Chapter Ten: The Broken Mirror
"When you see the shadow smile at you, know that the game has begun to move."
— Edgar Wilmore
In the early morning, London was shrouded in thick fog.
Eliza rushed onto Bishopsgate Street after receiving a new message from Edgar.
"The next step… is your choice."
There was no address, only a small mark on a piece of cardboard: an arrow pointing toward a dark street, nearly empty of pedestrians.
Eliza felt a chill.
This is not just a game… this is a direct invitation.
Howard had been watching her from afar since morning.
He hadn't intervened yet, but he noticed every movement, every glance.
He knew Eliza was in direct contact with the killer, yet he wasn't sure of her motives.
"Every step has a price… and soon, I'll know the truth,"
Howard thought, writing his notes meticulously.
Eliza walked down the dark street, each step echoing under the old pavements.
The smell of rain mingled with the smoke rising from the old gas lamps.
Suddenly, she saw a shadow moving at the corner.
It was Edgar.
A calm smile on his face, but his eyes were like mirrors, reading her completely.
"Hello… you chose the right path,"
he whispered softly, as if writing the words directly into her mind.
He stopped her and pulled out a small, old notebook:
"Look… every person who passes through this street is now part of my story.
And you… you are different, but extremely important."
He wanted to test her ability to remain calm under psychological pressure.
He glanced around, then said:
"Let's begin the real game…
Every decision you make now will affect what happens next."
He handed her an envelope containing a single sheet of paper:
A drawing of a London street, with strange markings on the buildings.
A small note:
"Choose the first house or the last. Each choice opens a different path."
Eliza felt that this decision was not just a choice, but a test of her ability to read Edgar and understand his psychological plan.
Howard, from a distance, watched everything.
He muttered to himself:
"If she chooses this path, she might become a victim… or she might be smarter than anyone else."
He started moving toward her quietly, watching every corner, every shadow, every motion of potential killers in the streets.
Eliza chose the first house.
Edgar smiled, as if she had proved her intelligence.
But he pulled her slightly into the shadows and said:
"The mirror is in front of you…
But do you dare look directly at yourself?"
She felt everything around her begin to dissolve into the fog.
Every step, every inch, every faint light became part of the mind game that Edgar had designed.
They entered an old, dark building, where the walls were covered with ancient drawings and strange lines.
Edgar began recounting short stories of his previous crimes, but he added a new psychological layer:
Why he saw killing as art.
How he tested human reactions.
How he viewed London as a stage, and people as mere characters in his narrative.
Eliza wrote down every word in her notebook, but she felt each line become part of the game itself.
The rain in London grew heavier, its sound harmonizing with the tension in the streets.
Howard approached the area, but he had not intervened yet.
Edgar came closer to Eliza and said in a calm, terrifying voice:
"Now… the real game has begun.
Do you know what will happen if you decide to walk away?"
Eliza, with a steady heart and a sharp mind, wrote in her notebook:
"The game hasn't started yet…
But it has become a mirror for anyone who dares to look into it."
The fog swallowed the area, each step became more dangerous, each choice more daunting…
And London became the stage for the true triple game.