Renji staggered backward, nearly colliding with Lily. He turned sharply to face her. "What the hell is that?"

  Lily’s expression didn’t change. "A Watcher."

  Renji clenched his fists. "You said that before. What does that mean?!"

  Lily studied him for a moment before stepping toward the mirror. The Watcher’s form rippled as if reacting to her presence. "Watchers exist outside the rules of this town, in fact, they are the ones who made them." she said softly. "They observe. They follow. And when the time comes…" Her gloved fingers traced the mirror’s frame. "They take."

  Renji’s stomach twisted. "Take what?"

  Lily’s gaze flickered toward him. "Everything."

  His pulse thundered in his ears. "And you thought now was the right time to tell me this?"

  Lily didn’t flinch. "Would you have believed me?"

  Renji scoffed. "And I should believe you now?"

  A strained silence filled the room. The Watcher continued to linger in the mirror, its faceless form shifting. Renji forced himself to look at it.

  "If they’re so dangerous," he said, "why hasn’t it done anything yet?"

  Lily didn’t answer right away. Instead, she turned fully to him, her expression unreadable. "Because it’s waiting."

  Renji felt cold. "For what?"

  Lily’s lips curled slightly, almost like a smirk. "For you to figure that out."

  Something about the way she said it made Renji’s distrust deepen. She was always so vague, never giving him real answers. First the town, now these Watchers—how much did she actually know?

  His eyes flicked between her and the mirror. "What aren’t you telling me?"

  Lily sighed. "Nothing you’d accept yet."

  Renji exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair. His mind was spinning, but one thing was certain: he couldn’t trust Lily blindly.

  The Watcher shifted again.

  A whisper slithered through the air.

  "Remember."

  Renji’s breath hitched. That voice—he had heard it before.

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  The whispering shape in the mirror grinned wider.

  "Do you know what you are?"

  Renji took a step back, his breath caught in his throat. The shadow in the reflection was wrong—it mimicked his stance but not his expression. Where Renji’s face held unease, the one in the mirror brimmed with something else. Amusement? Mockery?

  His pulse hammered against his skin.

  Lily stood still beside him, her posture unreadable. The candlelight in the room flickered violently, the flames stretching unnaturally toward the mirror, as if drawn to whatever lurked beyond it.

  She sighed, then turned to him. "Memories shift in this town. Don’t trust them."

  Renji frowned, confused. But before he could press further, a movement on the nearby bookshelf caught his attention.

  One book—dusty, leather-bound, and far more worn than the others—had fallen forward as if inviting him to pick it up.

  Despite the heaviness in the air, he reached out and grasped it. His fingers trembled as he flipped it open. The pages were yellowed, brittle with time.

  And then, he saw it.

  A photograph.

  A much younger version of himself stood in front of a house, beaming at the camera. His hair was tousled, his smile wide with the unburdened joy of childhood. But what unsettled him were the two people beside him.

  A man and a woman.

  Their faces were blurred beyond recognition.

  His stomach twisted.

  Who were they?

  The obvious answer echoed in his mind. Your parents.

  But as he stared at the photograph, realization settled in like a weight on his chest.

  He couldn’t remember their faces.

  Not just in this moment—he never could.

  Even before waking up in this town, even before everything turned strange, their faces had always been missing from his memory.

  The book in his hands suddenly felt heavier. A whisper scraped at the back of his mind.

  "What if they were never real?"

  Renji gritted his teeth. No. That wasn’t possible. They existed. They had to.

  He shut the book with a snap. "Lily… who are these people?"

  Lily’s lips pressed into a thin line. "That’s a dangerous question."

  "Why?" His voice was sharper than he intended.

  She exhaled slowly. "Because if you don’t know the answer… maybe it’s not meant to be known."

  The room trembled.

  Renji stiffened. The air had shifted—distorted. The wooden floor beneath him groaned as if something beneath it was shifting.

  Then, the mirror cracked.

  Jagged lines crawled across the glass, splitting his reflection apart. The shadow in the mirror didn’t move. It only grinned wider.

  "Time’s almost up."

  The candle flames surged, casting long, writhing shadows across the walls. The whispering returned, seeping through the cracks in the mirror, the floor, the very air itself.

  Lily moved swiftly. "We need to leave. Now."

  Renji barely had time to react before she grabbed his wrist and pulled him toward the door. The moment they crossed the threshold, the house shuddered violently.

  The bookshelf collapsed. The floor splintered.

  The whispers became walls.

  They ran.

  The hallway twisted, stretching impossibly long, doors appearing and vanishing along the walls. Renji’s breath was ragged, his mind reeling.

  Behind them, something was coming.

  A deep, crawling darkness spilled from the shattered mirror, slithering after them like ink spilled on fabric.

  Then—

  A door at the end of the hall burst open.

  A figure stood there.

  A man.

  Tall, dressed in an old-fashioned coat, his face partially obscured by shadows. But there was something off about him—something that made Renji’s stomach churn.

  The man tilted his head slightly, regarding Renji with a gaze he couldn’t see but could feel.

  Then, he spoke.

  "So, you finally made it back."

  Renji’s breath hitched.

  The darkness surged forward.

  Lily pulled him through the door.

  And everything went black.

  End of Chapter 3.