Chapter 8 - APARTMENT 9B
Ethan broke Rule Five.
Not because he was brave.
Because he was angry.
At 9:30 that morning, he walked to 9B.
Harris tried to stop him.
“Don’t.”
“You don’t know anything.”
“I know enough.”
“No. You know rules.”
Ethan grabbed the four empty screw holes where the apartment number had been.
The door was unlocked.
Inside:
no furniture.
No kitchen.
No bedroom.
The apartment had been gutted.
Only one room remained.
Centered inside it:
a standing mirror.
Eight feet tall.
Covered in a white sheet.
Harris went pale.
“That wasn’t there.”
Ethan approached.
The sheet moved.
Something behind it breathed.
Harris whispered:
“Back away.”
Ethan did not.
A voice came from behind the fabric.
His mother.
“Ethan.”
He froze.
Then another.
His father.
“Son.”
Then Harris.
“Don’t listen.”
Then Ethan’s own voice.
“You’re standing on the wrong side.”
Ethan ripped the sheet away.
The mirror was black.
No reflection.
Only darkness.
Then a figure stepped forward from inside the glass.
Ethan.
Same clothes.
Same face.
The doppelgänger from the door.
It smiled.
“You finally opened mine.”
Ethan stumbled backward.
The duplicate pressed one palm against the glass from the other side.
Then said:
“I’m not trying to get in.”
Ethan stared.
May you like
The duplicate’s smile vanished.
“I’m trying to get out.”
