The Haunted Mirror: A Chain of Fear
The Strange Phenomenon in the Mirror
There are moments when an ordinary life quietly begins to crumble. Mayu, a university student, cherished the old dressing table she had inherited from her grandmother. The intricately carved wooden frame blended perfectly with the ambiance of her room. Yet, the mirror embedded in the table carried an air of mystery. Shortly before her grandmother passed away, she had left a cryptic warning:
“Take good care of this mirror. But never, ever look into it at night.”
Half-forgetting her grandmother’s words, Mayu began to pay closer attention to the mirror one day, prompted by a curious remark from a friend who had visited her room. Her friend stared at the mirror and commented, “Doesn’t this mirror feel oddly chilly?" It was then that Mayu, for the first time, felt as if there was something other than her reflection within the mirror.
A few days later, as she stayed up late working on a university assignment, Mayu glanced at the mirror absentmindedly. That was when she noticed something peculiar: her reflection moved a split second slower than her actual movements. “It’s just fatigue,” she tried to convince herself, but the uneasy feeling lingered.
That night, Mayu had a dream. In the dream, her grandmother appeared, crying, as if trying to convey something desperately. Though most of the words were muffled, one word rang clear: “Danger.”
The next morning, Mayu inspected the mirror more closely and noticed faint outlines resembling a shadowy figure on its surface. It looked like a handprint, and it sent chills down her spine. “Something’s wrong,” she thought, but her friends dismissed her story with laughter, calling it a trick of her tired mind. Yet, that very night, the strange phenomena escalated again.
The Beginning of the Disturbance
A faint handprint appeared on the surface of the mirror. Mayu tried to convince herself it was just her imagination, but an unsettling feeling grew within her. That night, she covered the mirror with a cloth and tried to force herself to sleep.
In the stillness of the room, she suddenly heard a faint sound. Rustle… rustle… It seemed as though something was moving beneath the cloth. Frozen with fear, Mayu could do nothing but listen. The sound stopped abruptly, replaced by a slight vibration coming from the mirror.
“It’s just my mind playing tricks on me… I’m just tired,” she muttered to herself. But when she cautiously lifted the cloth, the mirror’s surface once again displayed strange patterns. This time, they were no longer handprints but countless overlapping fingerprints, forming an eerie, intricate design.
The next morning, Mayu shared her experience with her friend Nao. Laughing nervously, Nao said, “You’ve been watching too many horror movies, haven’t you?” But when Mayu described the fingerprints in detail, Nao grew uneasy. “Why don’t you look into it? Maybe it’s got some kind of history, being so old.”
Following Nao’s suggestion, Mayu began searching through her grandmother’s belongings. Among them, she found an old diary, where the word “mirror” appeared repeatedly. One entry, in particular, caught her attention: “This mirror requires great resolve to own.” However, the diary provided no further explanation of what that resolve entailed.
“What does she mean by resolve?” Mayu wondered aloud. But her unease only grew, pushing her to dig deeper.
The Captive Shadow
That night, Mayu stayed up late researching online. She discovered stories of old mirrors with similarly strange phenomena. People spoke of hearing voices in their dreams or seeing shadows in the reflection that weren’t their own. The more she read, the heavier her anxiety became.
Unable to calm herself, Mayu covered the mirror again and tried to sleep. Yet, as the night wore on, she felt a chill in the air and faint whispers emanating from beneath the cloth. Her hands shook as she pressed the cloth tightly against the mirror, trying to suppress the unsettling sensation.
The next morning, she confided in Nao again. Nao suggested visiting a nearby shrine for advice. Reluctantly, Mayu agreed, and together they explained the situation to the priest. Although he hadn’t seen the mirror himself, his face grew stern as he listened.
“That mirror might be trapping something,” he said. “You must be cautious. If you handle it poorly, it could harm you.”
Confused and frightened, Mayu asked, “What’s inside it? What happens if it’s released?” The priest, however, offered no answers, only advising her to keep the mirror covered and avoid it whenever possible.
On the way home, Nao insisted, “If it’s really that dangerous, you should just get rid of it.” But Mayu couldn’t bring herself to part with her grandmother’s heirloom. She decided she had no choice but to face the problem alone.
Late that night, as Mayu sat staring at the covered mirror, the room grew eerily quiet. A sudden chill swept through the air, and the cloth began to tremble slightly. Rustle… rustle… Something was moving inside the mirror again.
Terrified but unable to look away, Mayu slowly pulled off the cloth. The mirror’s surface was once again covered in strange fingerprints, which slowly shifted and coalesced into the shape of a human figure. The figure in the mirror stared at her, its lips moving silently.
