The air still shook with the echo of shattered glass. Tiny shards glinted on the floor like frozen tears. Kemi's arm dripped blood, a harsh reminder that escaping the mansion's trials would cost more than just fear—it would cost flesh and bone.
Elara knelt beside her, eyes pressing into the fractured mirror before them. The glass fissures radiated outward in jagged webbing, pulsing with a pale, lifelike glow. It was as though the room itself throbbed with anger or pain—And that feeling crawled up Elara's throat so she could taste it.
Behind her, Coyle's voice slipped through the silence, calm but heavy. "The House judges us." His tone was almost clinical. "And its verdict… it's never merciful."
Jace, still pressed against the blood-soaked cloth at his wound, snorted through clenched teeth. Pain darkened his tone. "So… what now? Do we just stand here and wait for our names to be called? Let them erase us?"
Harper's voice trembled as she wrapped a hand gently around Elara's. "Is there… a way to fight back? Maybe… change the verdict?"
Dorian's expression hardened into something like steel. He wiped a smear of blood off Kemi's arm with a clean rag—harsh, but steady—and said quietly, "We survive. By whatever means necessary."
Elara rose slowly, resolve growing in her chest like iron. She turned to face the mirror. The cracks in its surface glowed with every inch of tension in the room.
"The verdict isn't final," she said firmly, her voice calm despite the tension. "Not until we accept it. And… we still have a choice."
At her words, the light dimmed for a moment, then the mirrors pulsed back to life. All at once, the chamber lurched into deathly silence.
Then—a voice.
Cold. Cruel. Smooth as cracked ice.
"One must be chosen. The lies, the truths, the fractures—all lead to judgment. Step forward. Accept your fate."
The chamber seemed to inhale.
The group froze.
Elara's heart hammered in her ribs. Everything had become acute. Every breath a question. Every heartbeat a countdown.
Jace's hand shook on the cloth. He swallowed hard. Avoided eye contact.
Harper closed her eyes, mouth moving as if she were whispering a prayer.
Kemi leaned heavily against the wall, her face pale and determined.
Dorian's gaze flickered to Elara—then away, as though grappling with a silent choice.
Coyle, unmoving, considered the mirror with an inscrutable stare.
A single rule: One must be chosen.
Elara swallowed the lump in her throat. "It's a test," she said softly. "Of trust. Of unity."
Jace spat out blood-tinged saliva. "Or of who betrays last."
Harper met his eyes. "Not if we refuse."
Coyle's reply was measured. "We can't refuse. We have to respond."
Elara nodded. She stepped forward into the mirroring shards. "We answer together."
The shards across the wall glowed brighter. Faces in the reflections twisted—Jace's, Dorian's, Kemi's, Harper's, Elara's, Coyle's—all fractured in the glass.
A whisper rose from the mirror: "Choose one."
Elara clenched her fists at her sides. "No."
Another pulse of light. The order repeated—sharper now. "Step forward."
One – someone will be erased.
Two – someone must sacrifice.
Three – someone dies or remains, but only one can escape?
Elara's mind spun with possibilities.
She glanced around:
Jace: flushed, tense, eyes wild—he'd resisted trusting them. Could the House choose his fracture?
Harper: trembling but unwilling to give in, still soldiering on. Would the House demand she step into the mirror?
Dorian: so often alone, stoic… might the House say "A lone survivor steps forward"?
Kemi: injured, vulnerable, yet fierce—could she be cast then?
Coyle: oldest strategist… maybe he's meant to bear the verdict?
And what of Elara? She realized the moment she admitted it—she might be the one it expected.
The House paused.
The cracks in the mirror glowed, then jagged lines of light traveled inward.
One more time:
"Step forward. Accept your fate."
Silence reigned.
Then Jace staggered forward, cloth in hand, eyes rimmed red. He kept his head low. "I'll go."
No hesitation—only the quiet of acceptance.
Harper gasped, but he didn't stop.
"Don't." Elara's voice was calm, but it boomed with a deadly threat.
He tilted his head, pained but resolute. "I choose. I accept."
Dorian surged forward. "Only if one of us goes through that…" He moved in front of Jace. "…we go together." He grabbed Jace's hand.
They both met the mirror.
A gust of wind rippled across the floor.
Whispers sharpened again. "No," the House's voice echoed. "One must be chosen."
Kemi's legs trembled—she lurched forward. "Then one of us refuses."
The light flickered. Faces in the glass moved.
"Refuse?" The voice questioned. "Then another."
They all shifted.
Jace and Dorian backpedaled. Harper edged forward, both trembling and defiant.
Harper's voice cut the silence. "If the House wants sacrifice — it won't have it."
She stepped fully into the shards' reflection. The mirrors convulsed with her shape, tinted with her fear.
Elara blanched. "No—Harper…"
She shook her head. Harper's jaw set.
Harper reached out—almost touching the mirror. "Take me."
Elara lunged to stop her, but Harper shook her off—blood pooling at her knees. "It's not fair for me to choose."
The House's voice curled through the shards: "Accept your fate."
Harper froze, halfway into the glass. Light curled around her limbs.
Elara rushed forward—Jace tried to reach her, Dorian spread out, Kemi and Coyle squared.
"STOP!" Elara's fist slammed into the closest mirror, crackling deep through the glass. Blood sprayed her hand. "This ends now."
There was a long, charged moment.
Elara, battered, bleeding, face streaked with sweat, looked directly into the center shard.
"We stand as one." Her voice echoed. "Choose us, not one of us."
The shards around them rattled. Dawn-light glowed in cracks across the chamber.
Harper stumbled back—no longer stepping forward, but kneeling.
The House's voice faltered.
The mirror's glow dimmed—blinking like uncertain eyes.
For a heartbeat—no judgement. No verdict.
Then the mirror shattered.
Shards rained across the floor, showering the group in glass glitter. The shards glowed—then faded.
They stood in sudden silence.
No voice. No words.
They were not chosen.
They had broken the verdict.
Elara sank to her knees, chest heaving.
Harper rushed forward to hold her, tears burning.
Jace and Dorian helped Kemi with her arm.
Coyle simply looked at the ruins of the mirror—for the first time, he seemed moved.
Elara whispered into the silence: "We defied it."
A single shard in her hand glowed faintly—and then died.
The chamber's breathing slowed.
They had broken the Mirror's Verdict.