Elara stood frozen as the pale hands from the mirrors clawed at the air around her. They didn't touch the floor, just floated, twisting and curling like smoke. Their eyes hollow, desperate stared at her.
Her chest tightened. She could feel every lost memory tugging at her mind. Every memory the door had stolen from her over the years screamed in fragments: a laugh, a birthday she forgot, a shadowy hallway she couldn't place.
"You… can't escape," a dozen voices whispered, overlapping. Some were her voice, some were not. Every word felt like a finger on her skull, pressing inside.
Elara shook her head violently. "I'm not afraid of you!" she shouted, stepping forward.
The mirrors shivered. Faces pressed closer, pale versions of herself and people the door had trapped over the decades. Some screamed silently. Some whispered pleas. Others simply stared, empty-eyed.
One shadow lunged. Elara stumbled back, but she focused on the memories she still held the attic, the hidden chest, the birthday party she could barely remember. She clutched them inside her mind like a shield.
The shadow recoiled, hissing. Others hesitated.
"Use what you remember!" the other Elara called from behind her, voice urgent. "If you forget… they'll pull you in!"
Elara took a deep breath and stepped forward. She imagined every fragment of herself the door had stolen, calling them back inside her mind. A child's laugh. A forgotten drawing. A hallway she had walked before but never remembered.
The shadows screamed. The mirrors shook violently. Pale hands tried to grab her, but every memory she reclaimed pushed them back. The walls of the room twisted, the floor rippled, but she stayed upright, holding onto herself.
Suddenly, a version of her older, twisted, hollow-eyed stepped from a mirror. Its lips moved, forming words she couldn't hear at first. Then she realized: it was repeating moments from her past, the times she had unknowingly returned to the mansion.
"You… always leave…" the shadow whispered. "And we are left…"
Elara's heart ached, but she clenched her fists. "Not anymore. I remember. I'm taking it back!"
She slammed her hand onto the floor. The rippling beneath her feet sent shockwaves through the mirrors. The trapped versions screamed, hissing like broken glass. One by one, the shadows shrank, pulled back into the mirrors, retreating.
For a brief moment, silence filled the room.
Then the carved wooden door at the far end pulsed violently.
A whisper, low and deep, came from the symbols: "You are strong… but do you understand why you belong here?"
Elara froze. She knew the real test was coming.
The door waited. Patient. Hungry.