Chapter 48: Don’t Look in the Mirror, Dummy

You’d think after battling reflections that wanted to kill us, I’d have learned to avoid mirrors.

Apparently not.

“Rae, don’t,” Lucas warned, but it was too late. I turned my head just a little too far, and there it was—the floor-length mirror in the East Building’s storage hallway, wedged between a stack of broken desks and a dented trophy case.

And my reflection? Not mine.

It was me, but not. Hair slightly longer, eyes just a bit off, like they didn’t blink quite right. Mirror-Rae stared back with a smile that had nothing kind in it.

I stumbled back, nearly stepping on Lucas’s foot. “Okay. Nope. We are not doing that again.”

Lucas grabbed my wrist. “We stick to the plan. No touching mirrors. No stupid risks.”

“Since when do we ever follow the plan?” I muttered, still shaken.

He raised an eyebrow. “Since you nearly died twice.”

“Ugh. You sound like my mom.”

“If your mom looked like me, that’d be disturbing.”

I couldn’t help it—I laughed. It cracked through the tension like sunlight in a storm. Lucas gave a crooked smile, and I felt something loosen in my chest.

We needed that laugh. We’d been running on adrenaline and secrets and almost-kisses and not-enough-sleep. And now here we were again, chasing down Jamie Carter’s Unself through abandoned hallways like it was some twisted school scavenger hunt.

“You sure this is where he came in?” I asked as we passed a toppled chair.

Lena, trailing behind us with her flashlight sweeping the walls, nodded. “Yeah. Security footage ends right outside this wing. I checked twice.”

“Of course you did,” Lucas said. “Because you’re terrifying when you’re obsessed.”

“Thank you,” Lena said sweetly, which somehow made it scarier.

The hallway ahead forked—left into a storage closet, right toward the old auditorium. We hesitated. The air felt heavy, like the walls were holding their breath.

Lucas turned to me. “Left or right?”

“Do I look like a demon GPS to you?”

“A really cute one,” he said before he could stop himself.

We both froze.

“Was that—did you just—?” I stammered, pointing at him like he was a wild animal.

“I meant, like… hypothetically cute.”

“Wow. So convincing.”

He cleared his throat and suddenly became very interested in the cracked ceiling tiles. “Right. Let’s go left.”

Lena gave us a look that was ninety percent amusement and ten percent you two need therapy.

We moved forward. The air got colder. My heartbeat thudded too loud in my ears.

Lucas reached for my hand again.

This time, I held on.

The storage closet wasn’t much of a closet—it was more like a forgotten corner of school purgatory. Cardboard boxes stacked to the ceiling, posters from the early 2000s peeling off the walls, and one cracked mirror leaning behind an old file cabinet.

“Is that… another one?” I asked.

Lucas stepped in front of me, just in case. “Yup. Don’t touch.”

“Tempting,” I muttered.

“Don’t even joke,” Lena said, tugging her phone out to record. “Any sign of Jamie?”

Lucas crouched by the mirror. “No footprints. No weird markings. But it feels… off.”

“You’re off,” I muttered, crouching beside him.

“Not the time for flirting, Rae.”

I turned red. “That wasn’t flirting. That was sass.”

“Your sass is flirting.”

I opened my mouth, then closed it. Touché.

We turned our attention back to the mirror. Its surface pulsed faintly—like it was breathing. I squinted and caught a flicker of movement deep within the glass. Something shifting in the dark.

“Guys,” Lena said sharply. “We’ve got company.”

Footsteps. Coming from the auditorium.

We ducked behind the stacks of boxes just as the door creaked open.

Jamie Carter walked in.

Or… what looked like Jamie.

He moved too fluidly. Too smooth, like his joints weren’t real. And his eyes gleamed silver in the dark.

Lucas tensed beside me.

Jamie—or his Unself—stalked toward the mirror, fingers twitching at his sides.

“I don’t like this,” I whispered.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Lucas said under his breath.

We watched as Mirror-Jamie reached toward the glass. His fingertips hovered, then pressed.

The mirror rippled.

Not cracked. Not shattered. Just… rippled. Like it was water.

“Oh my god,” Lena whispered. “It’s still active.”

Jamie turned.

Right at us.

His smile stretched impossibly wide. “You shouldn’t have come back.”

Before any of us could react, he lunged.

Lucas shoved me behind him just as Jamie’s hand collided with the stack of boxes. They toppled with a crash. I scrambled to my feet, grabbing Lena and hauling her back.

Lucas and Jamie were locked in a blur of movement—Lucas dodging fast, precise, like he’d done this before (which he had), but Jamie was faster. Stronger.

Not human.

“Get the mirror!” I shouted.

Lena darted toward it.

Jamie screamed—a raw, echoing sound that rattled my teeth—and twisted free from Lucas’s grip, racing toward her.

I threw myself between them.

Too slow.

Jamie grabbed me by the shoulders, shoving me back into the mirror.

“RAE!” Lucas yelled.

But I didn’t hit glass.

I fell through.

And everything went black.

When I opened my eyes, I was standing in a room made of mirrors.

Not lined with mirrors. Made of them. Floor, ceiling, walls—all reflective. All twisted. My reflection shimmered around me like a thousand versions of myself, each one slightly wrong.

And across the room, facing me, was Jamie.

Or rather, his Unself.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said calmly.

“Wow. That’s original. You say that to all the girls you shove into cursed mirrors?”

His grin widened. “You’re not like the others. You’ve touched the realm more than once.”

I didn’t like how he said that. Like it was permanent. Like it changed me.

“Where are the others?” I asked. “Where are the ones you’ve taken?”

He tilted his head. “They’re part of us now. Like you will be.”

“Not happening.”

“Brave. But foolish.”

I glanced around, searching for anything—not that a magical mirror realm came with exits signs—but I wasn’t planning on staying. I could feel it in my bones: I didn’t belong here. Not anymore.

“You think you’re special,” he said. “Because you and Lucas survived.”

I blinked. “You know about—?”

He laughed. “Oh, Rae. We know everything.”

A mirror behind him shimmered, and suddenly—

Lucas.

He was banging on the other side of the glass, face pale with fury. “RAE!”

“Lucas!” I ran to it, pressed my hands to the surface. “How do I get out?!”

Jamie smiled. “You don’t.”

Lucas slammed his fist against the mirror. “I’ll find you. Do you hear me? I’ll get you out!”

And then the mirror went black.

Trapping me inside.

Cliffhanger Ending:

I turned slowly, heart hammering.

Jamie was gone.

But in his place stood—

Me.

Another me.

But this time, she wasn’t smiling.

She was sobbing.

And behind her, a wall of mirrors began to shatter.