Chapter 1: The House

The house had been in the family for over a hundred years. My great-grandfather built it on a patch of land everyone said was cursed. I inherited it after my mother passed, and when the city bled me dry, I went north to claim it. The porch sagged. The paint peeled. But the inspector said the bones were good.

He didn't see what I saw on the third night.

Chapter 2: The Mirror

I unpacked the last box. Inside, wrapped in an embroidered dishtowel, was a hand mirror I didn't remember owning. The handle was carved from something dark and heavy. The glass was tarnished around the edges, but the center was perfectly, unnaturally clear.

I should have smashed it. I didn't.

Chapter 3: The Glitch

I looked at my reflection. I looked tired. Then I blinked.

She didn't.

Her eyes stayed open. Wide. Staring at me through the glass. I dropped the mirror. When I picked it up again, everything was normal. I put it face-down in the nightstand drawer and told myself I was exhausted.

That was my first mistake.

Chapter 4: The Open Drawer

That night, I dreamed of the basement. Raw earth. Roots like veins. Something large moving in the dark, pressing against my chest. I woke up gasping.

The drawer was open. Just an inch. Just enough.

I pushed it closed with my foot and didn't sleep again until dawn.

Chapter 5: The Hollow Log

The next day, I wrapped the mirror in a plastic bag and buried it inside a rotten log deep in the woods. I said a prayer I didn't believe in. Then I went home, sanded the porch rails until my hands bled, and fell into bed.

The drawer stayed closed. I slept dreamlessly.

Chapter 6: The Breathing

I woke to the sound of something breathing on my cheek.

The mirror was on the pillow beside me. Face-up. In the glass, my reflection stared back with eyes that were wide and dark. My real eyes were closed. I was pretending to sleep.

The breathing stopped. The reflection smiled.

Chapter 7: The Voice

I tried to scream. Nothing came out. The reflection tilted its head at a wrong, broken angle and spoke inside my skull:

You left me in the cold.

I slammed my hand on the mirror. The glass bit my palm. Blood welled up. The reflection didn't flinch.

Don't do that again.