Chapter Nine: When I Took My Place
Her steps were slow, echoing through the wet alleys.
She didn't know where she was going, or if the path ahead was a real road or just another illusion.
The rain had stopped, but the sky still poured memories.
"The other reflections have started to wake up too…"
Niyar's words rang in her head like an unending alarm bell.
She approached him slowly, her gaze tense:
– "What do you mean by that? Are there… others like me?"
He lifted his eyes to hers, a faint smile on his face:
– "Not exactly like you, but… every mirror in this world keeps a piece of its owner, Noor.
And when the truth shatters, the glass begins to reclaim what it lost."
She took a step back, as if she didn't want to believe it.
– "You mean every person has a reflection… waiting for a moment to take their place?"
– "Not everyone. Only those who lost themselves before you."
She fell silent for a moment, then looked around.
All the people on the street seemed normal,
But when she looked closely at their faces, she noticed their eyes didn't move.
Stiff faces, mechanical steps, as if they were just moving pictures without a soul.
She screamed suddenly:
– "I want to go back! I want my life, my mother, my university, my room… everything!"
Niyar approached her, his voice low and mysterious:
– "But it's no longer your life."
– "What?"
– "Your reflection took your place, Noor.
People see her, talk to her, live with her.
Your mother… sees her every morning.
Your friends laugh with her.
She is you to them."
A tear slowly fell down her cheek, though she barely felt it.
She felt as if the air around her was vanishing, as if the ground beneath her was cracking.
– "This is impossible… I'm the original, I was there!"
Niyar answered with painful coldness:
– "Who said you're the original?"
The words froze in her throat.
She stepped back, as if struck by an invisible blow.
The sound of rain returned, but this time it wasn't ordinary rain —
It was gray, falling like tiny shards of broken glass.
She raised her hand, and a small piece hit her palm.
It bled, but it wasn't red.
It was gray… like the eyes she had seen in the mirror the first time.
She screamed:
– "Then… who am I?!"
Niyar looked at her for a long moment, then said in a hoarse voice:
– "You are the answer to a question that has not yet been completed."
She approached him, eyes full of tears:
– "Help me, please… just return me to my life."
– "I cannot."
– "Why?"
– "Because you're the one who let her in."
She fell silent.
She began to remember that first night… when she had lifted the cover off the mirror.
She remembered how her reflection had looked at her with a faint smile,
And how she hadn't closed the mirror again, despite her mother warning her since childhood.
"Do not look into the mirror after midnight, Noor, for perhaps you are not alone."
Those were her mother's old words… and now she understood their meaning.
– "So… what should I do?"
– "You must face her."
– "How?"
– "In the mirror you opened, in the room where the story began.
Only there can you reclaim what was stolen from you.
But beware…"
His voice faded as he slipped into the shadows:
– "A mirror gives nothing back without a price."
That night, Noor returned to the apartment that resembled hers but wasn't the same.
The light was dim, the walls bled gray shadows.
When she opened the door, she heard her voice… yes, her real voice.
She was there — the reflection.
Sitting on her bed, calmly brushing her hair,
Then she looked at her through the new mirror that had appeared in the wall,
And said with a cold smile:
– "Hello, Noor… you're very late."