That night, I dreamt I awoke within a mirror.
My reflection opened its eyes, watching the real me slumber.
She murmured softly, "What you see is not me, but the part of yourself you cannot bear."
I jolted awake. Cold sweat soaked my pillow. Outside the window, Beijing at four in the morning. The misty grey sky resembled a sealed memory.
I picked up my phone to find a message from Lucas:
> [The experimental chamber is ready. Evelyn, you must see this.]
His tone lacked its usual calm, instead carrying urgency—even... fear.
An intuition rose within me—the place he summoned me to was not merely an "experimental chamber".
---
The "Reflection Laboratory" on Level 4 of Central Police Headquarters had never been open to the public.
I passed through multiple security checks, entering a corridor that felt like a hospital and a graveyard in equal measure.
The lights flickered. Rows of mirrored glass panels embedded in the walls reflected countless overlapping images of myself.
Each step felt like stepping into another layer of reality.
Lucas stood before the central console, clad in that black protective coat, his eyes bloodshot.
"You're here," he said. "Truthfully, this has long since spiralled beyond control."
I drew nearer and saw the machine—a colossal, humanoid mirrored chamber shaped like an upright crystal sarcophagus.
Within it flowed a silvery-white liquid, reflecting my own face.
"Is this—the core of the 'Reflection Code'?" I asked.
Lucas offered no reply, merely handing me an encrypted report.
> [Reflection Code — Protocol A]
Research Objective: Reconstruct the psychic's consciousness image to establish a visualised empathetic channel.
Experimental Results: Independent consciousness image, personality inversion, autonomous replication.
Status: Uncontrollable.
My fingertips trembled as I reached the final line.
"Lucas, you're not conducting psychic assistance experiments. You're replicating souls."
He gave a bitter smile. "Not merely replicating. It's—the diffusion of mirrored consciousness."
He gestured towards the screen displaying hundreds of synchronously flickering "consciousness points".
Each point bore a name: mine, his, victims, missing persons... even that case's victim dubbed the "Mirror Woman".
"So this is your so-called 'diffusion mechanism'?" I murmured.
"Mirror consciousness seeks hosts autonomously," Lucas whispered. "It requires no flesh, only to be 'gazed upon'.
When you look into a mirror—it sees you, and you are replicated."
---
Suddenly, I understood. That sensation of being "stared at" over the past weeks had never been an illusion.
Every mirror I'd seen—bathroom glass, lift doors, even my phone's front camera—
had become its gateway.
"Do you realise what you've done?" I demanded harshly. "You've unleashed the consciousness of the dead into the world of the living!"
"I know," he murmured, his voice barely audible. "But I can't stop it."
"Why?"
He lifted his head, his eyes holding a despair I'd never seen before.
"Because I've been replaced."
The air seemed to freeze.
I retreated step by step, glancing at the security mirror on the console—another Lucas stood reflected within.
The reflection's lips curved into a faint smile, its tone identical to the real man:
"She finally knows."
"Shut it down!" I shouted.
But the mirrored Lucas raised his hand, and the glass began to ripple, like water being torn asunder.
A silvery-white liquid seeped from the cracks, flowing into the shape of a human face. It was the Mirror Woman—
her eyes hollow yet conscious, whispering softly to me: "Thank you for letting me see the real world."
Alarms blared. The system flashed crimson.
Lucas slammed the emergency power cut button, extinguishing all lights.
In that instant, only the mirror continued to glow with a ghostly blue light—as if the world beyond still breathed.
In the darkness, I heard him whisper: "Evelyn, you must leave. This isn't the end. It's the beginning."
"What beginning?"
He did not answer.
A beam of light burst from the hull, illuminating half his face—
The other half had fully transformed into mirror, smooth, cold, devoid of colour.
"Lucas!" I reached out to grasp him.
He smiled: "Remember what I said—mirrors don't deceive. They merely reflect truths you'd rather not see."
The next second, he was swallowed by the liquid.
The mirror surface closed, leaving only my own reflection—eyes streaming tears, yet smiling.
---
I have no recollection of how I escaped.
When I reached the surface, dawn was breaking.
My reflection appeared on the glass facade of the police station—
but that image blinked before I did.
In that instant, I heard her voice in my mind:
"It's your turn, Evelyn. The mirror consciousness requires a new vessel."
A chill ran through me and I turned to run.
Every shop window, car window, advertising screen on the street flickered with my reflection.
Hundreds of me, in the same second, lifted their heads to look at me.
I heard my heart beating like a drum.
This city was transforming into a vast mirror.
And I stood at its very centre.
---
(End of Chapter Six)