MIRROR CAGE – CHAPTER 15: THE OTHER TRUTH
"When your reflection starts asking questions, it's already too late to lie."
[Late Night – Dorm C-27B]
The glow from the screen cast sharp lines across Elijah's sunken cheeks. His frail body hunched over the old laptop, heart pounding. The message blinked back at him.
Unknown Sender: "We need to talk. You're not the only one hiding."
No name. No encryption signature. Just a chill that crawled up his spine like a whisper.
He didn't reply. Not yet.
Instead, he stood up and locked the dorm door—out of habit more than necessity. No one visited C-27B. It wasn't even listed on the official Kingsvale map anymore. His original self had been deleted from every school record.
And still… someone found him.
He typed a reply.
Elijah (Original): "Prove you know who I am."
The reply came instantly.
Unknown Sender: "You sleep with your left foot slightly over the blanket. Your mother's name was Nneka. You cracked your wrist falling off a ledge in Primary 3."
The breath left his lungs.
Whoever this was… they weren't guessing.
They knew him.
A second message followed.
"Meet me in the abandoned lecture hall. Sublevel 2. One hour."
Elijah stared at the screen. Sublevel 2 was condemned—blocked off since a chemical fire five years ago. They'd sealed it with steel plates and sensor locks.
Which meant… whoever sent this wasn't just a hacker. They had access. Resources.
Power.
He weighed his options.
It could be a trap. It probably was.
But he had to know.
He closed the laptop, grabbed a hoodie, and limped out of the room.
[One Hour Later – Sublevel 2, Abandoned Lecture Hall]
Flickering ceiling lights buzzed weakly overhead. The air smelled like damp stone and scorched chemicals. The walls were scorched black, the floor warped in places from the old fire. The door had been forced open—someone had clearly cut through the lock recently.
Elijah stepped in cautiously, every nerve on edge.
"Close the door."
The voice came from the shadows near the podium.
Female. Calm. Not Naomi.
He obeyed.
From the gloom, a girl stepped into the light.
She was tall, with an angular face and pitch-black eyes that seemed to swallow light. Wore no Kingsvale uniform—just an old grey coat, several sizes too big, and boots that looked military.
Elijah froze.
He recognized her.
Not from classes. Not from the courtyard. From the mirror.
He'd seen her face flicker once, faintly, in a broken reflection three weeks ago. A glitch in his switch. A mistake.
"You're not real," he said aloud.
She smiled slightly. "Neither are you."
Silence hung in the air.
"I'm not here to hurt you, Elijah," she said. "I'm here to tell you the truth."
Elijah's fists clenched. "Who are you?"
"I go by Sable. But that's not important." She stepped closer. "What matters is that you're not the only one caught in the Mirror Cage."
His mouth went dry.
"You've used it. You know what it does."
"More than you do," she said. "You think it's a gift. A trick. Something only you control."
Elijah didn't reply.
She took something from her pocket—a small, sleek chip.
"Do you know what this is?"
He shook his head.
"It's an Origin Key. Yours is in your spine, probably dormant until the switch activates. It's not magic. It's tech. Experimental, illegal. A neural parasite—implanted when you were a child."
Elijah's stomach turned.
"You're lying."
"I wish I was," she said softly. "They tested it on hundreds. Most didn't survive. A few of us did. But we don't get to live normal lives."
"Why me?"
"Because you were perfect," she said bitterly. "No family. No spotlight. Just a ghost in the system. Easy to disappear. But you were the first subject to stabilize the interface. They called you Mirror One."
His vision swam.
He staggered backward, slumping into a burnt-out bench.
Mirror One.
She sat across from him, arms resting on her knees.
"I escaped," she said. "A year ago. I've been tracking the others. There were at least five Mirror subjects at Kingsvale last year. You're the last one left."
"What happened to the others?"
Her eyes darkened. "Dead. Or worse."
"Why come to me now?"
"Because you're in danger. Not just from the students. From the people running this place. Naomi's smart—she's getting close. But if she uncovers too much, she'll disappear."
He stared at the floor.
"So what do we do?"
"We burn it down," she said quietly. "Every file. Every trace. Every lie."
Elijah looked up.
"And then?"
"Then we find the people who did this. The ones still experimenting. Still replacing lives."
There was a pause.
He thought of the arena. The blood. The faces that only loved the mask.
He thought of Naomi. Mason. Viv. Omar.
What happens when they find out I'm not real?
Sable leaned forward.
"You can keep pretending. Or you can start fighting back."
He stood up slowly.
"I'll help," he said. "But we do it my way."
She smiled. "Good."
They didn't shake hands. Didn't nod. But the pact was made.
Elijah left first, disappearing into the shadows.
[Hours Later – Naomi's Apartment]
Naomi stared at the file again, scrolling through the raw data.
Two Elijahs.
Identical. Impossible.
She reached for her phone, ready to send another message.
Then her screen glitched.
Just for a second.
Her reflection smiled back at her.
But she wasn't smiling.
She dropped the phone.
Somewhere in the dark, something was watching.