Back to the Mirror

Thanks to this information, Noah was able to confirm that indeed, the problem was not him, but the mirror, something that apparently all the men in the family had experienced.

And if their experience was even a tenth of what he suffered, it wasn't hard to guess why they decided to keep quiet instead of saying what frightened them about the mirror.

However, there was a certain part of this information that struck him as odd.

"But grandma, why do you emphasize 'the men' in this family? Didn't the same thing happen with the women?" Noah asked, not quite understanding this part.

"That's right, only the men were the ones who were so scared of that mirror, as for the women... well, nothing really happened to us."

With this last comment, Aina stopped talking and concentrated on sipping her tea as she went back to reading the paper.

Similarly, Estrid also slightly averted her son's gaze, causing Noah's confusion to only increase.

...

A couple of minutes passed in this awkward silence before Estrid decided to break the silence under Noah's piercing gaze.

Putting both hands together, the woman spoke, "Well, I think that's enough then, I'll collect the dishes before I head off to the bakery."

"Hm, I think I'll join you today." Aina added.

With neither woman willing to elaborate on Noah's question, the young man could do nothing but let out a sigh and help clear the table.

He wasn't that worried anyway, after all, even if he hadn't uncovered the story behind the mirror and its mysticism, he had certainly gained valuable information.

---

After breakfast, before Estrid and Aina left the house, they both asked Noah if he was okay and if he wanted them to stay and take care of him.

However, the young man rejected this, claiming that he could take care of himself and that they should not worry since he was feeling better.

Although they did not seem entirely convinced, due to his insistence, they eventually left, but not before making him promise that if anything happened, he would call them right away.

"Cursed eh..."

Now alone at home, Noah again found himself sitting at his desk, his gaze falling on the metal mirror which was now covered by a blank sheet.

The latter being more a way to feel safer than anything else, after all, there was no way a sheet could stop something if it wanted to get through the mirror,

Turning his attention back to his notes, he could see that on the page he was on, it was separated into three sections.

The first read in large letters, "Theory: Mirror World," and contained the information he had read on the internet compared to his own experiences, finding all the similarities.

The second read, "Medium," with a doodle of the mirror next to it and the conclusions Noah drew from what his grandmother told him.

Finally, on the third, this one read, "Trigger," which unlike the previous two, was completely empty.

The reason for this was simple.

Assuming that both the Theory and Medium sections were true, that would mean that somehow he had managed to travel to the mirror world.

The question in that case would be, what caused him to be able to travel to this strange world?

Knowing the cause of activation of this mirror was just as important as the other two, causing Noah to waste no time before starting to researching this.

Surprisingly, while he had previously had trouble finding information about both the theory and medium, because it was scarce, now it was the opposite.

He had found a thousand and one methods of how to open a door to another world, whether it be for historical rituals, strange games, or spiritualism stuff to get in touch with your true self.

With so much material to choose from but not knowing exactly what he was looking for, Noah really didn't know where to start.

"I guess there's no other way but to start with the-COUGH!!!"

Suddenly interrupting him mid-sentence, the young man began to cough violently, clutching his chest due to the pain he felt in the area.

Quickly, the notebook was filled with smears coming from Noah, with droplets of what appeared to be a black liquid coming out of the latter's mouth, as if this was now his saliva.

"-KAH!"

Getting to his feet with shaky steps, he made his way to his bed, where his condition worsened, nausea, disgust and dizziness beginning to fill him immediately.

Without him realizing it, the veins all over his body began to throb, the starting point being the wound in his left ankle, the veins turning a jet black color that threatened to cover him completely.

For a brief period of time, Noah, amidst all the pain and discomfort he was feeling, no longer even being able to distinguish his room thanks to the intense dizziness, really began to worry about his condition, fearing the worst.

As his condition worsened, a certain image then began to appear in Noah's head, a misshapen humanoid figure with the wrong amount of limbs.

'SU-fFER!!!'

Suddenly, the figure let out a scream that even without sound, despite seeming to come from a weak and dying body, managed to resonate loudly in the young man's head.

"HAAA!!!"

To his luck, just as the scream and discomfort seemed about to reach its limit, just as quickly as they had come, they disappeared, with the young man quickly taking a breath of air that had been deprived him earlier.

Likewise, the veins in his body returned to normal, leaving Noah's body as it was before.

"Haa...haa."

Breathing heavily, the young man was clutching his head due to the feeling that his head was about to explode left by the scream.

"...It's that fucking monster."

