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CHAPTER TEN
They arrived at the lagoon not by intention, but as if pulled by some unspoken force—drawn through twisting vines and slanted trees that bent away as they walked. The air had thickened. The light bent strangely. Even the sounds of the jungle hushed, as though holding its breath.
The moment Kairo stepped into the clearing, he stopped.
It was beautiful—unnaturally so. A lagoon with water still as glass, surrounded by bone-white stones and creeping lilac-colored moss. Mist floated just above the surface like breath on a mirror. The pool was oval, unnatural in its symmetry, and gave off a faint pulse—like a living thing inhaling.
It reflected not the world above it, but something else entirely.
"No ripples," Ember whispered beside him. "No insects. Not even wind."
Lewin's notebook rustled as he jotted down notes feverishly. "There's no surface tension. No natural explanation. This is… engineered. Or summoned."
Kairo took a hesitant step closer.
His reflection stared back at him—not matching his movements, but delayed. When he tilted his head, the figure waited a full second before mimicking. But it wasn't just that. The reflection's face was wrong. Subtly distorted. The eyes were darker. Hollow. Angry.
Then it smiled.
Kairo stumbled backward, breath catching in his throat.
But the reflection remained—still smiling.
"What the hell is this?" he muttered.
Ember moved beside him. "I see… myself. But not me. She's… older. Wounded. Afraid."
"I see my daughter," Lewin whispered. "But she's underwater. Reaching out."
One by one, the others gathered, each facing a version of themselves—or someone they had lost, feared, or never truly knew.
Mateo screamed and fell to his knees. "She's here! She's here again! Don't listen to her!" he wailed. "The lagoon lies!"
Kairo leaned in again despite himself.
This time, the reflection showed him not his face—but his mother's. Younger. Before the sickness. She stood on a cliff, smiling.
"Kairo," she said, lips moving in silence. Then suddenly, in perfect audio, her voice came through the lagoon like wind:
> "You're not meant to leave this place. It's already inside you."
Kairo fell back, gasping.
Lewin approached him. "This… this is psychological warfare. It's using memories. Wounds. Regrets."
Kairo looked around. "Then why bring us here?"
"To break us," Lewin said flatly. "To make us stay."
And that's when the water began to move—not from wind or touch, but from within. Something swirled beneath the surface, drawing patterns in spirals. A soft hum vibrated through the ground, like an ancient song.
Suddenly, one of the team—Dele, the quiet linguist—stepped into the water.
"Dele, no!" Ember yelled.
But he kept walking, hypnotized. "She's calling me," he said, eyes blank. "She forgave me…"
The moment his foot touched the center, the lagoon swallowed him whole—not with a splash, but with a gulp. Gone.
"No!" Ember raced forward, but Kairo held her back.
Then silence again.
Until—rising from the depths—came Dele's reflection. But it wasn't him. It was… wrong. Twisted. Skin pale and stretched. Eyes all black. It smiled with too many teeth.
Ember screamed. Lewin dragged her away. "We need to move. This place isn't a lagoon. It's a threshold."
"A threshold to what?" Kairo asked.
Lewin's hands trembled. "I don't know. But it's watching."
That night, they camped far from the lagoon, but it didn't matter. The dreams came anyway.
Kairo dreamed of the lagoon again—this time he was underwater, staring up at himself on the surface, screaming silently, unable to rise. The reflection above turned away, indifferent.
He awoke in a sweat, clutching wet moss.
The next morning, his journal had a new entry in his handwriting:
> "You stayed too long. Now it remembers your name."
"It can wear your face."
He hadn't written it. But it was there, soaked in salt.
And worse—when the team gathered to continue on, someone was missing again.
But this time… the remaining crew didn't agree on who.
Ember swore it was Mateo.
Lewin said Mateo had died at the lagoon.
Kairo didn't remember him dying at all—only the scream.
Reality was fracturing.
And the Mirror Lagoon still sat in the jungle, silent, rippling now ever so slightly… as if something beneath was breathing.
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