MIRROR CAGE – CHAPTER 16: CRACKS IN GLASS
"Kingsvale isn't a school. It's a containment zone disguised as prestige."
[Morning – Kingsvale Institute, West Courtyard]
The sun looked fake today.
Too perfect, too golden—like someone had layered a filter over the sky. Elijah sat on a stone bench near the rose gardens, dressed in his usual uniform. His perfect face smiled politely whenever a student passed, but his mind was chewing on glass.
Last night hadn't left him.
Sable. Mirror One. Origin Key. Parasite.
And now Naomi—digging too close to something that would get her scrubbed from existence.
He couldn't afford to care.
But he did.
A shadow fell across him.
"Cole."
He glanced up. Mason.
Wordless as always.
The taller boy handed him a protein bar, sat beside him, and didn't speak. Just like always.
Elijah accepted the bar. He unwrapped it. Chewed.
Still silent.
Still trying to figure out what the hell he was supposed to do with a friend.
[Elsewhere – Naomi's Research Archive]
Naomi's fingers trembled as she cross-referenced biometric scans from Kingsvale's student registry. The scans shouldn't have duplicated—biometric tags were unique to each individual.
And yet…
Two nearly identical patterns. One clean, flawless. One buried beneath layers of deactivated entries and corrupted code.
Her Elijah.
And the other one.
She leaned back in her chair, staring at the blinking screen.
Impossible.
But nothing had been normal about Elijah since he arrived.
The way security footage sometimes skipped when he passed.
How her cameras caught glimpses of him twice in the same hall.
And the way her own reflection—once sharp—now lagged when she brushed her teeth.
She felt like a glass of water left on a shaking table.
Something was coming.
And she was starting to feel it.
[Later – Gym Combat Simulation Lab]
Viv was the first to speak.
"I want a rematch."
Elijah raised a brow, glancing up from the floor mat where he'd been stretching.
Viv crossed her arms. "You went easy on me last time. I don't want fake wins."
"You won."
"Barely."
Elijah shrugged.
"You hiding something?"
The words came out too casually, but her tone was sharp.
He blinked once.
"No."
She narrowed her eyes, stepping onto the mat.
"Then prove it."
She lunged.
The spar was short. Brutal. Fast.
Viv fought like she wanted to carve something out of him—answers, maybe. Or secrets. He gave nothing. Moved like smoke, struck like stone. Never too fast. Never too precise.
Just enough to keep her guessing.
When she finally hit the floor, gasping, she still grinned.
"Liar," she panted.
Elijah helped her up.
They said nothing more.
[That Night – Sublevel 2, Return to the Lecture Hall]
Sable was already there, crouched beside a shattered console embedded in the wall. Sparks flickered from exposed circuits.
"You're late."
"I had to play normal today."
Sable handed him a USB drive. "This has the registry of every Mirror subject still active. Not many left."
He pocketed it. "How many still in Kingsvale?"
"One."
Elijah tensed. "Who?"
Her face was unreadable. "We don't know. That's the problem."
He looked around the scorched lecture hall. "So what now?"
"We start collapsing the shell."
She pulled a folded schematic from her coat—blueprints of Kingsvale. Multiple layers. Some marked in red.
"These are the true architecture plans. Beneath the arena, there's another level—unlisted. That's where the original Mirror cage was built. They still run diagnostics from there."
"And we destroy it?"
"No. We infiltrate. Download every record. Expose it all."
Elijah's jaw tightened. "What if we're caught?"
Sable smirked faintly. "Then we go back in the cage. This time, without the masks."
[Midnight – Mason's POV, Dormitory Rooftop]
Mason lit a cigarette with a stolen matchstick, staring down at the quad from above. Elijah moved differently lately.
Still polite. Still surgical in fights. But something was… off.
Like a thread unraveling just beneath the fabric.
He didn't trust easily. Especially not people who rose too fast without bleeding for it. But Elijah bled differently. Quietly. Like he'd been wounded before he ever arrived.
Mason didn't like mysteries.
But he liked the answers even less.
He exhaled smoke and whispered to no one, "What are you hiding, Cole?"
Below, in the shadows, something flickered.
Like a reflection that didn't belong.
[System Interface – Hidden Update]
Status: Identity Stability: 87%
Reflections Detected: 2
System Warning: Mirrored Consciousness Interference Detected. Unstable Nodes: Naomi E. / Mason R.
Auto-Protocol Trigger: Partial Desync Imminent
[Closing Scene – Naomi's Room, 3:03 AM]
Naomi awoke to the sound of her own voice whispering.
But her lips weren't moving.
In the dark mirror opposite her bed, her reflection stared back.
Mouth moving. Eyes cold.
And then it smiled.
But Naomi did not.
She screamed.
And the mirror didn't echo it.