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Speaker 1: My mom's flight was at six a m. And she

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was already running late. I was half asleep in the

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passenger seat with a backpack crammed between my knees. She

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sped down the dark back roads like the sky was

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on fire. Her phone kept buzzing with worky mouths lighting

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up the dash. She didn't even glance at them. Just

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a couple of nights. She said, for the third time,

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more to herself than me. I'll be back Monday. Be

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good for Grandma. O kay, I grunted. I was sixteen,

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not exactly in need of a babysitter, but apparently Grandma insisted.

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She said he was important that she misses you. Her

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fingers tightened on the wheel, and honestly, I didn't have

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a lot of other options. That last part rang truer.

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Since the divorce, it had just been the two of us,

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Mom juggling two jobs and a thousand stress headaches. Grandma's

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place had always been the fall back, quiet, old out

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in the sticks. My biggest gripe was no Wi Fi,

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just trees and the sound of wind that never quite

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felt like wind. We pulled into the gravel driveway just

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after dusk. The porch like buzzed above the steps, flickering

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once like it always did. Grandma's house hadn't changed from

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the outside. It had the same old wooden siding. The

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paint faded to a memory of blue. The wind chimes

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clinked on a breeze that didn't touch the trees. Mom

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sat in the car a moment longer than usual. She's

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been acting a little different lately, she said, not looking

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at me. Probably nothing, just humorer. Okay. I raised an eyebrow,

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like dementia different or eminent death different. My mother gave

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me a sour look. Be nice, was all she said.

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We didn't bring much, just a backpack with clothes, my toothbrush,

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and my charger. When Grandma entered the door in a

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usual house slippers, cardigan, and her hair in a loose bun.

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She hugged me tight and smelled like mothballs and lavender,

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as expected. But when I stepped into the living room,

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something felt wrong. I couldn't place it. At first. The

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furniture was all where it belonged, though maybe shifted slightly,

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like someone had tried to memorize the layout but got

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a few inches wrong. Then I saw the wall above

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the fireplace was a square outline paler than the surrounding paint.

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The mark something leaves after hanging in one spot for years.

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Weird but not alarming. When sitting down to eat, I

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went to get some cutlery. The kitchen had plastic forks

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in the drawer, no spoons. Anything metal was gone. Even

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the sink forest was wrapped in tape, dulling the shine.

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The knob on the cabinets had been replaced with these

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strange wooden ones, screwed and crooked. I asked if she

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needed help finding a fors. She just looked at me

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like I was speaking of foreign language. These work fine,

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she said, handing me a bent plastic spark. I waited

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for her to laugh or smile some kind of joke,

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but she just went on preparing tea, humming tunelessly under

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her breath, like this was a normal behavior over a

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quiet meal. Dinner was edible, something gray with peas in it,

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not the usual home cooked meal made with love. She

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asked me questions about school, but kept forgetting the answers

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I'd just given. She called me by my uncle's name once,

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even though he'd been dead for years. I led it slide.

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I figured she was just getting old or tired. But

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that night, after brushing my teeth, I looked up, expecting

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to see myself in the bathroom mirror, except there wasn't one.

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A wooden board had been nailed over it, cleanly cut

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to fit the frame, smooth and sanded, no sign of damage.

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It stared back at me, flat and blank, as if

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daring me to ask questions, and I did, just not

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out loud, not yet. I woke up early the next morning,

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the way you do in a house that isn't yours,

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disoriented automatically, trying to figure out where the creaky spots

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and the floor are so you don't wake anyone. The

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sun was just barely leaking in through the blinds, casting

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a sickly yellow tint over everything. I wondered the house

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a little, half out of boredom, half looking for breakfast.

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After that mission proved fruitless, I flopped on the old

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living room couch, flicking through my phone, trying to ignore

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the growing knees in my chest. I thought about taking

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a selfie, just to send a mom proof of life,

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but I didn't. I just couldn't bring myself to like

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I'd be lying if I said things were all right. Instead,

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I tried to entertain myself with whatever I'd saved in

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my camera roll, since all the apps were just spinning

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circles without Internet. My brain must have been numbing from boredom,

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because when I rolled over, my phone slipped from my hand.

