The Other Side of Morning
Dawn came slow.
Not a sudden break in the sky, but a gradual bleeding of light through the canopy. The forest softened—colors returned, shadows lost their grip.
Nori and Max stood in the clearing, backs to the mirror.
It was no longer cracked. No longer glowing. It simply was. A tall, silent thing reflecting only the trees, the sky, and the two kids who survived it.
"I don't hear them anymore," Max whispered.
Nori nodded, but didn't speak. She was afraid if she did, the silence would break, and something might come rushing in to take its place.
Behind them, the locket lay in the grass—still and dull. The photograph had turned blank.
She didn't pick it up.
---
The path home was different now. Less like a maze. More like a memory unraveling.
They found the others scattered near what was left of the fire pit—confused, bruised, but alive. The whispers had gone. The unnatural cold was fading.
No one remembered exactly what happened.
Some said it was a gas leak. A hallucination. One kid insisted they'd seen wolves. No one mentioned Eli.
Except Nori and Max.
They sat together on the edge of the woods as the sun finally cleared the trees.
"You think we really ended it?" Max asked.
"I think we ended something," Nori said. "But not everything."
He was quiet for a while. Then, "What do we tell them?"
"The truth," she said. "Even if they don't believe it."
She felt it, even as she said the words: the change. The shift. Something subtle, like a knot finally untying deep inside her chest.
She thought about Mary. About her eyes at the end—not hollow, but full. Of choice. Of peace.
Maybe that was enough.
---
One Week Later
Nori stood outside the ruins of the old house. The police had cordoned it off, but she'd found her way past. Just to see it.
She didn't expect to find anything.
But she did.
In the ash and splinters, where the attic might have been, was a shard of glass. Clean. Untouched. Reflecting her face clearly.
She crouched beside it.
Her reflection blinked a second late.
Nori froze.
Then smiled—softly.
She wasn't afraid.
Not anymore.
---
And deep beneath the earth, far from fire and forest, something ancient stirred—not angry, not hungry. Just… waiting.