Chapter 1
## **Syeda’s Write…**
### **Chapter 1 — The Reflection**
Paris.The city of dreams, lights... and secrets that hide behind them.
Liza, a seventeen-year-old girl with an angelic face and ocean-blue eyes, lived in a beautiful house near Rue de Rivoli. Everyone who saw her whispered about her beauty — and she *loved* it. Compliments were her oxygen, admiration her addiction.
Her mother often warned her, *“Beauty fades, my love. What remains is who you are.”*But Liza only laughed, replying, *“Then I’ll remain beautiful forever.”*
That was before *the mirror* changed everything.
It happened one cloudy evening. Liza was returning home when she saw an **old woman** standing near her gate — her back slightly bent, eyes dark and deep like endless wells.The woman whispered, *“Child, beware of the reflection that doesn’t belong to you.”*
Liza frowned, confused. *“Excuse me?”*But the woman simply smiled — a hollow, unsettling curve of her lips — and disappeared into the fog.
Liza brushed it off as madness. Paris was full of strange people, after all.
That night, she stood before her **mirror**, brushing her long golden hair.But something was... off.
Her reflection blinked **a second too late**.When Liza smiled, her reflection didn’t — instead, it looked at her with an expression she had never seen before: *sorrow*.
A chill ran down her spine. She turned away for a moment and then looked back — everything seemed normal again.She laughed nervously. *“Maybe I’m just tired.”*
But the next morning, her laughter froze.
When she looked in the mirror, **her reflection was smiling**… though **her own face wasn’t**.
Her heart pounded. *No... this isn’t real.*She screamed for her mother.Her mother rushed in, looked at the mirror — and saw nothing strange.Just her daughter, pale and trembling.
*“It’s just stress, sweetheart,“* her mother said softly. *“Stop scaring yourself.”*And she left.
But the moment her mother stepped out — the reflection **laughed**.Not a faint chuckle — a deep, distorted, *inhuman* laugh that echoed in Liza’s ears long after she covered her face and ran.
From that day on, Liza couldn’t escape it.She saw that same reflection in windows, spoons, even puddles of water.Sometimes it waved at her.Sometimes it whispered her name.
Her nights turned sleepless.Her smiles, hollow.Her house, colder.
Finally, desperate and terrified, she went to the **priest at her school** — Father Gabriel.She told him everything. Every whisper, every shadow, every twisted smile.
Father Gabriel listened silently, his face unreadable. When she was done, he said quietly, *“I’ll come see this mirror myself.”*
Liza hesitated. Her mother would never allow it — so she found a way to send her out for the afternoon.And when the priest arrived, something in his expression changed as soon as he stepped inside.
He stopped at the doorway, eyes narrowing at the walls — as if *something unseen* moved between them.He murmured a prayer under his breath.
*“Father?“* Liza whispered. *“What’s wrong?“*He didn’t answer — only gestured for her to lead him to the mirror.
When they reached her room, the air felt heavier, thicker.The light from the window dimmed slightly — as though the mirror had swallowed it.
Father Gabriel stared at the glass for a long moment. His lips moved in silent prayer again, and sweat beaded on his forehead.Liza could feel his unease.
*“It’s… just your imagination, my child,“* he finally said, voice trembling.But Liza noticed his fingers clutching the cross around his neck — **so tight that his knuckles turned white.**
*“You’re lying,“* she whispered. *“You saw it too… didn’t you?”*
The priest didn’t answer. He turned to leave — but before he reached the door, something inside the mirror **shifted**.
A faint *tap-tap-tap* echoed from the glass.Then, a voice — soft, sweet, familiar — **Liza’s own voice** whispered:
*“Don’t let him take me away…”*
Liza froze.Father Gabriel’s face turned pale.The mirror’s surface **rippled**, like water disturbed by a touch.And for the briefest moment — another Liza smiled back from inside it.Her eyes black as ink.
The priest backed away, whispering rapidly in Latin.Liza’s breath caught.The other Liza pressed her hand against the glass — and from the other side, **a faint bloody handprint appeared.**
Father Gabriel shouted, *“Don’t look at it! Whatever you do — don’t—”*
And then—
**The mirror cracked.**
A scream — not from Liza, but from *inside the mirror* — filled the room.And everything went black.
When Liza opened her eyes, she was lying on her bed. The mirror looked normal again.Her mother stood beside her, worried. *“You fainted, sweetheart. Are you alright?”*
Liza nodded slowly.But when her mother left the room, she turned back to the mirror.
And there — in the reflection — she saw the **priest standing behind her**, eyes hollow, mouth sewn shut.
But when she turned around…there was **no one there.**
**To be continue..