Spitting out words filled with palpable hatred that didn't seem like his own, Noah was quick to recognize the silhouette that had appeared in his head.

Not only had he recognized the monster, but this time, he had been able to feel what that monster wanted from him...his death.

This, rather than Noah himself being sensitive to this monster's emotions, was mostly due to the latter expressing its desires in such a way that it had managed to convey them to Noah.

In fact, Noah was sure that if he thought more deeply about it, he would even be able to guess how it was that the monster intended to kill him.

However, instead of focusing on this, the young man's mind was focused on something else.

In the morning, after cleaning his wound and after he had heard the monster's raspy voice, a certain feeling had taken root inside him.

At the time, he did not know what it was and attributed it simply to the fright he had received.

Now, he had realized what that feeling inside him truly was, and it was not a pleasant thing at all.

"...It's getting closer."

----

The hours passed, and as Noah reviewed and added information to his notebook almost in desperation, the night had come, at which time the young man stopped writing.

The house was now silent, with only the sound of his mother sleeping peacefully in her room, resting after a hard day's work. A reality that applied to most houses in the neighborhood, after all, the night was well into the night.

Though of course, as with everything, there were always exceptions, with Noah's case being among them.

The young man was sitting on his bed with his notebook in his hands, reading what he had written, occasionally glancing at the watch on his left wrist.

Next to him was a small backpack whose contents were not entirely clear, but from its shape, one could tell it was full to bursting.

Another thing that was clear was the attire the young man was wearing, with a navy blue sweatshirt and black jogging pants, with sneakers of the same type.

It was clothing that apart from being comfortable, would undoubtedly not disrupt his movement in any way, designed more for escape than for withstanding blows.

Finally, what was most striking.

In his right hand was an object whose surface reflected the little moonlight that came through the window, a kitchen knife.

*Pin!*

With that sound, the watch on his wrist began to chime, indicating that the alarm he had set was working properly, and that the time to act had come.

Without another word, Noah turned off the alarm and put his notebook away on his desk.

Grabbing his backpack, the young man then walked over to the mirror, removing the sheet that had been covering it so far.

Immediately, he could see his reflection in the large metal mirror, a sight that at this point, Noah had begun to loathe.

Today, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Noah had spent the day in the bath, with the scalding water touching his skin many more times than would be healthy and advisable for any person.

On each of his visits, seeing his face in the bathroom mirror was unavoidable, as was the apparent decay he seemed to suffer with each time he cleaned his wound.

At first he had been normal, but after a certain point, specifically, when the water stopped having any effect in cleaning his wound, his appearance worsened.

His face began to look much thinner, with pronounced dark circles under his eyes and a worrying pallor.

Now, his face was so thin that Noah could hardly recognize himself, as for his wound, he no longer dared to look at it for fear of discovering that his leg was no longer the same.

It was this sight that not only filled him with a kind of hatred, but also a reminder of how most likely, he wouldn't make it past tonight if he didn't do something.

"Haa..."

Letting out a sigh, Noah tried to calms the small tremors in his body by increasing the grip strength with which he held the knife.

Even though he was filled with determination, that didn't mean the fear was gone, but he simply had no choice but to grit his teeth and press on.

Slowly, the young man raised his left hand, bringing it up to the surface of the mirror, his fingertips feeling the coldness of the metal.

"..."

For a moment, the room was filled with absolute silence, with Noah holding his breath, fearing that his theory was wrong and that this was not the way he first entered the mirror world.

*TSSS!!!*

"Ack!"

The next moment, starting from Noah's fingertips, a cold sensation began to enter his body, quickly filling his entire arm, continuing to stop at his forearm.

The cold did not stop for a moment, causing the young man to contort his face in pain, closing his eyes as he clutched his left arm.

At the same time, a small symbol began to glow faintly on Noah's forearm, the same one that had been imprinted on it when he was unconscious.

As soon as this symbol appeared, another change took place in the mirror.

Suddenly, as if it were a liquid, the metal exterior of the mirror began to give way, with Noah's arm sinking lower and lower.

"Ah, shit!" Blurting out that word, Noah had already realized that there was no turning back, as there was an overwhelming force pulling on him.

He could have tried to resist in the face of this, but aside from having a feeling that he wouldn't be able to break free, he didn't want to. Letting out a final sigh full of determination, the young man then stepped fully into the mirror.

Just like that, in just a matter of seconds, the scene in the room had completely changed.

Now, the room was empty, with only the mirror, which had returned to its original form, in place.

With that, Noah had returned to the mirror.