyes were wide with terror, but there was something else—hope.
Lena stood.
"No," she said. "I've been silent long enough."
And then she screamed.
A scream not of fear, but fury. Of sorrow. Of love.
It tore through the Mirror Realm like fire, setting the tendrils ablaze. The memories shattered. The void cracked open.
Amaya gasped, the shadows recoiling from her body.
Lena ran to her, cradling her as the world collapsed.
"Amaya," she whispered, "I've got you. We're going home."
---
They woke in the abandoned school's hallway.
Meher was there, sobbing in relief.
Amaya's body was limp but breathing. Her fingers twitched. Her lips parted. "Lena…"
Lena kissed her forehead, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I'm here. I'm not leaving again."
And as dawn broke through the shattered windows, painting gold across the floor, Lena knew something had changed.
The past wasn't erased.
But for the first time, they could start rewriting it.
Together.
---