What Lies Behind Her Mirror

Detective Sarah Chen stared at the ornate Victorian mirror, its silver surface reflecting nothing but shadows in the dim light of the abandoned mansion. Three days, three women missing, and all connected to this house. The mirror seemed to mock her with its emptiness.

"Find anything?" Detective Mike Rodriguez's voice echoed from the hallway.

"Just another dead end," Sarah replied, but something about the mirror kept drawing her attention. The curved floral patterns along its frame seemed to shift in her peripheral vision, but when she looked directly at them, they were perfectly still.

"The homeowner's alibi checks out," Mike said, entering the room. "He was in Tokyo when the first woman disappeared."

Sarah traced her fingers along the mirror's frame. "What about his wife?"

"That's where it gets interesting." Mike pulled out his notebook. "Mrs. Eleanor Wright hasn't been seen in public for six months. Neighbors say she became a recluse after their daughter's suicide last year."

Sarah's hand froze on the frame. "Suicide? That wasn't in the case file."

"Because it wasn't ruled a suicide officially. The daughter – Rebecca Wright, nineteen – was found in this room, in front of this mirror, with no signs of trauma. Toxicology came back clean. They called it 'natural causes' but..."

"But nineteen-year-olds don't just die of natural causes," Sarah finished. She leaned closer to the mirror, her breath fogging the glass. For a moment, she thought she saw something move behind her reflection – a shadow darker than the others.

"Here's the part that'll give you chills," Mike continued. "Each of our missing women reported seeing someone following them in mirrors before they disappeared. Their therapists all noted it as a shared delusion."

Sarah stepped back from the mirror. "All three saw someone in mirrors?"

"A woman in a black dress, according to their descriptions. They said she would watch them, getting closer each time, but only in reflections. Never in real life."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop. Sarah pulled her jacket tighter. "We need to talk to Mrs. Wright."

"Already tried. The housekeeper says she hasn't left her room in three months. Won't see anyone, won't talk to anyone."

Sarah's phone buzzed – a text from forensics. "Lab results are in on the dust samples from the missing women's homes."

"Anything useful?"

"Traces of silver nitrate and..." Sarah squinted at the screen. "Something they can't identify. Some kind of organic compound they've never seen before."

A floorboard creaked behind them. Both detectives spun around, but the doorway was empty. When Sarah turned back to the mirror, she caught a glimpse of movement – a flash of black fabric disappearing around the edge of the reflection.

"Tell me you saw that," she whispered.

Mike shook his head. "Saw what?"

Sarah approached the mirror again, her heart pounding. The frame felt cold under her fingers, much colder than it should be. "We need to get this mirror to the lab."

"Sarah, it's just a mirror. We need to focus on finding Mrs. Wright and-"

"Three women are missing, Mike. All saw someone in mirrors before they vanished. Rebecca Wright dies mysteriously in front of this specific mirror. And now I'm seeing-" She stopped, realizing how it would sound.

"You're seeing something in the mirror too?" Mike's voice carried a note of concern. "Maybe you should take a break. You've been working this case non-stop for-"

A laugh echoed through the room – high, feminine, and definitely not coming from either of them. Mike drew his gun, scanning the shadows. "NYPD! Show yourself!"

Sarah couldn't move. In the mirror, a woman in a black Victorian dress stood directly behind her, but when Sarah spun around, there was nothing there. The figure remained in the reflection, smiling.

"Mike," Sarah's voice shook. "Look in the mirror."

He turned, and his face went pale. "That's... that's not possible."

The woman in black raised a finger to her lips, then pointed to something behind them. Against their better judgment, both detectives turned.

A door had appeared in the wall – a door that hadn't been there moments ago. It stood slightly ajar, revealing a silver glow beyond.

"Call for backup," Sarah said, drawing her weapon.

Mike already had his phone out. "No signal."

The woman in the mirror laughed again, the sound seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. When they looked back at the reflection, she was gone, but words had appeared in the fog of Sarah's breath on the glass:

"Come find us."

"We need to leave," Mike said, backing toward the room's entrance. "Now."

But Sarah stood transfixed by the mirror. In its depths, she could now see multiple figures – women in modern clothing, frozen in poses of terror, their faces familiar from the missing persons reports. And behind them, barely visible, was Rebecca Wright, mouthing two words over and over:

"Help us."

"The killer isn't Mrs. Wright," Sarah whispered. "It's the mirror. Somehow, it's the mirror."

"That's impossible. Mirrors don't kidnap people. Mirrors don't kill."

"Three months ago, I would have agreed with you." Sarah's fingers found a catch in the mirror's frame – a small lever hidden among the floral patterns. "But look at the evidence. The silver nitrate in their homes. The mysterious compound. The shared visions. What if this isn't just a mirror? What if it's a door?"

"A door to where?"

Sarah pressed the lever. The mirror's surface rippled like water, and through it, they could hear distant screams.

"I don't know," she answered. "But those women are still alive in there. And we're going to get them out."

Mike grabbed her arm. "Wait. If this is real – if this is actually happening – we need a plan. We need equipment. We need-"

"We need to move now," Sarah cut him off. "Look."

The ripples in the mirror's surface were spreading to the frame, to the wall around it. The door behind them creaked wider, the silver light growing brighter.

"It's not just a portal," Sarah realized. "It's expanding. If we don't stop it now..."

"It'll take over the whole house," Mike finished. "The whole city."

Sarah checked her gun, knowing it might be useless against whatever waited on the other side. "I'm going in. Call for backup if you get a signal. If I'm not back in thirty minutes..."

"I'm coming with you," Mike said firmly. "Partners don't let partners enter interdimensional mirrors alone."

Despite everything, Sarah smiled. "Ready?"

Mike nodded. "Ready."

Together, they stepped through the rippling surface. The last thing they saw in the normal world was their own reflections, distorting and fragmenting as reality bent around them. Then they were falling through silver light, the screams growing louder, and somewhere ahead, a woman in black was laughing.

The mirror stood silent in the empty room, its surface slowly stilling until it once again showed only shadows. But if anyone had looked closely, they might have seen new figures in its depths – a man and woman in police uniforms, running through an endless maze of mirrors, chasing a figure in a black dress who always stayed just out of reach.

And on the wall, in elegant Victorian script, new words appeared in the dust:

"Who will come looking for them?"