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It bounced on the soft carpet and slid partly under

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the couch. I lay down to try catch's edge in

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the gap, hoping my fingers would be thin enough to

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slide it out, but I ended up just pushing it

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further in each time I tried. I didn't want to

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move the whole thing, so I found a long, thin

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stick to sweep under and scoop it out. However, alongside

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my phone, a penny and a few odd pieces of

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stale popcorn popped out. I pulled out a small shard

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of something curved and dusty. It was the corner of

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a smashed mirror. The reflection in it was warped and smeared.

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It must have slid under there when the living room

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mirror was removed and stayed hidden. But I could see

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myself in the reflection, and just for a split second,

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I thought I saw something else behind me too, something

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standing in the hallway, But When I looked up, the

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hallway was empty. I decided to hide the shard just

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in case. That afternoon she made lunch, if you could

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call it that. It was a bowl of pale broth,

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thin and gray, like something strained from boiled bones. The

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meat floating in it looked pink in place, as it

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shouldn't be. I poked it with a spark and asked

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what it was. She just smiled and said that you should.

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I didn't push, just pretended to eat and flushed most

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of it when she wasn't locking. The rest of the

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day passed slowly quiet. I tried texting Mom, but she

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didn't answer, probably busy. Still, I caught myself checking every

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Fifteen minutes later, we sat together in the den. The

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TV was still covered, and when I asked if we

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could watch something, Grandma just shook her head. Oh, Jerry,

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I thought you hated television. She said, Jerry, it's not

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my name. That was my father. I blinked, you mean me,

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I'm not. She tilted her head. Of course, of course

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you're not. Her eyes stayed on me too long after that,

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like she was trying to remember something she never really knew.

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That night, at dinner, she said. Mom had just been

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by yesterday, dropped off a basket, she told me, motioning

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toward a countertop that was very obviously empty. You didn't

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see her. I didn't say anything, just nodded and looked

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at the dry tile where the basket definitely hadn't been,

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not to mention the fact that my mom had flown away.

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She couldn't just drop by. I started watching her more carefully,

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noticed the way she shuffled down hallways, like she was

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tracing steps she'd memorized. It was around eleven PM when

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I finally turned in. I locked my door, just being cautious,

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That's what I told myself. But at some point I

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woke up where you're still mostly in a dream, but

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I heard something breathing right outside my door. It was

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steady and slow, like someone waiting. I didn't move. The

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sound stayed for a long time. Then the floor creaked

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once and it was gone. I slid the cracked mirrorchard

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from where I hid it, wrapped it in a shirt,

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tucked it under my bed. I waited until she was asleep,

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At least I hoped she was asleep. I crept through

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the house with a mirror chard hidden in my sleeve,

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careful not to let it catch too much light. Every

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floorboard grown louder than I remembered, and every shadow stretched

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too long. When I moved, the living room was first.

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I stood in the center and slowly tilted the shard

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to glance over my shoulder. The air shifted in the shard.

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The room locked wrong, same layout, same furniture, but it

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was like someone had re drawn it from memory badly.

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The angles didn't add up. The wallpaper curled in ways

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that defied gravity. The ceiling van hung limp, unmoving, even

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though I could feel it turning above me. No sound

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came through the glass, like the reflection was holding its breath.

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In the dining room, the chairs were all facing the

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wrong direction. I spilled glass of water, sat frozen mid

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splash on the table. The windows were smeared with something dark.

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I kept moving, checking each space, quick glances into the shard.

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As I moved. The hallway was narrower in the reflection,

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lined with doors that weren't there before, stacked and stacked,

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and stacked, some of them slightly, Ajar. I never dared

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to look too long at any of them, unsure of

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how I'd even do so. In the upstairs guest room.

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The reflection showed all the toys in the closet turned

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toward the door, as if waiting. The bathroom had no mirror,

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of course, but in the shard the wall where the

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mirror used to be bled light from behind the wood,

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as if it was straining to come through. The entire time,

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I moved quietly, listening for her, But the house was

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dead silent. That only made it worse. There was only

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one place I hadn't checked, the base. Grandma never went

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down there. The door was always locked, and the key,

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a rusted, old skeleton key, hung above the fridge. I

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waited until I was sure I wouldn't be heard, then

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slid it free. The door creaked louder than anything else

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in the house. I winced, waited nothing. I opened it

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and slipped down into the dark. The basement was cold,

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it smelled like wet wood and mildew. But more than that,

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it fell off in a way the rest of the

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house hadn't wrong in the way it felt arranged, very

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similar to the oddities I saw in the reflections around

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this house, but now I was standing in it. There

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was a wooden chair in the center of the room,

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with nothing else around it, just the chair and frayed

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ropes still wrapped loosely around the arms and legs. Deep

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grooves scratched into the floor beneath it, like some one

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had been struggling recently. But in the mirrorchard an ordinary

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looking basement. Boxes were stacked neatly along the walls. The

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paint wasn't peeling. It was a quiet, normal basement, a

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version of the room that should have been. I pulled

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the shower down and looked again, still the same rotted room.

