Chapter 10

“Sometimes the thing looking into the mirror is no longer you. Sometimes, it is the one that looks first.”

I swam, barely moving — as if the water itself were guiding me. Deep within the tunnel, there was no longer an up or a down. The labyrinth was ceasing to be architecture; it was becoming a state of being — enveloping, sticky. As if it were soaking into my body. Into my thoughts. Into my fear.

Every movement I made left a wake in the water, like a shadow. Sometimes I felt someone swimming behind me. But whenever I turned around — there was no one.

Suddenly — a tremor. A current surged through the water. Ahead, a shifting wall. A door, shaped like the lens of an eye. It opened soundlessly. Beyond it lay a white hall.

I stepped inside. The water did not follow. Past the threshold, it was dry, like a void. The floor beneath me was glass. No. Not glass — it was a mirror.

I took a step and realized: the entire space was reflecting. The walls, the ceiling, even the air seemed to duplicate my movements.

I turned around, but there was nothing behind me. No passage. No water. Only me and… me.

I walked forward slowly, listening closely. Not a sound. Only my own footsteps. But… with a delay.

They didn’t match my movements.

The reflection wasn’t lagging. It was watching.

I stopped. And the image in the mirror froze. But then… it shifted. On its own. Without me.

I backed away. My heart was hammering, as if driving nails from the inside. In the mirror, I saw my reflection slowly raise its hand and… touch the glass from within.

My lips were trembling. The lips in the mirror were smiling.

I nearly screamed — but didn’t have the time.

A word appeared on the mirror. A single word, sharply gouged as if by fingernails:

“CHOOSE”

From the depths of the hall — a splash.

I turned. From a side corridor — a voice:

“Miranda?..”

Thomas.

Alive. Real. His eyes were bloodshot, his face gaunt, but it was still him.

“Thomas!”

I lunged toward him, but the glass stopped me. He stood on the other side — as if in a different compartment. We were separated by a barrier that was thin, almost imperceptible at first glance.

“I knew you were still here,” he said. “I heard you.”

He pressed his palm against the glass. And I did the same. Our fingers aligned — but they didn’t touch.

“Everything here… changes,” he said. “I thought it was a trap. A mirror maze. But now — I’m not so sure. Maybe we are traps for each other.”

Letters flared up on the floor. Another word:

“CHOICE”

“I’ve already seen this,” Thomas whispered. “I wasn’t alone. First, there was Ailis. We ended up here together. Back then, the inscription was different.”

The word on the floor shifted. Now:

“WHOM WILL YOU LEAVE BEHIND?”

I took a step back. My reflection materialized once more. But now — it was moving faster, as if it wanted to be first. It wasn’t looking at me — it was looking at him.

“What does this mean?..”

“Ailis and I…” Thomas swallowed. “We both chose each other. We didn’t want to make a choice. Then she disappeared. Simply… dissolved. And the mirror showed me the way.”

“Did you choose yourself?”

He didn’t answer.

A lie is also a choice.

Suddenly, the mirror began to crack. Words reflected in it once again:

“ONE MAY EXIT. THE OTHER WILL REMAIN.”

And below:

“OR BOTH WILL REMAIN FOREVER.”

I looked at Thomas. He looked… broken. Not just in body. In soul.

My reflection on the other side took a step forward. It didn’t wait. It whispered — not with words, but with an image.

He already chose.

Choose yourself.

Be stronger.

But I couldn’t. Voices hummed inside my head: the coach’s voice, the other participants, my own doubts.

“I won’t leave you,” I said.

He didn’t smile. He only closed his eyes.

I clenched my fists. And stepped toward the mirror.

“I choose both of us.”

I slammed into the glass with my entire body. Once, twice, three times. The glass cracked, bloodying my palms, but it wouldn’t give in. And then — a rain of shards fell. It was as if my choice were breaking reality itself.

The ceiling opened up. Above us — black water. Like the sky, like the night. It poured down, flooding the hall.

“Hurry!” I shouted, grabbing Thomas by the arm.

Together, we dove.

The water was cold. But beyond it lay a tunnel. A new one. No longer made of mirrors.

I looked back — and for a split second, I saw: in the shards behind us, the reflection of myself… was no longer moving.

We were swimming away.

I had saved him.

Or — I had given the labyrinth exactly what it wanted.

Thomas and I swam side by side. The water grew darker, cooler. The tunnel led us deeper, into the bowels of the labyrinth — to where light no longer reached the walls.

I squeezed his hand, checking to make sure he was here, real, warm. He squeezed back — but only once.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied. His voice was muffled, as if it were coming from behind a sheet of glass.

I looked at him — closely. His face seemed familiar… and foreign. As if he had tried on his body anew. His movements were a little unnatural. His gaze was too calm.

You chose me. Why?

I didn’t ask it aloud. But it felt as though he heard me.

“I’m glad you saved me,” he said, and smiled. But there were no teeth in that smile. Only a shadow.

Behind us, in the watery depths, the glint of a mirror flashed for a second. And inside it — was another Thomas.