The mirrors multiply.
One second they're standing at the carnival entrance. Next second mirrors surround them. Hundreds. Thousands. Reflecting. Distorting. Showing things that shouldn't exist.
Arden sees herself in every direction. But wrong. Different. Twisted.
One reflection shows her older. Gray hair. Wrinkles. Alone. Survived everything but lost everyone.
Another shows her younger. Twelve. Standing at the dock. Still counting. Still frozen. Never screamed. Lira drowned. Dead. Gone.
Another shows her successful. Famous. Rich. But hollow. Empty inside. Sold her soul for fame.
"Don't look at them," Arden says. "They're lies. Manipulations. Revel's feeding us false possibilities."
"Are they false?" Olli stares at his reflection. In it he's laughing. Happy. But covered in blood. "Or are they real? Other timelines. Other versions of us."
"Does it matter?" Jin-Hwa moves forward. Practical. Focused. "Real or not. They're distractions. We're here for the woman. The player. We find her. Then we kill the fragment."
"Agreed." Kael touches a mirror. His reflection doesn't match his movement. It just stands there. Staring. "But which direction? They all look the same."
The midway stretches in every direction. Identical paths. Infinite loops. No landmarks. No signs. Just mirrors and carnival lights and backward music.
"We split up," Callum suggests. "Cover more ground."
"No." Arden remembers her first time here. Station Four in Game 246. She'd split from her team. Nearly lost herself in the mirrors. Nearly forgot who she was. "That's what Revel wants. Divide us. Isolate us. Pick us off one by one."
"Then what?"
"We stay together. Move as one. Search systematically." She points. Random direction. Doesn't matter. They're all the same. "That way. Until we find something different. Something real."
They walk. Single file. Arden leading. Kael behind her. Then Jin-Hwa. Callum. Olli at the rear.
The mirrors watch them pass. Reflections moving wrong. Showing alternate lives. Alternate choices. Alternate failures.
In one mirror Arden sees herself kissing Marcus. Happy. In love. Betrayal never happened. Normal life continuing.
In another she sees herself dead. Drowned at the lake with Lira. Two sisters. Both gone. Parents destroyed.
In another she's holding a baby. Her baby. Marcus's baby. Family intact. Peaceful. Content.
Lies. All lies. Alternative timelines that don't exist. Can't exist.
But they hurt anyway.
"How long have we been walking?" Olli asks. Behind them. Voice strained.
Arden checks her phone. No signal. Clock frozen at the moment they entered. "No idea. Could be minutes. Could be hours."
"It feels like we're going in circles."
"We might be." Jin-Hwa stops. Marks a mirror with her knife. Small scratch. Barely visible. "There. If we pass this again. We'll know."
They continue. Five minutes. Ten. Twenty.
The scratch appears ahead.
"Damn it." Callum kicks a mirror. His reflection kicks back. "We're looping. The carnival's making us walk in circles."
"Then we change tactics." Arden closes her eyes. Thinks. What's the paradox here? What's the contradiction? "Revel shows us false versions. Alternative selves. The trap is comparison. Seeing what we could have been. Feeling inadequate. Broken."
"So how do we break it?"
"We stop looking." She opens her eyes. "Close your eyes. All of you. Walk blind. Let me guide."
"That's insane."
"Everything here is insane." She takes Kael's hand. "Trust me. If we stop seeing the reflections. Stop engaging with the lies. The mirrors lose power. Revel loses control."
Hesitation. Doubt. Fear.
Then Kael closes his eyes. "I trust you."
Jin-Hwa closes hers. "Lead."
Callum. Olli. Both closing eyes. Holding hands. Chain of survivors. Blind. Vulnerable.
Arden keeps her eyes open. She's the guide. The leader. The one who has to see.
She walks forward. Different direction. Away from the scratch. Away from the loop.
The mirrors scream.
Not sound. Just feeling. Rage. Frustration. Hunger denied.
The reflections twist. Become grotesque. Showing horrific versions. Dead Ardens. Mutilated Ardens. Corrupted Ardens.
But the team doesn't see. Eyes closed. Walking blind. Following.
The midway changes. Shifts. Trying to disorient. But Arden ignores it. Just walks. Straight. Constant.
Five minutes. Ten.
Then she sees it.
Different mirror. Not reflective. Foggy. Clouded. And inside the fog. Movement.
A woman. Pounding on the glass. Mouthing words. Silent. Trapped.
"Found her." Arden stops. "Open your eyes."
They do. See the foggy mirror. See the woman inside.
She's desperate. Terrified. Banging. Screaming without sound.
"How do we get her out?" Olli asks.
"Break the glass." Callum picks up a piece of carnival debris. Metal pipe. Heavy. Swings at the mirror.
Bounces off. Doesn't crack. Doesn't break. Just rings like a bell.
"It's not real glass," Jin-Hwa says. Examines it. Surgeon eyes. Analytical. "It's metaphor. Psychological barrier. We can't break it physically. We have to break it conceptually."
"How?"
"By showing her something true. Something real. Something that contradicts the carnival's lies."
Arden steps closer to the mirror. The woman inside sees her. Stops pounding. Stares.
Recognition.
"You're the one who posted," Arden says. "On the forum. You asked for help. I came. We came. We're here to get you out."
The woman mouths words. Can't hear but Arden reads lips.
"Too late. Can't escape. Lost. Forever."
"No." Arden puts her hand on the glass. "Not forever. Not lost. You posted. We found you. That means connection exists. Reality exists. The carnival is lies. But this." She presses harder. "This is truth. We're real. You're real. The exit is real."
The glass warms. Softens. Like wax melting.
"Keep going," Jin-Hwa says. "It's working."
"You're not alone," Arden continues. "You're not trapped. You're not forgotten. Your name is." She stops. Doesn't know. "What's your name?"
