The old grandfather clock in Kira's antique shop chirps midnight, musically, a haunting tone resonating,like a warning.
Layla was laid onto the velvet fainting couch like an old timed heroine, caught mid-scandal, heels flung aside, wine bottle raised in triumph."
"Best idea ever." She saluted.
Kira snorted, looking down her nose through her dark-rimmed glasses . "Only you would think getting drunk in an Antique shop with a haunted mirror in attendance is a good time."
"It's not haunted," Bree said from where she was perched on the counter, chewing on a piece of licorice like a battle hardened delinquent angel. "It's an antique, not haunted.There is a difference. And can't you feel the dark ass vibes it's emanating?"
Serena, cross-legged on the floor, Her cheek length sleek bob framing her cheek like butterfly wings,was already cataloguing everything in sight, her historian's brain too wired to relax. "Charmed, antiquated. Does it matter? This mirror is seriously creepy."
They all turned to look at the thing looming against the back wall — a seven-foot monstrosity framed in tarnished silver, its surface so polished it looked more like distilled water than glass.
It hadn't been there yesterday. Now it loomed in the shadows, silver etched like ivy curling around its edges.
Kira had found it that morning, tucked in the back of an abandoned estate auction, practically buzzing with energy. It practically hummed when she touched it. Against all reason, she'd bought it.
And now here they were, girls night out, half drunk and on the way to being truly fuckedface.
"You should make a wish," Bree said, tossing a gummy bear at Layla.
Layla caught it with her mouth, chewed, and laughed.
"Fine," she said, staggering to her feet. "If this thing's magic, I want a real fairytale. Castles, crowns, beasts , all of the shebang."
She pressed her hand flat to the glass.
The mirror moved under her touch like liquid silver.
They stopped laughing.
The air grew heavy, tasting like summer and old promises.
"Uh... guys?" Layla said, backing away.
But it was too late.
Serena gasped as tendrils of mist wrapped around her legs. Bree cursed and grabbed for Kira's arm. Aria — silent until now — simply stared at the mirror as if it had called her by name.
A sucking wind howled through the shop.
The glass shuddered — then broke apart, not with a crash but with a wet, consuming pull.
One by one, they were dragged forward, screaming and laughing and fighting — and then, nothing.
No sign they'd ever been there.No footprints. No fingerprints. Just silence and the soft tick of the clock
The mirrored surface stopped moving, it became smooth and unbroken.
Only the faint scent of wine, licorice, and lavender lingered.
And the clock struck one.