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The reflections had all been twisted versions of my world,

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for the basement was the only one where the reflection

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looked real like this version of the basement, the one

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I was standing in, was the fake. I stuffed the

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Mirrorschard into my pocket and quietly made my way to

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the front door. I didn't even bother with my shoes,

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just wanted air space, a normal tree, something that didn't

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twist when I wasn't looking at it. I gripped the handle,

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turned it and nothing. It wasn't locked. The mechanism clicked normally,

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but the door wouldn't move, like something was holding it

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shot from the outside. It didn't even rattle when shaken,

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I looked out the side window. The world beyond the

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glass rippled faintly but unmistakably, like heat haze, only thicker.

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The tree trunks shimmered, warping at their edges. The leaves

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fluttered in loops that didn't match the wind. I couldn't feel.

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It looked exactly like the house did in the mirror. Shard.

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I pressed my forehead to the glass and looked up.

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The sky was wrung too, slightly off collar, like it

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had been painted just the shade too gray, and the

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clouds had forgotten how to move. I realized I hadn't

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heard a single bird, no passing cars, no wind, just

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the house and her. Grandma had started humming again. She

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was in the kitchen, standing with her back to me.

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I hadn't heard her wake up. She was stirring something

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that smelled like burnt honey and rust. The song was

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slow and broken, half melody, half moan, a tune that

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worms into your head and makes your teeth itch. She

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didn't move like she had the other day. Her limbs

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were stiff, swinging wide like a puppet trying to remember

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how to walk. Her feet dragged, scoffing hard against the floorboards.

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The back of her neck twitched every few seconds, like

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she was suppressing a shudder. She hadn't asked me how

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I slept, hadn't asked if I was hungry. It was

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like she didn't need the act anymore. She knew I

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was stuck, So now it was letting the mask slip,

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letting me see the wrongness that had been growing the

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whole time. I backed away, slowly, careful not to draw

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her attention. Whatever that thing was in the kitchen, it

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wasn't my grandmother. I went back to the basement as

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quietly as I could, because I couldn't stop thinking about

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what I'd seen. Every other room in the house twisted

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in the shud of reflection. The basement was the only

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place that felt like an opposite to me. This meant something,

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I hoped the finest solution, or at the very least answers.

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Just standing at the top of the basement stairs made

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my stomach clench. I crept down slowly, one hand gripping

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the rail, the other wrapped tightly around the mirror shard.

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When I reached the bottom, the air hit me and

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it was worse, damp and metallic. The chair was still

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there in the center of the room, empty ropes hanging

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off the arms like wilted vines. I stood there for

236
00:18:45,279 --> 00:18:49,559
a long moment, steadying myself, then lifted the mirror shard

237
00:18:49,839 --> 00:18:56,519
and angled it toward the chair. My breath fogged the glass.

238
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Within the normal looking basement, in the reflection, a woman

239
00:19:02,559 --> 00:19:06,480
sat tied to the chair. Her hair was a little

240
00:19:06,519 --> 00:19:11,200
shorter than I remembered, her face thinner, but there was

241
00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:18,920
no mistaking her. It was my grandmother, the real one.

242
00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:22,839
She wasn't screaming, or if she was, the shawher didn't

243
00:19:22,880 --> 00:19:27,480
carry sound. Her head drooped forward, like she'd exhausted herself

244
00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:32,440
hours ago. But when I stepped closer, she lifted her face.

245
00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:39,559
Her eyes locked on mine. I didn't know how that

246
00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:43,000
was possible, How could she see me from that place?

247
00:19:44,279 --> 00:19:48,319
But she did, and she tried to speak, Her lips

248
00:19:48,319 --> 00:19:52,519
strained against the invisible ropes of silence, forming a single word,

249
00:19:52,759 --> 00:20:03,759
again and again. Break. Her mouth formed it with desperate decision. Break, break, Break.

