Jung Xiao’s heart hamred in her chest, and her breath caught in her throat as she stood face-to-face with herself.
The figure behind her—a perfect mirror of her own body—smiled, but it wasn’t a friendly smile.
It was twisted, and sinister, with eyes that glead too brightly in the dimly lit kitchen.
The figure leaned in closer, its cold breath brushing against her skin as it whispered, "You can’t escape."
Jung Xiao felt her knees weaken.
The kitchen around her seed to distort, the walls closing in as if they were alive, breathing.
The air grew thick, and heavy with the stench of sothing rotting. She tried to scream, but her voice wouldn’t co out.
Panic surged through her, and she stumbled back, her hand searching for sothing to grab onto.
The other "her" stepped forward, its movents unnaturally fluid, like a predator stalking its prey.
"I’ve been waiting for you," it said, voice soft but nacing as if it was savoring the mont.
Jung Xiao’s back hit the cold kitchen counter, and she turned to run, but her feet felt glued to the floor.
She couldn’t move.
The reflection—or whatever it was—reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, its grip ice-cold and strong.
Jung Xiao’s vision blurred as darkness crept into the edges of her sight, and her body felt heavy like she was sinking into the floor.
Desperate, she yanked her arm free, breaking the figure’s icy grip.
She dashed toward the door, but it wasn’t there anymore.
Instead, she found herself standing in a long, dark corridor that seed to stretch into infinity.
The walls were no longer the familiar white of her apartnt but covered in black, pulsing veins, like sothing alive.
Behind her, the sound of footsteps echoed.
Slow, deliberate, and getting closer.
Her heart pounded in her ears as she looked back and saw the other "her," still smiling, still following.
"Why are you running?" the voice called out, taunting. "You can’t run from yourself."
Tears welled in Jung Xiao’s eyes as she turned back to the endless hallway.
She started running, but the hallway seed to stretch on forever, the walls shifting and warping around her as if reality itself was unraveling.
Every ti she looked back, the figure was closer, its smile growing wider, its eyes glowing with an unnatural light.
Jung Xiao’s breaths ca out in ragged gasps. She wasn’t just running from the figure.
She was running from sothing deeper—sothing dark and twisted inside her that she didn’t want to face.
Suddenly, she tripped, falling hard onto the cold, veiny floor.
Pain shot through her legs, but before she could even try to stand, the figure was on her, crouching down beside her with a sickeningly sweet smile.
"You know what’s coming, don’t you?" it whispered, tilting its head as it stared at her with those glowing eyes. "It’s already inside you. You can’t hide it forever."
"Jung Xiao? Jung Xiao?" A sweet voice called out and Jung Xiao jolted awake, her body drenched in sweat, her heart pounding wildly in her chest.
She looked at Yu Holea who was looking at her worriedly and said,
"Oh...right...I am sorry...I was...Anyways, I will tell you."
Yu Holea patiently listened to Jung Xiao’s story and finally asked,
"Who gave you that dreamcatcher?"
"That? It was with , since birth." Jung Xiao said with confidence.
Yu Holea raised an eyebrow,
"You have nightmares since your birth?"
"Um? Yes." Jung Xiao nodded.
"When I was 10, I started to have this nightmare. Later my parents bought this dream catcher for and the nightmare suddenly stopped.
I have kept this dreamcatcher with for a long ti from then. But...6 months ago, this dreamcatcher stopped working. Maybe it has reached its expiration period?" Jung Xiao laughed.
"Hm...maybe you are correct." Yu Holea said calmly.
Jung Xiao’s heart chilled and she asked,
"Wait! Do you an, it is truly expired? Does dreamcatcher truly have an expiration period? But I have cleaned it regularly, so how can it reach its expiration period?"
Yu Holea chuckled,
"I was just joking."
Jung Xiao stared at Yu Holea for a few seconds before shaking her head in disappointnt,
"Your joke is not funny."
"When are you going to sleep?" Yu Holea asked.
Jung Xiao let out a nervous laugh, still shaking off the lingering tension from her nightmare.
