1 Prologue

Aja Masara

I know I am not awake. I also know that I am not asleep. Neither am I dreaming. I am just conscious and it isn't something I know how to explain.

I feel the cold hardwood floor under my bare feet as I take my first step since I found myself in this moonlit hallway. Alone.

The moonlight is coming from the open window at the end of the hallway and the cold breeze that travels in sends chills through my body. I take a few more steps forward and the quiet creak of the floor seems so loud that my heartbeat quickens. I walk down the familiar hallway to the white door that never opens but for some reason, tonight, I know it will.

I fold my hand around the cold, round, silver doorknob, shaped like a wolf's head and twist. It opens. Behind the door is a wide empty room. This room too, has an open window. On the same side as that of the hallway. Facing the same vast forest. With the same dark lake at the centre of it. But tonight, I am entranced by the mirror.

I hear the distant wind begin to blow and know that in the next few seconds I will be pulled out of this mirage and into the real world. I will wake up. My reflection seems to notice the same thing but her reaction is different. Panicked.

"Hey!" She yells at me. I step back, shocked. How is my reflection talking to me?

"It is not a reflection!" and just as those words leave her mouth, we are both sucked into opposite directions.

Out of opposite doors.