250
00:20:06,319 --> 00:20:08,839
A chill ran through me so fast it felt like

251
00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:12,599
my bones correct. I lowered the shard and looked at

252
00:20:12,599 --> 00:20:16,279
the basement. I was in the failing, dusty one around me,

253
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:20,359
the ropes on the empty chair hung in the exact positions.

254
00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:24,319
They wrapped around a wrist in the reflection. I raised

255
00:20:24,319 --> 00:20:28,960
the shard again. Her eyes didn't blink. She kept mouthing

256
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:34,559
the same word, urging me, but to what I didn't know.

257
00:20:36,359 --> 00:20:43,400
I swallowed hard, Grandma, My voice sounded tiny. Can you

258
00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:51,880
hear me? No answer? Her expression tightened, urgency, sharpening her features.

259
00:20:53,079 --> 00:21:01,960
Her eyes flicked towards something over my shoulder and widened froze.

260
00:21:02,079 --> 00:21:10,319
Footsteps upstairs, slow, heavy, like someone placing each foot intentionally, carefully,

261
00:21:10,799 --> 00:21:15,279
as if savoring the sound. My heart hammered in my throat.

262
00:21:16,079 --> 00:21:19,119
I ducked behind an old shelving unit stacked with dusty

263
00:21:19,160 --> 00:21:23,480
paint cans and Christmas ornaments from decades ago. I curled

264
00:21:23,519 --> 00:21:28,319
in tight, trying to steady my breath. The footsteps reached

265
00:21:28,359 --> 00:21:32,200
the top of the basement stairs. The door groaned open,

266
00:21:34,039 --> 00:21:40,720
and then she came down. Her silhouette stretched along the

267
00:21:40,759 --> 00:21:44,400
wall before her body did, slightly bent at the joints,

268
00:21:44,839 --> 00:21:49,160
like she'd been rearranged and hadn't quite settled. She hummed

269
00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:53,839
that awful almost lullaby again, each note bending upward at

270
00:21:53,839 --> 00:21:58,200
the end like a question in the reflection. She wasn't there.

271
00:21:59,039 --> 00:22:02,480
The basement was still empty except for my grandmother, tied

272
00:22:02,519 --> 00:22:08,079
to the chair, silently pleading with me. Two basements, two

273
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:12,000
truths out of sync with each other, and I was

274
00:22:12,039 --> 00:22:16,480
stuck in the wrong one. I pressed the shower to

275
00:22:16,519 --> 00:22:21,039
my chest, praying it wouldn't catch any stray light. The

276
00:22:21,119 --> 00:22:25,640
fake Grandma drifted past my hiding spot, humming, tilting her

277
00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:28,559
head left and right like she was smelling the air

278
00:22:28,599 --> 00:22:32,519
for me. She paused so close I could have reached

279
00:22:32,519 --> 00:22:36,160
out and touched the nightgown, but I didn't dare breathe

280
00:22:36,559 --> 00:22:41,720
didn't dare think. After a long moment, she turned and

281
00:22:41,799 --> 00:22:45,680
climbed the stairs again, the door click shut behind her,

282
00:22:46,279 --> 00:22:52,039
firm and final. I didn't move for a full minute,

283
00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:56,279
maybe more, just listening to the thudding of my own heart.

284
00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:04,160
Trapped there was no way out, just the shard, the cold,

285
00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:07,480
and the chair in the center of the room, and

286
00:23:07,559 --> 00:23:11,519
the knowledge that something real was still in there somewhere.

287
00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:16,880
I forced myself up, legs shaking, and looked again through

288
00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:22,160
the shard. The chair and the reflection was whole, upright clean,

289
00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:27,279
The rope still tied tightly around my grandmother's wrists, and ankles.

290
00:23:28,079 --> 00:23:31,720
My grandmother was still staring at me, tears streaking down

291
00:23:31,759 --> 00:23:39,799
a face. Break, she mouthed again. Break. I stared down

292
00:23:39,839 --> 00:23:43,799
at the empty chair in front of me, empty flakes

293
00:23:43,839 --> 00:23:46,559
of old frayed rope still curled around the arms like

294
00:23:46,599 --> 00:23:51,039
a memory. I bawled out the box cutter that was

295
00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:54,799
lying in the storage bin. My hands were sweating now.

