The bell rang, its shrill tone slicing through the suffocating silence. Students shuffled out, their faces pale from the ordeal of impossible equations. Amelia gripped the edge of her desk, her knuckles white. Mei sat rigid beside her, trembling like a leaf in a storm. Ms. Fujiwara stood at the front of the room, her back to them as she erased the whiteboard with slow, deliberate strokes. The marker in her hand gleamed ominously under the fluorescent lights.
When the last student left, Ms. Fujiwara turned. Her smile was a knife. “Well, girls?” she purred. “Let’s have a little chat.”
Amelia’s throat tightened. The air hummed with a static charge, like the moment before lightning strikes. Mei’s breath hitched—a barely audible whimper.
“Hello, Amelia,” Ms. Fujiwara said, her gaze boring into Hana’s borrowed face. “Where’s Hana?”
Amelia forced her voice steady. “How should I know where Hana is?”
The room temperature plummeted. Ms. Fujiwara’s composure shattered. “You’re lying!” she snarled. The marker in her hand twisted, elongating into a gnarled wand of blackened wood, its tip pulsing crimson. Mei recoiled, her chair screeching against the floor.
“The new moon is tonight,” Ms. Fujiwara hissed, advancing. “I don’t have time to torture the truth out of you—and you’re too valuable to risk killing anyway.” Her eyes flicked to Mei, and the wand shifted direction. “But this nosy little friend of yours? She’s expendable.”
The wand’s glow intensified, casting bloody light across Mei’s petrified face. Time slowed. Amelia lunged, shoving Mei sideways as the blast erupted—a searing roar of red energy. It missed Mei by inches, obliterating a laptop on the teacher’s desk. Sparks and shrapnel exploded into the air, the acrid stench of melted plastic filling the room.
“Run!” Amelia screamed, hauling Mei to her feet. They stumbled into the hallway, Ms. Fujiwara’s laughter chasing them like a curse.
“You can’t hide, Amelia!” the woman’s voice echoed. “The mirror always finds its twin!”
They sprinted past lockers and stunned students, their shoes slapping against linoleum. Mei choked out a sob. “Sh-she’s the woman from my dream! The one with the mirror—!”
“We need Ms. Kelly!” Amelia gasped, skidding around a corner. “The Australian teacher—now!”
Behind them, classroom doors rattled on their hinges. A low, unnatural growl reverberated through the halls. Amelia didn’t look back.
Somewhere ahead, salvation—or another nightmare—waited.