The cab stopped in front of the house just as the sun sank behind the treeline, bleeding the sky orange and purple. Mara pressed her forehead against the cool glass of the window, staring at the crooked silhouette that had once felt like a second home. Now, it only looked tired. The shutters hung askew, the paint peeled in long strips, and the roof sagged like it had given up holding itself together.
Her grandmother's house.
The driver muttered something under his breath about "old places like that" and wasted no time unloading her suitcase. By the time Mara had paid him and turned back, the cab's taillights were already vanishing into the woods.
The silence hit her first.It wasn't the quiet of peace, but the heavy, watchful kind — the kind that felt alive.
She gripped the handle of her suitcase tighter and stepped up the porch. The boards groaned under her feet. A cold draft leaked through the cracks in the door even before she knocked.
It opened almost instantly.
"Mara."
Her grandmother stood there, her silver hair pinned back in the same severe bun she'd always worn, her sharp eyes still cutting despite the soft tremble in her body. She pulled Mara into a surprisingly strong hug.
"You've grown," she said, though it was a lie. Mara hadn't grown in years. If anything, she felt smaller, standing in that house again.
Inside smelled the same — mothballs, old wood, and something faintly metallic, like rust. The wallpaper curled at the edges. The hall stretched long and narrow, lit by a single flickering bulb. And there, at the far end, stood the mirror.
Tall. Gilded. Waiting.
Mara's eyes lingered on it before she could stop herself. Its surface seemed darker than it should have been, like it was swallowing the weak light from the bulb.
Her grandmother's hand landed on her shoulder, firm."Don't stare, child."
Mara blinked. "At what?"
Her grandmother's face was unreadable. "The glass. Never stare too long. That's how it notices you."
Mara gave a nervous laugh, trying to brush it off. "Still telling ghost stories, Grandma?"
But her grandmother didn't smile.And the mirror didn't either. Not yet.