The woman mouths it. Three syllables. Clear.
"Diana."
"Diana." Arden says it loud. Firm. Real. "Your name is Diana. You live in Chelsea. Fourth floor. Apartment 4C. You draw. You post on forums. You're a real person in a real world. This carnival is temporary. Fake. Nothing."
The glass melts completely. Becomes liquid. Diana falls through. Into Arden's arms. Solid. Real. Breathing.
"Thank you." Diana gasps. Crying. "Thank you thank you thank you. I thought. I thought I'd be here forever. Lost in my own reflections. Drowning in alternatives."
"How long have you been here?"
"Days. Weeks. Can't tell. Time doesn't work. I just kept walking. Seeing myself. Every version. Every choice. Every failure. Until I forgot which one was real. Which one was me."
"You're you." Arden helps her stand. "Right now. This version. That's the only one that matters."
Diana nods. Shaking. Traumatized. But alive. Real.
"Now what?" Callum asks. "We have her. Six of us. How do we kill the fragment?"
"We create the paradox." Arden looks around. At the mirrors. At the infinite reflections. At the carnival that feeds on self-doubt. "Revel's power is comparison. Showing us alternatives. Making us feel inadequate. The paradox is acceptance. Choosing our reality. Rejecting the alternatives."
"How?"
"We smash every mirror. Systematically. Completely. Until there's nothing left to reflect. Nothing left to compare."
"There are thousands of them."
"Then we start now." Arden picks up Callum's metal pipe. Swings at the nearest mirror.
It shatters. Real glass. Real breaking. The reflection screams. Distorts. Dies.
The others grab weapons. Pipes. Debris. Rocks. Whatever they can find.
They smash. One mirror. Two. Ten. Twenty.
The carnival shakes. Protests. Tries to stop them.
But they don't stop. Six survivors. Six god-killers. Six people destroying alternatives. Choosing reality.
Fifty mirrors. Hundred. Two hundred.
The backward music distorts. Becomes screaming. Becomes static.
Ringmaster Revel appears. Center of the midway. Flickering. Unstable.
"STOP." Their voice cracks. Glitches. "You can't. This is. This isn't. HOW IT WORKS."
"We're changing the rules," Arden says. Smashes another mirror. "We're choosing truth over lies. Reality over possibility. Ourselves over alternatives."
"But the alternatives are REAL. They're. They're timelines. They're. They EXIST."
"They don't exist HERE." She smashes another. "Not in this moment. Not in this reality. Only we exist. Only now exists. Your power is meaningless."
Revel's form destabilizes further. Half solid. Half light. Flickering between states.
"No. No no no no NO. This isn't. You can't. I'm eternal. I'm necessary. People NEED comparison. Need regret. Need to see what they LOST."
"We don't need it." Jin-Hwa smashes three mirrors rapid-fire. Surgical precision. Efficient. Deadly. "We choose acceptance. We choose now. We choose this."
The carnival collapses. Mirrors shattering simultaneously. Thousands of them. Exploding. Raining glass.
Revel screams. Not theatrical anymore. Just pain. Just error. Just death.
Their form explodes. Light. Energy. Fragments.
Just like Miranda. Just like before.
The Station Four collapses. Ground breaking. Sky falling. Reality unraveling.
"Hold onto each other!" Arden shouts. Grabs Kael. Jin-Hwa. Forming chain. "Don't let go!"
They fall. Through void. Through nothing. Through the space between Stations.
Hit ground. Hard. Grass. Real grass.
Arden opens her eyes. Boston. Back Bay. Same street where they entered.
The mirror in Diana's apartment is shattered. Just glass now. Normal glass. No doorway. No carnival.
Diana lies beside them. Unconscious but breathing. Alive. Free.
The five volunteers stand. Check themselves. All present. All whole.
No deaths. No resurrections. No memory loss.
"Two down," Callum says. Gasping. "Forty-five to go."
"Did you feel it?" Kael asks. Touches his chest. "The binding. It's. It's almost gone. Just threads now. Barely holding."
"One more fragment," Arden says. "Maybe two. Then you're completely free."
He looks at her. Something in his eyes. Gratitude. Love. Hope.
"We should get Diana to a hospital," Jin-Hwa says. Checks vitals. "She's stable but traumatized. Needs medical attention."
"Agreed." Arden pulls out her phone. Calls 911. Anonymous tip. Woman collapsed. Address. Hangs up before questions.
They leave before sirens arrive. Five survivors. Two fragments dead. Forty-five remaining.
Walking through Boston. Normal city. Normal people. Normal world.
But nothing's normal anymore. Not for them. Not after killing pieces of God.
Arden's phone buzzes. Text. Unknown number.
She opens it.
A photo. Margaret. Standing in front of Bus 000. Seven people behind her. The ones who fled. The faction. The opposition.
Below the photo. A message.
You killed two fragments. I'm impressed. But you made a mistake. You showed the Entity we're mortal. Showed it we can be killed. Now it's adapting. Fighting back. And I'm helping it. See you soon. -M
Arden shows the others.
"She's working with the Entity directly now," Olli says. "Open alliance. Open opposition."
"Let her." Arden pockets the phone. "We're not stopping. Two fragments dead. Forty-five to go. She can't stop all of us. Can't kill progress. Can't erase what we've proven."
"What have we proven?" Callum asks.
"That gods can die." She looks at the sky. At the city. At the world they're fighting for. "And that survivors can fight back. Can win. Can end this."
They walk. Tired. Traumatized. Triumphant.
The war continues. The Entity adapts. Margaret plots. The Conductor hunts.
But they're winning. Slowly. Barely. But winning.
Two fragments down. Forty-five to go.
And Arden Vale isn't counting seconds anymore.
She's counting victories.
Two.