Mirror Mirror

Casa Reflejo was all velvet and glass, the kind of hostel that believed in aesthetics as safety. The dorm mirror was a full-length antique, framed in dark wood, and Valeria loved it. She set her speaker on the floor and practiced tango steps at dawn, whispering counts to herself. Her reflection followed perfectly until the morning it didn't.

It started with a delay. She lifted her hand, and the reflection lifted its hand a second late. She smiled, assuming fatigue. She tried again. The reflection smiled a beat later, not matching her teeth. She told Reese, the photographer, who shrugged and said old mirrors had quirks. Reese took a photo of the mirror and posted it with a caption: "Haunted dance studio." @HostelReaper replied, "Some mirrors are doors."

Valeria watched the mirror more than she watched the room. She practiced in front of it, then began to test it, moving quickly, waiting for the delay. The delay grew. She waved and the reflection waved back after a heartbeat, almost like it was deciding. She walked toward the mirror and saw another room behind her, one with candles and shadows. The dorm smelled faintly of smoke.

Diego told her to ignore it and come to the rooftop party. He said the city didn't sleep. The rooftop had fairy lights and a low wall. Valeria glanced at the mirror in the common room as she passed it. The reflection wasn't there. She waited. It appeared, already smiling, already watching her.

That night, she dreamed of the mirror, of her reflection stepping off the rooftop, her hair lifting in the wind as she fell. She woke with her heart racing and saw the mirror in the corner catching the moonlight. Her reflection sat up before she did. The dread felt like a tight costume.

She tried to cover the mirror. Luz, the manager, told her not to and said it was a historic piece. Valeria paid for a sheet anyway. In the morning the sheet was on the floor, neatly folded. The mirror was clean, polished, waiting. She stared until her eyes watered. The reflection blinked slowly, as if communicating a secret.

By the third day, Valeria stopped leaving the dorm. She watched the mirror until she saw the reflection step off the rooftop again. This time the reflection turned to her, reached out, and smiled. The smile was wrong. It was not a warning. It was an invitation.

Reese found Valeria on the roof at dusk. She was standing on the low wall, eyes fixed on the mirror across the courtyard. Reese called her name. Valeria did not turn. In the mirror, her reflection had already stepped forward, already fallen. Valeria followed like a dancer following a lead.

The city noise swallowed the sound. Diego spilled a drink and looked down too late. Luz closed the hostel roof for the night and told the guests it was because of rain. She stored the mirror in the back room, but the reflection still appeared in the glass of the bar fridge, in the window, in the screens of phones. In the reviews, someone wrote, "The mirror made me uneasy." @HostelReaper replied, "It wasn't a mirror. It was a reminder."