296
00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:58,960
I turned back to the shard, lined it up just

297
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:02,240
right so the mirror version of the chair overlapped the

298
00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:06,160
real one. Heart pounding, I brought the blade to the

299
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:10,319
ropes and the reflection. It was hard to cut because

300
00:24:10,359 --> 00:24:13,119
of the angle I had to work at. More often

301
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:15,920
than not, I found myself scoring the side of the

302
00:24:16,039 --> 00:24:20,839
chair's arm or slipping across the top. But eventually I

303
00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:24,720
cut through the fraying rope. I did this three more

304
00:24:24,759 --> 00:24:29,240
times before it all fell loose. I didn't know what

305
00:24:29,279 --> 00:24:33,720
I expected, a sound, as shift in the air, magic,

306
00:24:35,519 --> 00:24:40,359
Nothing happened. I stood there like an idiot, feeling sick,

307
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:48,880
the shard fogging with my breath, and then movement, the

308
00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:54,799
ropes and the reflection loosened. She was standing shakely. Tears

309
00:24:54,839 --> 00:24:59,640
were in her eyes. She mouthed something again. Too fast

310
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:07,400
to care, I mean closer. She looked past me and

311
00:25:07,519 --> 00:25:16,000
pointed behind me. I spawn instinctively, raising the shard, and

312
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:23,720
came face to face with her on all fours, elbows

313
00:25:23,799 --> 00:25:28,240
bent wrong, neck twisted like a broken hanger, face split

314
00:25:28,319 --> 00:25:34,000
by that same smile, glinting even without light. Her voice

315
00:25:34,039 --> 00:25:36,920
came out like a purr and a rasp layered together.

316
00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:46,480
Looks like you found her. She didn't scream. That somehow

317
00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:51,880
made it worse. Her jaw just split open too fast,

318
00:25:52,279 --> 00:25:57,240
unhinging like wet paper peeling away from bone. No sound,

319
00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:00,240
just a void where a face should be, and a

320
00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:03,920
neck that twitched like a marionette string had just snapped.

321
00:26:05,799 --> 00:26:11,480
She plunged. I didn't think. I threw myself backward, ducked

322
00:26:11,519 --> 00:26:15,920
under a reaching arms, those long veiny things, and sprinted

323
00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:19,599
for the stairs. Her hands scraped the floor behind me,

324
00:26:20,039 --> 00:26:24,000
the nails clacking on the concrete like hoofs. I reached

325
00:26:24,039 --> 00:26:26,640
the top step just as she let out a noise

326
00:26:27,119 --> 00:26:31,519
like a drain choking on blood. I burst into the hallway,

327
00:26:31,759 --> 00:26:35,119
grabbed the door and slammed it shut behind me. I

328
00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:38,359
yanked over a nearby chair and jammed it under the knob.

329
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:42,559
Something hit the door a second later, hard enough to

330
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:49,480
rattle the hinges. The chair groaned but held. I bagged

331
00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:56,359
away hard, jackhammering in my throat. The hallway was wrung.

332
00:26:57,400 --> 00:27:00,920
The wallpaper patterns had shifted into jagged shop shapes. The

333
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:05,359
family portraits on the wall were crying, black oily streaks

334
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:09,200
dribbling from painted eyes. One of the frames bubbled like

335
00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:14,400
it was boiling. Every window pulsed in and out like

336
00:27:14,599 --> 00:27:21,279
lungs breathing. I staggered into the living room. Everything was

337
00:27:21,359 --> 00:27:26,160
worse here. The furniture sagged inward, the floorboards curled slightly

338
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:29,160
at the edges, as if trying to turn themselves over.

339
00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:35,319
I needed something real, something to ground me. My hands

340
00:27:35,319 --> 00:27:38,799
fumbled for the mirror shard in my pocket, fingers trembling

341
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:42,759
as I angled it just right. It took a second

342
00:27:42,799 --> 00:27:49,200
to focus. The glass was smudged, but I saw it

343
00:27:49,319 --> 00:27:54,440
the real living room, the warped wallpaper, the melting windows,

344
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:59,640
all gone in the reflection, just the quiet house, my

345
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:07,680
grand mother's reel house, and then my grandma, the real one.

