The rain came without warning.
It fell in heavy sheets over the city, washing the streets with a kind of violence that mirrored Lena's thoughts. She stood at the edge of a forgotten rooftop, watching the sky bleed gray, her sister's sleeping form etched into her memory like a prayer she wasn't ready to say aloud.
"So, what now?" Meher asked, leaning beside her with a soaked hoodie clinging to her frame.
Lena didn't answer.
Because she didn't know.
Kian sat below in the dim-lit kitchen, cleaning blood off his jacket. Their escape had come at a cost. Two of the Vanished hadn't made it out. And Aarav… Aarav had let her go.
That's what haunted her the most.
Not that he'd betrayed her.
But that he still believed in her.
"You're thinking about him again, aren't you?" Meher asked, her voice laced with both concern and resentment.
"He's not like them," Lena whispered.
Meher laughed bitterly. "He's exactly like them. The difference is, he bleeds prettier when he hurts you."
Lena clenched her jaw. "He didn't have to let me go."
"No," Meher said. "But he also didn't come with you."
---
Basement – An Hour Later
Lena moved through the safehouse like a ghost. Her sister, Alina, slept uneasily on the makeshift bed. Kian had set protective sigils around her, but something about the silence made Lena's skin crawl.
"Your sister has power," Kian said, appearing beside her as if summoned by thought. "And I don't just mean the kind they trapped."
Lena nodded. "She was different… even before they took her. She could… see things. Things that weren't supposed to exist."
"Then the Watchers took her for a reason," he murmured. "And not just as bait for you."
Lena turned to him. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying… she might be one of the Originals. Like me."
The words hit like a stone in her chest.
"How is that possible?"
"Because someone in your bloodline was never meant to exist."
---
Elsewhere – Watcher HQ
Aarav stood alone in the Watcher Archives, scanning old footage—Lena, her disappearances, her fractured timelines. But his mind kept drifting to the mirror.
That thing he saw wasn't Lena.
It was wearing her face, yes. But its smile was wrong—crooked, ancient, and cracked at the edges.
"You're losing your grip," a voice said from behind.
He turned to see Kayra—the youngest of the Watcher Council, and by far the most ambitious.
"You care for her," she said, stepping closer. "That makes you dangerous."
Aarav didn't blink. "You don't know what I saw."
"Oh, I do," Kayra said. "Because we've seen it before."
She handed him a file.
Lena's face was on the cover.
But the name read: Project Nēra – Phase III
Below it, in red letters:
DO NOT ENGAGE WITHOUT TERMINATION PROTOCOL
---
Safehouse – Later That Night
Lena jolted awake.
Not from a nightmare—but from silence.
Complete, suffocating silence.
She turned to Alina—her sister was gone.
The sigils were broken.
The windows were open.
And on the wall, written in something that looked too dark to be ink:
"I REMEMBER YOU, SISTER. I REMEMBER EVERYTHING."
A scream tore through the building—Kian's voice.
Lena vanished instantly, reappearing in the hall—
Kian was on his knees, blood dripping from a cut on his chest. His golden eyes were wide. "She's not your sister anymore," he choked. "They turned her into something else."
Lena froze.
"No… No, she's not like them—"
"She's worse," Meher said, stepping in with a dagger drawn. "They didn't trap her. They woke her."
---
Elsewhere – A Hidden Room
Alina stood in front of a broken mirror.
Her reflection didn't match her movements.
It smiled when she didn't.
It raised a hand when she didn't move.
And then it stepped out of the mirror entirely.
The creature looked like Lena.
But her eyes glowed a deep, haunting violet.
And she whispered in a voice that echoed with thousands—
"The Vanishing was never your curse. It was my awakening."
---
Quote :
"Some reflections aren't echoes. Some are warnings that scream before the glass breaks."
---