Chapter Twenty-One: Between Wakefulness and Hallucination
The night was unusually cold.
The air swirled through the room like a vortex, the curtains fluttering without any hand touching them.
Noor sat on the floor, her back against the wall, staring into the empty space before her as if watching a film no one else could see.
She whispered softly,
"I'm fine… I'm fine… I'm just tired."
But her voice trembled, as though she didn't believe her own words.
On the table in front of her lay a small notebook, open to a page written in her own handwriting.
Yet what was written felt unfamiliar.
Scattered words, incomplete sentences — all bearing her signature… but she couldn't remember when she had written them.
"Do not trust the mirror."
"The copy is not your enemy; you are the one who forgot who you are."
"Niyar is waiting at the door."
Her heart tightened.
The last lines were fresh, written in the same ink she had used that morning for her university notes.
But she hadn't written them.
Then she heard a light knock at the door.
Once, twice… then silence.
She stood hesitantly, her steps slow, as if the ground had grown heavy.
She opened the door.
The hallway was dark, lit only by a faint yellow light coming from the kitchen.
Her breathing became louder than anything else.
Then she heard something — a whisper from the end of the hall:
"Noor… why are you trying to run away from me?"
She froze.
She recognized the voice instantly.
Niyar.
But she saw no one.
Her eyes turned toward the kitchen, and there — in the small mirror beside the refrigerator — she saw his reflection.
Standing behind her, very close, half his face in shadow, the other half smiling with a strange smile.
She turned around quickly — no one.
She looked back at the mirror and saw something even stranger:
her reflection didn't move with her.
It was staring at her, but not following her movements.
Its eyes were rigid, its smile cold.
The reflection spoke in a low voice, like an echo inside her mind:
"Now you're starting to remember… aren't you?"
A ringing filled Noor's ears, as if a voice inside her was trying to break free.
She collapsed onto the floor, clutching her head, whispering,
"Enough… please… enough…"
Suddenly, everything went still.
The air stopped, the voice vanished — even her heart felt as though it had stopped beating.
Then, from far away, she heard her mother's voice:
"Noor? My love, who are you talking to?"
She slowly lifted her head…
and in the mirror, her reflection was no longer there.
That night, she woke up after losing consciousness on the floor.
But something had changed… the room was not the same.
White curtains, bright light, clean air.
She was lying on a bed — but she didn't know where she was.
A gentle voice beside her said,
"Welcome, Noor. I'm Dr. Layla. Do you remember what happened?"
She looked at her with exhausted eyes, then murmured,
"I was… at home… there was someone… in the mirror…"
Dr. Layla smiled kindly and said,
"Everything is fine now. You've been through a severe shock."
But Noor looked around and noticed something:
on the table beside the bed… a small mirror, covered with a torn gray cloth.