Jade didn't go to school the next day.
She couldn't.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw that blank page where the drawing used to be. Or heard her own voice warning her not to trust Noah. Or worse, heard that other voice. The one that came from nowhere. The one that sounded like a thousand versions of herself speaking at once.
Instead, she stayed curled up on the floor of her bedroom, knees pulled to her chest, sketchbook open in front of her like it might suddenly decide to tell her the truth.
But it didn't.
It just sat there, empty.
Like it was waiting for her to lose it.
Her phone buzzed again:
[Lexie: hey you okay? you disappeared yesterday. want me to come over?]
She stared at the message.
Her thumb hovered over the keyboard.
Yes felt like lying.
No felt like a trap.
Finally, she typed:
[Just tired. brain fried.]
Quick. Vague. The kind of answer people accept when they don't want to ask more questions.
She tossed the phone aside and rubbed her eyes, trying to push away the pounding headache that had been building all night. Like something inside her skull was pulling threads loose.
Her gaze drifted to the window.
The late afternoon sun was already dropping behind the trees, casting long orange shadows across her room.
And then she saw it.
Not in the window.
In the mirror across from her bed.
At first, she thought it was just her reflection.
Same hoodie. Same messy hair. Same exhausted eyes.
But it wasn't.
The girl in the mirror was standing still while Jade shifted on the floor.
No breathing. No blinking.
And then,
The mask.
Thin. Bone-white. Cracked down one side like someone had tried to break it and failed.
Jade's eyes stared back at her through the holes, wide and hollow.
Her own reflection… wasn't following her anymore.
Jade's breath caught in her throat.
Her stomach flipped.
She whispered, "No-" but stopped herself. Saying it out loud made it too real.
The masked version tilted her head slightly, like it was studying her.
Judging her.
Jade squeezed her eyes shut.
It's not there. I'm imagining it. This is stress. I'm losing it. That's all.
When she opened her eyes again, normal.
Just her reflection.
No mask. No frozen stare.
The room was dead quiet, except for her shallow breaths.
But then, a whisper. So faint she barely caught it:
"Four loops already. You're slipping."
She shot up from the floor, knocking over her sketchbook and nearly tripping over herself as she stumbled backward. Her chest felt tight like she couldn't get enough air.
Her phone buzzed again.
Another message. But not from Lexie.
[Blocked Number: stability dropping. subject interference detected. proceed with caution.]
Jade stared at the screen, heart pounding.
What the hell was happening to her?
Who was sending these?
The door creaked open behind her.
"Jade?" her dad peeked in, voice soft. "You okay? You've been in here all day."
She wiped her face quickly. "Yeah. Just tired. Headache."
He frowned a little, eyes scanning the room, landing briefly on her sketchbook, her puffy eyes, the way she was sitting on the floor instead of at her desk like usual.
"You sure?"
She forced a small smile. "Yeah, Dad. Promise."
He didn't look convinced, but he nodded anyway. "Alright… Dinner's ready whenever you're hungry."
"Thanks."
He lingered for a second longer before quietly closing the door.
Later that night, she found herself at her desk, sketchbook open again, staring at the last page. Still blank.
But her hand kept twitching, like it wanted to draw even though her brain screamed no.
Her fingers moved almost on their own, dragging the pen across the paper in jagged lines. Circles. Shapes she didn't recognize.
By the time she stopped, there it was again:
The girl.
The mask.
The hollow eyes.
And beneath it, without her even realizing, she'd written:
"She's already inside."
Jade dropped the pen like it burned her.
Her breathing was shallow. Fast. The kind of breathing that comes right before a panic attack.
The knock at the window came again.
She didn't want to look.
But she did.
And it was him.
Noah.
Same as last night, perched on the fire escape like it was the most normal thing in the world.
She cracked open the window, voice shaky:
"You need to stop doing that."
He looked at her, expression soft. Like he was trying to figure out which version of her he was talking to.
"I was worried," he said quietly. "You weren't at school."
Jade almost laughed. "Yeah, well, I had some… scheduling conflicts."
A beat of silence. His eyes searched hers.
"You saw her, didn't you?" he asked.
Her blood ran cold.
"Who?" she whispered, already knowing the answer.
Noah's voice dropped even lower, barely above a breath.
"The one wearing your face."