346
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:11,599
She was standing in the hallway of the reflection outside

347
00:28:11,599 --> 00:28:16,200
my bedroom door. She wasn't tired anymore. It looked like

348
00:28:16,279 --> 00:28:20,039
my cutting had worked, though, looking at the red seeping

349
00:28:20,079 --> 00:28:23,839
across the sleeves, I was horrified at the ramifications of

350
00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:27,200
my miss cuts. I had no time to dwell on

351
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:31,240
that though. She looked at me through the shard, straight

352
00:28:31,279 --> 00:28:34,960
into my eyes, and then she mouthed something I couldn't hear,

353
00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:44,480
but I felt it. There's still time. The moment she pointed,

354
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:50,759
I moved. I didn't hesitate. I couldn't. The house was

355
00:28:50,799 --> 00:28:55,119
breathing too loud now, the shadows bending in strange directions.

356
00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:58,359
The slamming on the basement door rattled the chair loose

357
00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:03,319
with each bang. I ran for the hallway closet, the mirrorshard,

358
00:29:03,359 --> 00:29:06,200
gripped so tightly in my hand that the edges dug

359
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:14,200
into my palm. I yanked the door open. Just coats,

360
00:29:15,079 --> 00:29:20,079
dusty limp things hanging from plastic hangers, a clapsed umbrella,

361
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:26,920
a floor scattered with old shoes, nothing else, a stairwell,

362
00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:35,319
wooden narrow leading down into shadow. No way. I whispered

363
00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:38,119
and pressed the shard closer to the gap between the

364
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:43,640
coats in the glass. The coats didn't exist, just a

365
00:29:43,759 --> 00:29:47,400
hollow like the closet was never used for storage at all.

366
00:29:49,359 --> 00:29:54,599
I reached inside. My fingers touched the back panel, solid,

367
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:59,119
no way through, but I turned to look at my Grandma,

368
00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:03,039
trying to see if I was missing something, and she

369
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:09,160
was insistent. So I turned around, pushed my back into

370
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:14,359
the back panel, navigating with the shard, and slipped past it.

371
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:19,720
A faint hiss of cold air rushed out, dry and stale,

372
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:23,880
like a crypt. The coats rustled on their own. I

373
00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:29,680
pushed them aside and dugged in. It was tight, barely

374
00:30:29,799 --> 00:30:34,000
enough room to crawl. The woods scraped my shoulders, yes,

375
00:30:34,079 --> 00:30:38,480
smelled like wet stone and rust. But I kept going,

376
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:44,000
guided only by what the mirror showed. No more normal,

377
00:30:44,799 --> 00:30:49,000
just that staircase and the strange quiet that came with it.

378
00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:54,359
The further I went, the colder It got cold, you

379
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:58,640
feel in your bones, not your skin. I turned the

380
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:02,359
shard to check behind me. The fake house still walked

381
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:10,880
and snarling, but ahead, the stairs were getting clearer. Halfway

382
00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:14,240
through the passage, the mirror started matching what I was seeing.

383
00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:17,480
The house and the shard became the real house again,

384
00:31:18,079 --> 00:31:22,240
reality snapping back into alignment like I'd stepped out of

385
00:31:22,279 --> 00:31:30,559
a lie. Finally I emerged, wooden steps beneath me, smooth

386
00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:36,599
concrete floor ahead, the real basement. I could feel it,

387
00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:45,960
still damp, cold, but real. And there it was, the chair, empty,

388
00:31:46,839 --> 00:31:50,799
frayed rope, ends hanging off the arms, red smeared along

389
00:31:50,799 --> 00:31:55,880
the wood, the seat indented, faint marks of dust, shoes

390
00:31:56,720 --> 00:32:04,319
smaller than mine. She'd been here, yeah, the last place

391
00:32:04,359 --> 00:32:07,519
I saw her was the hallway, so I had to

392
00:32:07,559 --> 00:32:11,119
make my way back up. The stairs creaked under my

393
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:14,640
feet like they hadn't been stepped on in years. I

394
00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:19,079
moved slowly, breath shallow, expecting the walls to shift again,

395
00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:23,960
for the floor to fall out beneath me, but everything

396
00:32:24,079 --> 00:32:30,359
was still. When I reached the top, I smelled something familiar,

397
00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:38,519
pine cleaner, coffee grounds, dry air warmed by a radiator. Home,

398
00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:44,039
And there, standing in the living room, blinking like someone

399
00:32:44,119 --> 00:32:53,039
pulled her from a deep sleep, was Grandma. She looked different, smaller,

400
00:32:53,799 --> 00:32:57,880
fragile in a way I didn't remember. Her sweater was

401
00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:01,720
on backwards, her hands were shaking, blood still fresh on

