The Reflection's grin 4

The hallway outside the room was quiet. The landlord, finishing his rounds for the evening, passed by the door at the end of the hall. He paused. Something felt different. The air carried a strange heaviness, and he thought he heard faint whispers just beyond the door.

Shaking his head, he muttered to himself, “Getting old,” and walked on. But the door creaked open behind him, just a fraction, enough for a sliver of darkness to spill into the hall.

Inside, the mirror stood whole, its surface now smooth and gleaming. But it no longer reflected the empty room. Instead, it showed the Stranger standing on the other side, her face pale, her eyes empty. Her grin was sharp, predatory.

She stepped closer to the glass, but her movements weren’t her own. She tilted her head as though listening to some distant sound, and then she whispered, “They’re ready.”

The mirror rippled, the surface bending outward as though something pressed against it from the other side. A hand emerged first—long, shadowy fingers with claws that scratched against the air. Then another hand, and another. The reflections poured out, each one a twisted echo of the people who had once lived in the building. Their faces were familiar but wrong, warped by the darkness of the mirror world.

They didn’t speak. They didn’t have to. Their movements were deliberate, coordinated, as though they were pieces of a single entity. And they were no longer confined to the room.

The Stranger stepped out last, her grin wider than ever. She moved down the hallway with a purpose, each step echoing with a metallic hum. The other tenants didn’t stand a chance. As they opened their doors to investigate the sounds, the figures were already there, waiting to pull them into the shadows.

By dawn, the building was silent. The mirror room at the end of the hall was locked once more, but its aura of dread had seeped into every corner of the structure. The reflections had replaced the tenants, their hollow eyes and wide grins giving no hint of the people they once were.

The landlord, oblivious to the horrors that had unfolded, returned to his morning duties. He knocked on doors, calling for late rent and maintenance updates, but the responses he received were... unusual. Polite, overly so. Every tenant answered with a serene smile, their voices flat and devoid of emotion. They all repeated the same phrase when asked how they were:

“We’re fine. Just fine.”

That evening, the landlord stood outside the door at the end of the hall. He wasn’t sure why—some unseen force had drawn him there. His fingers trembled as he reached for the doorknob, his heart pounding in his chest.

The door swung open on its own, revealing the mirror in the center of the room. It gleamed, brighter than before, and in its surface, he saw not his reflection but the Stranger, standing behind him. She smiled.

“You’ll join us soon,” she whispered.

The landlord turned, but the hallway was empty. When he looked back at the mirror, his own face stared back—only now, it was smiling too.

To Be Continued.....

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