“Release me… or this curse will never end…”
Though no sound emerged, Mayu understood its plea. Frozen with fear, she tried to cover the mirror again, but its surface began to darken, and black tendrils reached out, pulling the cloth away.
Mayu stood paralyzed as the figure writhed within the glass. Its lips moved once more: “It’s your choice—help me, or leave me.”
Unable to endure the pressure, Mayu whispered, trembling, “What do you want me to do?” The figure vanished, leaving the mirror cracked and the room heavy with an unnatural chill.
The Price of Release
The cold air that filled Mayu’s room wasn’t just cold—it felt oppressive, as if the very atmosphere was pressing down on her. From the cracks in the mirror, it looked as though black mist was seeping out. Unable to bear looking at it directly, Mayu tried to cover the mirror again, but the instant her hand touched its icy surface, a jolt of electricity shot through her body.
Her vision went black for a moment, and when she came to, she was no longer in her room. Instead, she stood in a dark, unfamiliar space. Pools of water stretched across the ground, and the air was thick with moisture. The darkness was endless, swallowing everything around her. The only light came from behind her—the glowing surface of the mirror.
In the mirror, Mayu could see her own room reflected. But the figure staring back at her from within wasn’t herself. It was someone who looked exactly like her, yet…not. This other “Mayu” gazed at her through the glass, wearing a sinister smile.
“Why…? Why is this happening to me?” Mayu’s voice trembled with fear, but the other “Mayu” simply continued to smile. Then, the reflection moved. It began behaving as if it were in Mayu’s room, calmly and deliberately moving to cover the mirror with the cloth.
“Stop it!” Mayu screamed, but her voice didn’t reach. At that moment, a low whisper echoed directly in her ear.
“Your role is over. Just as you inherited this mirror, she will now become its new owner.”
A cold sweat trickled down her spine. Desperate, Mayu reached out toward the mirror to return to her room, but the glass felt frozen solid, unyielding to her touch.
From the surrounding darkness, a deep, guttural sound began to reverberate. Slowly, countless hands emerged from the shadows, stretching out toward her. Their movements were slow but deliberate, closing in on her with chilling inevitability.
“I can’t escape… But if I draw someone else in, I can be free…?” The thought churned in Mayu’s mind as she stared at the distorted smile of the other “Mayu” in the mirror. The reflection’s expression twisted further, as if urging her to make a decision.
“To continue the chain, or to end it.” The voice whispered again, resonating deep within her. An idea surfaced in Mayu’s mind: “If I sacrifice someone else, I could break free from this curse… Is that the choice I must make?”
Trapped in confusion and fear, Mayu faced the other “Mayu” in the mirror, her heart heavy as she was forced to confront her final decision.
The Fate of the Curse
Surrounded by countless hands, Mayu confronted the distorted smile of the “other self" in the mirror. Her mind was flooded with fear and despair, but amidst it all, a single resolve began to take shape. “I have to end this chain. If I don’t, the same suffering will repeat over and over…”
With determination, Mayu screamed at the mirror, “I won’t let anyone else get caught in this! I’ll destroy this mirror and put an end to it!”
The “other self" in the mirror abruptly stopped smiling, its face twisting into a mask of rage and terror. “If you do that, you’ll never leave this place… you know that, don’t you?”
Even so, Mayu stretched out her hand, striking the surface of the mirror with all her might. The mirror trembled violently, the cracks deepening with a resounding noise. Black mist poured out, swirling around her in a storm-like vortex. The mist enveloped the shadows and hands, eventually reaching Mayu and wrapping around her body.
As her consciousness faded, a gentle voice echoed from within the mirror.
“Thank you… the chain has finally been broken…”
It was a soft, serene voice. In the next moment, Mayu felt herself engulfed in a warm, radiant light.
The next morning, Mayu awoke in her own room. The mirror was gone without a trace, leaving only an eerie stillness behind. It was as if nothing had ever happened, yet Mayu knew something inside her had changed.
She picked up her phone and called Nao, explaining that it was finally over. When Nao asked about the mirror, Mayu realized she couldn’t recall the details clearly. “I’m sorry, I don’t really remember… but it’s okay. I think everything will be fine now.”
After hanging up, she gazed out of her window. The trees outside swayed gently in the breeze, bathed in soft sunlight. Taking a deep breath, Mayu placed her hands together in front of her grandmother’s photo. “Thank you… now we’re free.”
Unbeknownst to Mayu, a new mirror had been placed in the corner of an antique shop. It bore the same beautifully carved wooden frame as hers had, but on its surface, faint handprints could already be seen. The antique dealer smiled faintly as he placed the mirror on the shelf, oblivious to the faint whispers emanating from its surface.
This story is a work of fiction. Please enjoy it as entertainment.
If you found yourself with this mirror, what would you do? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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