Next morning...
The sun crawled slowly into Muskan's room, filtering through the curtain like thin finger of gold, dust floated in the beams, she shifted on he bed. For a long moment, muskan simply lay still, trying to decide whether the strange memories from last night had been a dream or reality.
The mirror.
The breath.
It like someone whispered her name.
Muskan sat up quickly her heart pounding against her ribs. " It wasn't real," she told herself, "it couldn't be." But even as she said it out loud the tips of her fingers tingle as if remembering the cold touch, surface of the glass.
She glanced across the room and stood up walk slowly to the hallway where - an antique mirror with a dark wooden frame hung proudly.
She didn't know where her parents had gotten it from, but she remember her mother tell yesterday when she call her and ask about mirror, she said it was an antique and warn her clearly,
Never cover it, never move it , never turn it away from the hallway.
"Why?" Muskan asked.
Her mother just smile didn't say anything. Then cut the call.
She doesn't understand but one thing is clear something is definitely wrong but what?
Now, as sunlight hit it surface, the mirror look like any normal object dull, dusty, lifeless.
But muskan know bettershe finally stood infront of the mirror, she felt the faintest movement in the air, as through someone was standing very close. Behind the glass - breathing softly.
" Hello?" She whispered, half - hoping nothing would respond.
Her reflection stared back same messy hair, same tired eyes, and yet.... Something was off. The eyes in the reflection seem slightly darker. The shadows beneath them deeper.
She leaned closer.
That was when she heard it again.
A soft inhale.
A slow exhale.
Not hers.
Muskan stumbled back a step, hand trembling "this can't be true." She pressed a hand to chest, feeling her heartbeat beneath her palm. She wanted to run into her room but something rooted her in place - curiosity, dread, like a strong magnet pull her.
Taking a deep breath, she reached farword her fingers hovered an inch from the surface.
The mirror shivered.
A ripple moved across it like wind passing over still water. Her reflection blurred, then sharpened, then blurred again - as through something behind the glass was pushing forward.
Muskan's breath caught.
"Who are you?" She whispered.
Her reflection blinked.
But muskan didn't.
She Frozen, unable to move as the reflection slowly tilted its head, studying her with an expression she wasn't wearing it lips curled slightly, just enough to be unsettling. A smile - but not hers.
" Say something," muskan said in cracking voice.
The reflection 's smile faded. It's lips parted, but instead of sound, thin most seeped out, fogging the inside of the glass. Letters formed in that mist - dedicated, shaky disappearing quickly.
"RIYA"
Muskan stepped closer. " Riya??? What does that means?"
The mirror breathed again... Louder this time_ and the letters vanished.
Her reflection suddenly leaned closer from inside the glass, pressing it's forehead against the surface. Muskan gasped, stumbling backword, but reflection didn't follow. It stayed pressed against the inside. As through trapped and desperate.
The surface of the mirror darkened, a colour draining into a deep gray. And in that gray, shape began to form - shadows, outline of trees, pale light flickering like distant frame.
It looks like a forest, but not any forest muskan had ever seen.
The air in the room grew colder.
Muskan hugged her arms around herself teeth chattering.
" What are you showing me?" She whispered the reflection lifted a hand and pressed it's palm against the glass from the inside.hesitatly, muskan raised her own hand. Her finger tip however near the surface.
A pulse thrummed beneath the glass like a heartbeat.
" No," muskan whispered stepping back again, " mirrors don't have heartbeat. They don't breaths. They don't....."
The mirror suddenly exhaled - a cold breath that swept across her face. She gasped and stumbled back. Suddenly the big hallway felt to small, to quite, to wrong.
The reflection faded slowly, melting back into her normal image.
Just muskan
Just mirror.
But she no longer beleive that.
As she stared at her reflection. Her real reflection she noticed one last detail that made her blood run cold. Her reflection's chest rose and fell.
Breathing
Breathing.
Breathing
Muskan wasn't breathing like heavily at all.
Her lungs frozen in horror.
She inhale sharply but reflection didn't.
Her heartbeat hammered as realisation slammed into her.
". The breathing she had been hearing this whole time....
Was not hers.
A cold air spread across her spine she was sweating heavily and fainted..
.
.
.
.
.
.
.