Elara stood trembling a few feet from the carved wooden door. Her hands still shook from the fight with the shadows in the mirrors. She had reclaimed some memories, but the whispers were stronger than ever, circling her like birds in a storm.
A strange feeling crept over her a sense that she had been here before, but not just in the mansion. Somewhere else… somewhere she couldn't place.
The air shimmered around her. The mirrors warped, reflecting hallways she didn't recognize. Then one of them cracked open like a window. Through it, she saw a room she had never visited. A small childherself sat on the floor.
But something was wrong. The child wore an old, torn dress. Her hair was messy, her face pale, eyes wide with fear.
"Elara…" the child whispered. "Why did you leave me?"
Elara froze. Her stomach dropped. The memories rushed back flashes she hadn't understood before. She remembered herself as a child, exploring the mansion, touching the hidden door… and disappearing from her own life for hours, sometimes days.
She hadn't just forgotten. She had been trapped… partially. Every time she thought she had left the mansion, a part of her had stayed behind, living inside its walls.
The whispers grew louder, overlapping in her head. "You belong here… you always belong…"
She shook her head, trying to push them away. "No… I'm not leaving pieces behind anymore!"
A strange pressure hit her chest, and the floor beneath her rippled like liquid. She stumbled forward, almost falling into a reflection that wasn't hers. In it, she saw herself as an adult, but with hollow eyes, sitting in a dark room filled with other trapped people versions of herself from the past.
The realization hit her like ice. The mansion didn't just trap people. It trapped versions of them across time. The hidden door wasn't just a door. It was a doorway to herself all the versions of her that had been lost.
Elara's hands tightened into fists. "I understand now," she whispered.
The carved wooden door pulsed violently. Symbols on the surface twisted into her childhood face, staring at her. The whispers joined into one, louder than ever: "Then prove it. Face yourself… or be ours forever."
Elara's breath came in short, sharp gasps. She knew the next step would demand everything memories, courage, and the fragments of herself still trapped.
And somewhere deep inside the door, she felt a pulse, as if it were alive waiting for her to cross completely.
Her hand reached for the handle.