Chapter 63 – The Things We Don’t Say (Yet)

Chapter 63 – The Things We Don’t Say (Yet)
I never thought I’d say this, but I missed school. Not the homework or cafeteria mystery meat, obviously—but the normalcy. After everything we’d seen, the way the halls smelled like disinfectant and teenage anxiety was oddly comforting.

Until it wasn’t.

Because Jamie wasn’t Jamie. And the Unself pretending to be him was still walking around school, smiling with the wrong eyes, and no one seemed to notice but us.

Lucas and I watched him from behind the vending machines during break. Not our most stealthy hiding place, but it had better chips than the janitor’s closet.

“He’s too calm,” Lucas muttered beside me, jaw tight.

“Creepily calm,” I agreed. “Like he’s trying to remember how humans blink.”

We both leaned out for a better look—at the exact same time—and bumped foreheads.

“Ow,” I said, rubbing my temple.

“You moved into me!”

“You leaned into me, shoulder-thief!”

Lucas rolled his eyes. “It’s not my fault your head has zero sense of personal space.”

I elbowed him, trying not to laugh. The tension between us was razor-sharp, but moments like this dulled it—just enough to breathe.

He went quiet again, eyes fixed on Jamie-slash-Unself. “We need to act. Soon.”

“Agreed. But we need a plan. Preferably one that doesn’t get us expelled or possessed.”

Lucas finally looked at me. “I meant it, you know.”

I blinked. “Meant what?”

“Back at your locker. What I said. About not knowing what to do with this…” He gestured vaguely between us. “I’m still not great at it. But I’m not pretending it’s nothing anymore.”

My heart thudded. “Oh. Cool.”

“Cool?” he repeated, lifting an eyebrow.

“Cool,” I confirmed, cheeks on fire. “Like… in a totally emotionally mature way.”

He smirked. “You’re blushing.”

“I am not.” I was.

Before he could tease me more, the bell rang. Students flooded the halls, and Jamie’s doppelgänger slipped into the East Building again.

Lucas’s smile vanished. “He’s heading to the mirror.”

“I’ll tell Lena to stall anyone who follows us,” I said quickly.

Lucas nodded, already moving.

As we darted toward the East Building again, I felt the familiar electricity between us—not just from whatever danger lay ahead, but from something even scarier: possibility.

We found Jamie—or whatever was in his body—standing in front of the cracked mirror again, murmuring to it like it might answer.

Lucas grabbed my hand instinctively, and I didn’t let go.

“Jamie?” I called.

His head snapped toward us—and there it was again. That eerie shimmer in his pupils.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” he said in a voice that wasn’t his.

“No one’s supposed to be here,” Lucas said. “But here we are.”

The Unself smiled. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

“Maybe not,” I said. “But we’re done letting you wreck people’s lives.”

Jamie’s reflection twisted. The mirror behind him rippled. My stomach flipped.

Lucas stepped in front of me slightly, protectively. “Let Jamie go.”

“You really think you can control this?” the Unself mocked. “Even now, it grows stronger.”

“We’ll stop it,” I said.

“You’re already part of it,” he hissed.

Before I could ask what that meant, the mirror surged—and a version of me stepped through.

She looked like me, down to the chipped nail polish and frizzy braid—but colder. Eyes flat. Smile wrong.

My Unself.

Lucas cursed under his breath. “Two of them?”

“They feed on imbalance,” I whispered. “Emotion. Uncertainty. Us.”

My Unself tilted her head, eyes sliding to Lucas. “You’re afraid. That she doesn’t feel the same.”

Lucas tensed.

“And you,” she said to me, “you’re scared you’ll ruin it. Like always.”

“Don’t listen,” I said. “They lie.”

“Do we?” the other Rae asked.

Lucas squeezed my hand. “Not this time.”

I met his gaze. “Together?”

He nodded.

And we ran straight at our mirror-selves.

What followed was chaos. Crashing glass, warped reflections, flickers of memory—our worst moments brought to life.

Lucas faced his Unself, dodging attacks, parrying with words.

“I’m not him anymore,” he growled.

“You’re nothing without your anger,” his Unself spat.

“I have her now,” he said.

And that gave me strength too.

I grabbed my Unself’s wrist mid-swing, looking her straight in the eye. “I’m not afraid to feel anymore. Especially not for him.”

Her expression flickered—cracked.

And in that instant, Lucas and I moved in sync. He tackled Jamie’s Unself toward the mirror while I pressed my hand flat against the glass with a whispered command.

“Return.”

There was a blinding flash—and then silence.

When the light faded, Jamie lay unconscious, breathing but still.

The mirror?

Whole again.

The Unselves?

Gone.

Lucas collapsed beside me, panting. I turned to him—laughing and crying at the same time.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I think I broke a nail.”

He snorted. “You saved Jamie’s life.”

I leaned my head on his shoulder. “And yours?”

He tilted toward me. “Yours too.”

We sat there for a moment in the quiet, surrounded by a hallway that looked like nothing had happened—even though everything had.

Then I whispered, “That thing she said… it wasn’t true.”

“I know,” he said. “But some part of me… believed it.”

“I do feel the same, Lucas,” I said. “I just suck at saying it.”

“You did okay just now,” he murmured.

“I’m not done yet.”

I shifted to face him. “Because I want this. Us. The weirdness, the magic mirror stuff, the arguing over who gets the last bag of chips—I want all of it.”

His eyes darkened with something soft and serious. “Me too.”

And then he kissed me.

Not like the first time—desperate, rushed, terrifying.

This time was slow. Real. Like a promise.

I kissed him back with everything I had.

And when we finally pulled apart, breathless, hearts racing, he said, “We should probably go before someone finds us here.”

“Right,” I said, not moving.

We stood, helping each other up, still tangled in something new and fragile and ours.

But just as we turned toward the hallway—

Lena came running, pale and wide-eyed.

“You guys!” she gasped. “It’s not over.”

My stomach dropped. “What do you mean?”

She shoved her phone toward us. “Another video. Someone else touched a mirror.”

Lucas took the phone. His face went hard.

It was a new hallway.

A new mirror.

And a new victim.

“Who is it?” I asked, dread curling in my gut.

Lena hesitated. “It’s your mom, Rae.”

The world tilted.

“What?” I breathed.

“I saw her in the East Building,” Lena whispered. “She’s gone now. But she was looking for you.”

Lucas gripped my hand. “We have to find her.”

I nodded, panic rising in my throat.

The mirror wasn’t done.

And now, it was personal.

Rae’s mom may be the next victim of the mirror. The team now has to face not just the supernatural threat—but the fallout that hits close to home.