402
00:33:01,759 --> 00:33:08,440
her wrists and ankles. Sweetheart, she said, her voice rasping,

403
00:33:09,559 --> 00:33:14,839
are you okay? Never mind me, I shot back, tears

404
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:20,799
welling in my eyes. I stepped closer, heart pounding, She

405
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:24,160
looked up at me and smiled the way I remembered

406
00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:31,599
true sincerity. But I didn't get to approach because I

407
00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:36,720
heard the sound, a dragging, wet scrape from the hallway

408
00:33:36,799 --> 00:33:43,640
behind me. I turned, and he was halfway through the closet, crawling,

409
00:33:44,079 --> 00:33:47,640
pulling itself forward like a spider forcing its way through

410
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:51,440
a crack in the world. Its skin shimmered like tar.

411
00:33:52,119 --> 00:34:00,400
Its face flickered between her face and something unfinished. Hands

412
00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:06,319
gripped the frame, long, thin fingers, splintered nails, jaw unhinged.

413
00:34:07,839 --> 00:34:11,400
I got back up. Grandma clutched the arm of a chair.

414
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:19,800
It's back, she whispered. I didn't answer. I reached into

415
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:24,960
my pocket, the mirror shard, still warm from gripping it

416
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,920
in the crawl space. I couldn't get the thought out

417
00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:32,599
of my head. How I noticed all the reflective surfaces

418
00:34:32,639 --> 00:34:35,719
were removed from the house. How I'd got this far

419
00:34:36,119 --> 00:34:40,800
only by the shard that I'd found reflections were the key.

420
00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:44,159
So I did the only thing I could think of.

421
00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:52,199
I held it up towards the thing. It hissed, a pressure,

422
00:34:52,519 --> 00:34:57,679
a shriek behind my eyes. It recoiled, arms cracking backward

423
00:34:57,719 --> 00:35:02,440
at wrong angles. Eyes locked on the shard, a blur

424
00:35:02,599 --> 00:35:05,800
bouncing from it to the shard like a recursive loop.

425
00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:09,679
It opened its mouth wider than it shout of. It's

426
00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:16,519
more a tunnel of static. It reached again, so I

427
00:35:16,599 --> 00:35:23,400
stepped forward, held the shard higher, and things intensified. It

428
00:35:23,519 --> 00:35:26,559
wasn't light that came out, more like the absence of

429
00:35:26,679 --> 00:35:30,360
everything behind me, Like it was staring into a doorway.

430
00:35:30,639 --> 00:35:36,039
It wasn't meant to see. Air searched backward, photos fell

431
00:35:36,079 --> 00:35:40,559
off the wall. The hallway twisted. It clawed at the floor,

432
00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:47,119
trying to stay, but its limbs started folding backwards inward undone.

433
00:35:48,599 --> 00:35:52,079
It turned to ash in slow motion, like paper burning

434
00:35:52,159 --> 00:36:02,239
without flame. Then silence. The mirror shards split down the

435
00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:07,159
center hairline, cracks webt through it, and then it crumbled,

436
00:36:07,639 --> 00:36:17,760
finer sand through my fingers, gone completely behind me. Grandma

437
00:36:19,519 --> 00:36:29,639
started to cry. The house was still, the hallway was quiet,

438
00:36:30,239 --> 00:36:33,599
The mess from the encounter was strewn about. The mirror

439
00:36:33,679 --> 00:36:36,280
was still missing from the wall, the kitchen full of

440
00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:40,039
plastic forks, That blank wooden board still bolted to the

441
00:36:40,079 --> 00:36:44,159
bathroom wall, like the world had snapped back, but the

442
00:36:44,199 --> 00:36:49,639
echo of her choices remained Grandma was there, standing where

443
00:36:49,679 --> 00:36:52,760
I'd last seen her. Her eyes flicked to mine as

444
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:59,960
I entered, and for a second I saw something recognition

445
00:37:00,079 --> 00:37:07,599
and grief, then relief, sharp and overwhelming. I quickly rushed

446
00:37:07,599 --> 00:37:09,559
to get a first aid kit I knew she had

447
00:37:09,599 --> 00:37:13,079
in the kitchen, and when I came back, tended to

448
00:37:13,159 --> 00:37:17,039
a wounds lines cut on her wrists and ankles when

449
00:37:17,079 --> 00:37:21,599
my slicing went awry, But she didn't seem to hold

450
00:37:21,599 --> 00:37:27,079
it against me. Oh, she whispered, like she'd been holding

451
00:37:27,079 --> 00:37:32,880
a breath for years. Thank God, it's over. I nodded,

452
00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:38,440
tried to answer, but it caught in my throat. It

453
00:37:38,559 --> 00:37:42,719
was like a bad dream, she said, voice barely louder

454
00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:47,199
than the wind outside. I remember going about my daily business,

455
00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:52,320
cleaning up for when you arrived, but my reflection caught funny.