"I suppose I should try to sleep now," she said, rubbing her temples as if trying to push the mory of the twisted dream away.
Yu Holea gave her a soft smile and nodded.
"Good idea. I’ll stay here until you’re asleep. Just relax, and I’ll keep an eye on everything."
Though Yu Holea’s words were ant to reassure, Jung Xiao didn’t feel assured at all.
She stood up and slowly made her way to the bedroom, glancing back once at the dreamcatcher hanging in the window.
It swayed slightly, as though a breeze had passed through, though the windows were tightly shut.
Jung Xiao slipped under her blankets, her eyes still darting around the room.
The apartnt felt... different.
The shadows seed thicker, the air heavier, almost as if sothing unseen was watching her.
She tried to brush it off as the remnants of the nightmare, but the unsettling feeling wouldn’t leave her.
Yu Holea sat calmly in a chair by the window, her eyes focused and sharp.
"Don’t worry, Jung Xiao," she said softly. "If anything happens, I’m right here."
Jung Xiao nodded, though her stomach twisted with doubt. She lay back on her pillow, forcing her eyes closed.
The seconds stretched into minutes as she tried to focus on her breathing, to calm herself down enough to drift off.
Soon she fell asleep.
When she woke up again, it was already midnight. Jung Xiao rubbed her eyes and turned on the lamp, only to find that Yu Holea had fallen asleep at so point.
Jung Xiao was about to close her eyes when she felt the urge to use the washroom.
Yawning, Jung Xiao stood up. Today she wasn’t as scared as she was previously. Maybe it was because of Yu Holea’s presence.
Jung Xiao opened the bathroom door and suddenly turned around.
’You are thinking too much.’
Just now she felt as if soone was following her.
But Yu Holea was sitting in her seat and her eyes were closed.
’She is sleeping.’ Jung Xiao thought, turned around, and entered the bathroom.
After using the washroom, Jung Xiao was washing her hands when she suddenly looked up in the mirror.
Everything was normal.
’What is happening to ?’ Jung Xiao muttered.
Jung Xiao shook her head, splashing so cold water on her face in an attempt to wake herself up from the lingering unease.
The mirror showed nothing but her tired reflection, dark circles under her eyes, her skin pale under the dim bathroom light.
She sighed, turning off the faucet and reaching for a towel to dry her hands, but as she glanced back at the mirror, sothing shifted.
Her reflection hadn’t moved with her.
Jung Xiao froze, her breath catching in her throat as she slowly raised her head to et the eyes of her reflection, which was now staring back at her with a smile—a twisted, unnerving grin that stretched too wide across its face.
The towel slipped from Jung Xiao’s hands, landing on the floor with a soft thud.
Her body stiffened as her reflection leaned in closer to the mirror, placing its hands flat against the glass from the other side.
It mouthed sothing—words that Jung Xiao couldn’t hear, but she could feel them.
They buzzed in the back of her mind, like static crawling under her skin.
Let out.
Jung Xiao staggered backward, her heart pounding wildly in her chest as the reflection’s smile widened, twisting into sothing inhuman.
The reflection’s hands pressed harder against the mirror, and the surface of the glass began to ripple, as if it were water, distorting her reflection’s features into a grotesque mockery of her own face.
She backed away, her legs shaking as a cold sweat broke out across her skin.
Her mind scread at her to run, but her feet felt rooted to the floor.
Suddenly, the reflection’s hand burst through the glass with a sickening crack, the jagged shards twisting around its arm like the edges of a broken windowpane.
Dark, black veins pulsed along its skin, the fingers unnaturally long and clawed as they reached out toward her.
Jung Xiao’s scream caught in her throat as she stumbled back against the bathroom wall.
The hand gripped the edge of the mirror, pulling itself further through the glass, the sound of cracking and splintering filling the room as the figure’s head erged.
It was no longer her reflection.
Its face was hollow, the eyes glowing a deep, sickening red as it grinned with rows of sharp, jagged teeth.
The creature twisted its body unnaturally, contorting as it dragged itself out of the mirror-like sothing crawling out of a nightmare.
"You can’t escape ," it hissed.
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