I clamped my hands over my eyes and sank to my knees, a raw, jagged sound tearing from my throat.
"Ahaaaaaa! Agaaaaaaa!"
The screams felt like they belonged to someone else. I dared to peer through my fingers, catching my reflection in the glass. The girl in the mirror didn't look like me—she looked terrified, yet she wore a wide, distorted smile that sent shivers down my spine. It was a face of pure horror wearing a mask of joy.
I kept screaming until the sound turned into a ragged gasp.
Suddenly, a hand touched my cheek. It was ice-cold, yet strangely comforting. I tilted my head up, my eyelids fluttering open with agonizing slowness.
It was him.
"Ame?" I whispered, the name catching in my dry throat. "Ame..."
I was too paralyzed to even cry. He was kneeling there with me, his hand cradling my face. In his gaze, I saw a painful mixture of sorrow and a flickering spark of love.
"Elena," he murmured. "You're back?"
He spoke softly, his thumb brushing away the salt-streaked tears on my skin.
"Look... look over there,"
I stammered, my words rushing out in a frantic blur as I grabbed at his sleeve.
"The reflection. It's me. Why am I seeing myself? Why is she watching me? Why am I on both sides of the glass?"
"First, calm down," he urged. "Take a breath. Now, look again."
I forced air into my lungs and slowly turned my head back toward the mirror. The terrifying, smiling girl was gone. Now, the reflection showed me something different: I was there, but I was fast asleep, lying peacefully on the ground beside my current self.
"But... but I saw her," I whimpered.
"She was smiling at me. It was horrible."
"You felt that way because you were terrified by everything that's happened,"
he explained, his voice like velvet.
"You see yourself there because only your soul can pass beyond the mirror—not your living body."
He helped me to my feet, steadying me until my legs stopped shaking.
Once I was upright, I began to really see him, but as soon as I did, he pulled his hand away and took a step back into the void.
"Where were you?" I asked, my voice trembling.
"Is it all happening again? Am I going to have to relive it all... the memories?"
I looked around. Usually, the memories drifted through the air like glowing jellyfish—soft, translucent, and pulsing with light.
But now, there was nothing. No light, no movement. Just a vast, endless white space that stretched into infinity.
"Don't overthink it," he said, avoiding my gaze.
"Before you have to witness your memories again, you will stay here with me for a while."
"Where were you?" I demanded again, stepping toward him.
This time, he didn't look away. He looked right through me, his expression heavy with a long-hidden grief.
"I am always with you, Ele. Before, now, and forever. I was watching you all this time; you were simply the one who never noticed me."
"But… you don't have too, I can….always…" He paused and look away.