456
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:58,320
Next thing I know. I couldn't move, couldn't speak, But

457
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:03,760
then I saw you in the mirror. I knelt beside her,

458
00:38:04,159 --> 00:38:09,400
unsure of what to say. Her hand found mine. You

459
00:38:09,480 --> 00:38:13,880
were so brave, she said, I always knew you would be.

460
00:38:16,119 --> 00:38:21,320
I swallowed hard. The lump in my throat didn't budge Grandma,

461
00:38:22,079 --> 00:38:29,159
I said, quietly, you're safe now, that's all that matters.

462
00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:37,880
She nodded, eyes glassy. You saved me. We sat there

463
00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:43,440
for a long time, just breathing, relishing the quiet while

464
00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:50,360
the sun kept rising. The days after it all ended

465
00:38:50,519 --> 00:38:54,719
were quiet in a way I'd never noticed before. Grandma

466
00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:59,000
and I didn't talk about what happened, not directly, but

467
00:38:59,159 --> 00:39:02,760
something unspoken pass between us. Every time I handed her

468
00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:05,960
a new mirror to hang or helped peel the privacy

469
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:09,800
film from the windows, She'd watched the sunlight come in

470
00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,440
like it was a guest she hadn't seen in years,

471
00:39:13,519 --> 00:39:17,239
Like she didn't trust it to stay. But she hugged

472
00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:22,039
me more, made real food again, still a little overcooked,

473
00:39:22,519 --> 00:39:27,920
still too much dill, but I didn't mind. I swept

474
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:30,800
out rooms that hadn't been opened in years, helped to

475
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:35,400
replace knobs, scrub tape off old faucets, and rehang a

476
00:39:35,519 --> 00:39:39,360
new mirror in the hallway. When I stepped back and

477
00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:44,840
looked at the glass, I didn't flinch. I saw myself,

478
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:56,360
just me, and behind me. She smiled, the real one.

479
00:39:56,599 --> 00:40:00,760
On the last morning, she made me pancakes, you'll syrup

480
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:04,480
real butter. She didn't call me the wrong name. Once

481
00:40:05,559 --> 00:40:10,000
life was back to normal. When Mom pulled ab outside,

482
00:40:10,559 --> 00:40:13,440
I loaded my bag into the trunk and hugged Grandma

483
00:40:13,559 --> 00:40:18,039
a little longer than I ever had before. She whispered,

484
00:40:19,519 --> 00:40:28,760
you come back soon, okay, I nodded, I will. My

485
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:32,400
Mom noticed the bandages on Grandma's wrists, but we both

486
00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:37,320
stuck to the story it was a kitchen accident, nothing more.

487
00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:42,840
We were halfway down the road when Mom glanced at me.

488
00:40:44,559 --> 00:40:48,000
Thanks for being good for her, she said, I know

489
00:40:48,079 --> 00:40:52,440
it's never your favorite place, but I appreciate it. Maybe

490
00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:54,639
next time, I'll see if one your friends can have

491
00:40:54,719 --> 00:40:58,360
you over instead, you know, let you do something fun.

492
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:06,280
And looked out the window. Trees blurred past, ordinary and soft,

493
00:41:06,679 --> 00:41:13,400
no oil, slick, shimmer, just the world. No, I said,

494
00:41:13,800 --> 00:41:18,519
I'm okay with staying at Grandma's. Mum raised an eyebrow.

495
00:41:19,719 --> 00:41:25,239
Really yeah, I said, Plus she could use the help.

496
00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:33,840
She smiled, surprised but pleased. Well that's really kind of you.

497
00:41:36,159 --> 00:41:40,239
I nodded, but didn't say anything else, just kept looking

498
00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:45,519
out the window, watching the woods roll by. I felt

499
00:41:45,519 --> 00:41:50,320
a new fan responsibility for Grandma, and if anything ever

500
00:41:50,440 --> 00:42:01,039
happened again, I'd be ready. Three