At the Midnight Academy for Gifted Magicians, there was only one rule that could never be broken.
"Never open the Black Door."
It stood at the end of the forbidden west corridor—sealed with chains, runes, and warnings in every magical language known. It wasn’t locked. No. It was guarded by fear. Every student was told on Day One: You can cast fire from your hands, speak with dragons, or travel through mirrors—but never, ever open the Black Door.
And no one did.
Until me.
I wasn’t trying to be a hero or a rebel. I was just… curious. The door whispered to me. Every night, in my dreams, I heard a voice: “Come.” It was like it knew my name. Like it was calling only to me.
One stormy night, when the rest of the Academy slept, I snuck out of my dorm with a glowing orb, a cloak of silence, and a heart beating louder than thunder.
I reached the door. It loomed tall, cracked black wood, covered in chains glowing faint blue. The runes pulsed softly as I stepped closer.
One touch.
The chains snapped like string. The runes faded.
And the door swung open.
Behind it… was a mirror.
Not just any mirror—it showed a world without rules. A world where magic was wild, uncontrolled, free. I saw myself in it, laughing, powerful beyond belief. No teachers. No rules. No limits.
I stepped through.
And everything changed.
I was no longer in the Academy. I was in the Mirror World, where time looped, and creatures roamed that had no names. The other version of me was there too, grinning like a shadow.
“You broke the unbreakable rule,” he said. “Now you’re one of us.”
My body felt strange. My spells flickered without my control. I tried to get back—but the door had vanished behind me. My reflection smiled wider.
“You didn’t just open a door. You opened a prison. And now... you’re the new prisoner.”
I screamed. But it echoed forever in silence.
---
And that’s what happens… when you break the unbreakable rule.
You don’t face punishment.
You become the punishment.
Trapped.
That’s the only word for it.
This world—this Mirror World—is like a twisted version of the Academy. The towers float upside-down. The halls stretch forever. The stars blink in colors I’ve never seen. Magic here is alive, wild, angry.
And the worst part?
There are others here. Students. Teachers. People from the Academy’s history. All of them broke the rule.
One girl, maybe 200 years old but still 15 in body, whispered to me, “You’re not the first. But you might be the last.”
“Why?” I asked her.
She pointed to the reflection of me—the other me. The one who smiled when I entered. He wasn’t just a version of me.
He was growing stronger. Every second I stayed here.
The Mirror feeds off the real me. My fears, my memories, my power. And soon, that version will be strong enough to take my place in the real world.
And I’ll be forgotten.
Forever.
But I’m not giving up.
There’s a way out. A forbidden spell, hidden deep in the Library of Lost Magic, guarded by a creature called the Hollow Warden. If I can get that spell, I can shatter the mirror from the inside.
But if I fail… my soul becomes part of the Mirror. I become just another whisper behind the Black Door.
Tonight, I set out.
Cloak tight. Heart steady. Mind sharp.
I’m going to steal back my life.
Even if it means breaking another rule.
The Library of Lost Magic is nothing like the library back at Midnight Academy.
It breathes.
The doors opened with a low sigh, as if the library had been waiting centuries for someone like me. Shelves floated in midair, twisting like vines, and books whispered as I passed. Some tried to bite. One tried to trick me into reading it aloud—but I remembered the stories. In here, words could turn into monsters.
I had to find the Spell of Fracture, the only spell that could break the Mirror’s hold. According to the old girl in the mirror world, it was locked in the heart of the library. But guarding it was the Hollow Warden—a creature that feeds on broken rules and regret.
I walked quietly, each step lighting the floor beneath me. The shadows shifted.
Then I heard it.
Not footsteps. Scraping. Like bone against stone.
The Hollow Warden.
It stepped from the darkness. A tall, thin creature with no eyes, only a mouth stretching across its head. From that mouth, it spoke in voices—not one, but all the voices of students who had broken the rule and lost themselves here.
“You wish to leave? Then give me something in return…”
“What?” I asked, clutching my wand tighter.
“Your name,” it hissed. “Give me your name, and I will give you the spell.”
Names are powerful in magic. Give it away, and you lose your identity. Your memory. Your very self.
But I had a plan.
I whispered a name—not mine, but the name of my Mirror Self. The version of me trying to escape into the real world.
The Warden laughed. “Clever, clever boy.”
And handed me a scroll.
The Spell of Fracture.
I grabbed it and ran. The scroll burned in my hands, the words moving and shifting. The magic inside it was ancient, wild, and dangerous. But I had no time to hesitate.
I raced to the edge of the Mirror World, back to the place where I first entered.
The mirror was still there.
My reflection stood on the other side, now fully formed. He smiled… and stepped forward.
We were face to face.
“One of us has to go,” he said.
“I know,” I replied.
I held up the scroll.
And spoke the spell.
---
CRACK!
The mirror shattered.
But so did everything around me.
Darkness swallowed the world.
And I fell.
Fell…
Until—
Light.
React
