Ghost Mirror

"My turn is over." Alan stretched, her tight dress outlining her stunning curves. "Now it's your turn, Mr. Connor. Give me a reason not to find today's date boring."

She tossed the question back at him, looking as though she were waiting to see what he could do.

Edward smiled. He finally understood that playing coy with the woman before him would not work. She liked things direct and exciting.

"Sure." He stepped forward and suddenly grabbed Alan's wrist.

Alan's gaze instantly sharpened, and she nearly struck back on instinct, but Edward moved faster. He did not use any force; he simply took her hand and pulled her across the street toward the amusement park nearby.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Alan was caught off guard as he dragged her along.

"Taking you to do something less childish." Edward looked back at her with a grin, sunlight spilling over his face and making it seem especially bright.

They headed straight for the tallest, fastest roller coaster in the entire amusement park.

As the roller coaster slowly climbed to its highest point, the entire town spread out below them. After a brief pause, the car suddenly plunged downward, and a powerful sense of weightlessness hit them at once.

The wind howled madly past their ears, while screams tore through the sky all around them.

Edward shouted at the top of his lungs, freely venting his emotions. He turned to Alan, expecting to see a face frozen in panic.

Yet not only did Alan not scream, she spread her arms wide against the raging wind, a dazzling, almost crazed smile appearing on her face.

Her eyes gleamed with excitement, like an eagle breaking free from its cage and reveling in the thrill of soaring through the open sky.

Once the roller coaster came to a stop, the two staggered off. Alan's face was slightly flushed with excitement. Looking at Edward, she showed him a sincere smile for the first time.

"This is somewhat interesting."

Seeing the excitement still lingering in her eyes, Edward found himself filled with even more questions.

He smiled and said, "So I passed today's test?"

Alan did not answer. Instead, she suddenly rose onto her toes, leaned close, and lightly kissed his cheek.

The soft touch vanished in an instant.

Edward stood there, touching the cheek she had kissed. Her warmth and fragrance seemed to linger there still.

He watched the direction in which she had left, the smile on his face growing deeper.

"Somewhat interesting," he murmured, his eyes filled with curiosity and an unprecedented intensity of interest. "Alan...?"

Night fell, and the city lights came on. Edward was considering whether to go home or somewhere else.

"The newly opened Mayflower Mall. Want to go?"

Brief and to the point—just Alan's style.

Edward smiled and replied, "My pleasure."

Half an hour later, they arrived at the mall entrance. Mayflower Mall was the town's latest attraction, renovated from an old building. Its exterior was lavish and magnificent, while its huge neon sign flickered with hazy light in the night.

Yet the moment they stepped through its doors, an indescribable sense of strangeness washed over them.

The mall's design was bizarre. Mirrors were everywhere: polished marble floors, huge full-length mirrors embedded in the walls, mirrored decorative spheres hanging from the ceiling, even the elevator's four walls were made of reflective material.

It felt as though they had stepped into a maze made entirely of reflections. "Don't you think... something feels off here?" Edward asked, turning his head toward her.

Alan's expression was indeed somewhat grave. Her sharp eyes vigilantly swept over their surroundings, her brows faintly drawn together.

Ever since entering, she had felt an instinctive rejection and agitation rising from the depths of her soul. It was as though countless eyes filled the air, watching her from behind those cold mirror surfaces.

As someone with equally deep ties to mirrors, she was especially sensitive to that presence. There were too many of her "kind" here, and they were filled with resentment and madness.

"The mirrors here are too noisy," she said quietly.

Edward froze for a moment, then understood what she meant. He looked around, and his gaze landed on a line of small print on the mall directory: Mayflower Shopping Center, formerly the site of Mayflower Psychiatric Hospital.

Mayflower, mirrors, psychiatric hospital! The title of a horror movie flashed through Edward's mind—Ghost Mirror.

It could not be that much of a coincidence, could it?

Alarm bells rang in his mind, but he kept his expression calm as he silently recited, Purification.

A nearly invisible, gentle holy light spread out from his body, completely dispersing the cold, sinister aura that had been lingering around him.

He felt much better, but seeing Alan's tense profile, he suggested, "How about we go somewhere else? The feng shui here seems pretty bad."

Alan shook her head instead, a fighting glint flashing through her eyes. "We're already here. I want to see what these things are trying to do."

Retreat had never been in her nature.

Seeing her insist, Edward could only accompany her. He now possessed several abilities, and he was confident that even if they truly ran into something from the movie, he could put up a fight.

The two walked side by side. Alan seemed to be trying to counter the discomfort through action. She pulled Edward into a clothing store, casually picked up a leather jacket, and held it against herself. In the mirror, she looked exceptionally dashing.

"Does it look good?" she asked.

"It does," Edward said sincerely. "Though you look good in anything."

Alan glanced at him, the corner of her lips lifting slightly. She seemed fairly satisfied with that answer.

Just then, a burst of piercing static came from the mall's broadcast system. Immediately afterward, a panicked voice cried out, "Fire! There's a fire on the third floor! All customers and employees, please evacuate immediately through the emergency exits!"

Before the announcement had even ended, thick smoke came rolling down from the stairwell, and the fire alarms began blaring. The crowd instantly fell into panic. Screams, sobs, and running footsteps mixed together as the entire mall descended into chaos.

"This way!" Edward reacted quickly, grabbing Alan's wrist and rushing toward the nearest emergency exit.

However, the flames spread at an unimaginable speed, as though they were alive, swiftly blocking their path. The ceiling sprinklers activated, spraying down freezing water that drenched the floor and the mirrors.

Amid the chaos, the crowd separated them and shoved them in front of a huge floor-to-ceiling mirror. Soaked by water, the reflection in the mirror appeared blurred and distorted.

Alan stared at the mirror and suddenly felt an enormous suction force coming from within it. Her soul trembled. It was suppression from a higher-order existence, and its target was her!