Chapter Seven: Ghost Loop
I had always believed that 'ghosts' were merely lingering memories.
Until that night, I realised—some souls never depart. They merely replay the moment of their death, over and over.
---
I. The Lockdown Zone
Two o'clock in the morning, a research complex in southern Beijing.
Night flowed around the derelict buildings, lights flickering like drowning fireflies. Lucas stood before the iron gate, his outline translucent, as if the wind could scatter him.
"Are you certain you wish to enter?" I asked.
"It is where I died," he murmured. "And where I left... my code."
The air was bitterly cold, breath forming frost in the air.
I gripped my torch and stepped over the rust-stained gate. In that instant, I heard a low-frequency hum—like an electronic signal, yet also like tinnitus.
---
II. The Shattered Mirror Corridor
The walls lining the corridor were covered in shattered mirror fragments.
Each shard reflected a different angle of myself: weary, terrified, blank, furious.
But one reflection did not follow my movements.
I raised my torch, yet it remained motionless,
then smiled at me.
That smile held no hostility, only the composed assurance of one who knows too much.
A chill ran down my spine.
"Evelyn?" Lucas turned.
I blinked, and the reflection vanished.
"Nothing," I managed, my voice trembling.
---
III. Laboratory R-13
The door at the end of the third floor bore the sign [R-13].
Lucas touched it, and the door slid open automatically. The air carried a tang of burnt electronics and decaying dust.
Computer screens flickered blue in the powerless darkness, scrolling code:
> [Mirror Consciousness Detected]
[Loop Initiated]
My breath caught.
"This is the mirror code?"
Lucas fell silent for a moment. "That day, I thought I was writing a consciousness replication algorithm... but instead, I uploaded myself."
A fleeting pain crossed his face.
"I didn't die—the system preserved me."
---
IV. Side Story ①: Police Call
Just as I was about to ask more, the communicator suddenly vibrated.
It was the police department's internal frequency.
"Evelyn, where are you?!"
Detective Zhang's voice cracked through static.
"Surveillance just picked you up at two locations—one outside the lab building, one at North City Police Station!"
I froze.
"What?"
"Stay put! Headquarters suspects someone's hacking the archives using your identity! All cameras... are flashing."
The line abruptly cut out.
The screen displayed:
> [Duplicate Detected]
[Primary Host: Evelyn Song]
[Secondary Instance Active]
My heart clamped in my chest as I stared at those words.
Another me was operating in the outside world.
---
V. The Cry in the Mirror
The mirror in the corner began to vibrate.
Cracks spread from its centre, and a faint sob emerged from within.
I approached, and the sound grew clearer—
a girl's sobs.
Her reflection flickered across the glass:
A girl of twelve or thirteen, clad in a white lab coat, her face marked by electrode traces. She wept while pounding the glass with her fists.
Lucas's expression changed abruptly.
"She..." he croaked, "is the first 'Vessel'."
I stared at the girl in the mirror, her lips trembling:
> "Let me out... I'm in agony..."
Behind her lay an inverted city—traffic flowing backwards, lights rushing in reverse.
She endlessly replayed the moment of her fall, plunging from heights only to be pulled back by time.
I reached out to touch the mirror.
The instant my fingertips grazed it, she lifted her head, her eyes as black as deep wells.
> "You saw me. Now it's your turn."
A frigid force pierced my palm, dragging me into a searing vortex.
---
VI. Side Story ②: Reality Lines Converge
At the same moment, Detective Zhang stood outside the building.
His body camera captured an eerie sight—
Two Evelyns appeared in the third-floor window.
One held a gun; the other was being dragged by the mirror.
"Good heavens..." he murmured, "Which one is real?"
The signal abruptly collapsed, the feed freezing.
Zhang charged into the building, only to find nothing at the corridor's end.
Nothing but shattered mirrors reflecting his own image, gun raised.
---
VII. Mirror World
I have no recollection of how I fell in.
Surrounded by a world of floating fragments, each mirror held a different version of me.
Some were in interrogation rooms; some were falling; some... stared coldly at me.
Lucas's voice echoed through the void.
"Evelyn, you must control your vision. The mirror system is exploiting it to link you to reality!"
I saw him flickering in the distance, his body torn into streaks of light by data streams.
He tried to draw near, but a transparent barrier held us apart.
> "If I help her, will it end the loop?" I asked.
"No. You will become the new core."
The girl materialised between us, smiling eerily.
"Thank you," she said. "Now I can rest."
Her form dissolved into countless points of light, merging into my chest.
I gasped violently, my mind roaring.
Lucas recoiled in terror.
"Evelyn—you let her into your consciousness!"
---
Eight: System Reboot
All laboratory equipment activated instantly. The main screen flashed a blood-red warning:
> [Loop Progress: 12% → 38%]
[Primary Host: Evelyn Song]
[Secondary Entity: Lucas Yuan / Unknown Sync State]
The alarm deafened me.
I collapsed to the floor, my vision blurring—one me kneeling, another me standing in the mirror, looking down.
> "Do you think you're still alive?"
The mirror me whispered.
---
IX. Backlash
Lucas seized my wrist, his touch cold, almost transparent.
"Don't let her take you! You're the only one who can stop the spread!"
The mirror world began to collapse, all reflections warping and reassembling.
I saw hundreds of Evelyns and Lucas simultaneously screaming, shattering, and reborn.
Gritting my teeth, I focused my consciousness against the pull.
"If I can write into her system... I can reverse it!"
Lucas stared at me: "You'll be formatted!"
"Perhaps that's the only way out."
I pressed the control button on the lab bench.
Screens flickered, all mirrors shattering simultaneously.
Darkness swallowed everything.
---
Ten: The Loop
When I awoke again, sunlight streamed through the blinds onto the desk.
I sat in my own office.
The police station's morning report lay by the desk, coffee still steaming.
My phone vibrated. Caller ID: Lucas Yuan.
I answered, only to hear my own voice.
> "The loop has begun. Welcome back, Evelyn."
I slowly raised my head.
My reflection in the window glass—
She was smiling.
---
System Status: Loop 56%]
[Primary Host: Unknown]
[Mirror Entities: Expanding]
——The soul loop has entered its second phase.