The silence didn't last long.
As Quinn caught her breath and the others tried to process what had just happened, the mirror shimmered again—an angry ripple pulsing across its surface.
Something was still trying to come through.
"Shit," Paige hissed, stepping in front of the group.
The mirror pulsed again, its silver surface boiling like a living thing.
Without a second thought, Paige flung the broken pipe she was still holding. It spun through the air and passed clean through the mirror like it was butter.
Everyone froze.
A moment later, the mirror spat out a perfect replica of the same pipe—this one gleaming silver.
"DUCK!" Jamie yelled.
Paige dropped low. The pipe embedded itself into the wall behind her with a sharp thunk.
She blinked, genuinely rattled. "Okay… that's scary."
The mirror rippled with fury now, pulsing with strange, warping sounds like muffled screams underwater.
Noah didn't hesitate. He dove for the heavy cloth that had originally covered the mirror and threw it back over the glass, yanking it tight to block its surface completely.
The room went dead silent.
The humming ceased.
The mirror stopped moving.
Not a single breath was wasted for several seconds.
Then, all at once, everyone collapsed onto the dusty floor in exhaustion.
Jamie rolled over onto his back, staring at the ceiling. "So... that was definitely cursed."
No one replied.
He looked around. "No one? Not even a chuckle?"
He forced out a laugh, but it sounded strained and cracked in the dusty air.
He sighed. "Yeah… sorry."
The group slowly climbed to their feet, each brushing off dust and shaking off trembling nerves.
As they started to ascend back up the stairwell, Noah tucked the journal he had picked up earlier beneath his jacket. Whatever it was, he wasn't leaving without it.
---
Upstairs, Paige stood waiting, arms folded, her expression filled with fire.
Leah stood beside her, concern tightening her features.
Paige's eyes immediately locked on Jamie. "What. Did. You. Do?"
Jamie flinched. "Uh… define 'do.'"
"You stupid, STUPID little punk!" Paige hissed, marching toward him. "You dragged these kids into—what was that, even?!"
"I didn't know it was haunted!" Jamie defended himself. "I thought it was just some old ghost story!"
"That's the point of ghost stories, genius," Paige growled. "You never know which ones are real!"
Leah stepped forward, narrowing her eyes at her brother. "Noah… what happened down there?"
Noah opened his mouth, paused, and shook his head. "I… don't know."
He wasn't lying.
The memory was already blurring, like a dream dissolving into morning fog.
Then Quinn, still shaken but trying to hold it together, spoke up.
"When… when my head was pulled in," she said quietly, "I saw someone."
Everyone turned to her.
"A woman," Quinn continued. "She looked lost. The place around her… it was snowing. Everything was white."
Jamie's eyes widened. "Was it—was it Cassidy Manson's ghost?!"
Thwack!
Paige smacked the back of his head.
"OW!"
"Not the time, doofus."
"I was just—!"
"Not. The. Time."
Jamie grumbled under his breath.
Quinn ignored them and kept her gaze on Noah and Leah. "She looked… young. Foreign. Pretty. She didn't say anything… just stood there, as if she didn't even know I was watching her."
The room fell into thoughtful silence again.
They all looked at the covered mirror as if it might suddenly whisper back.
None of this made sense.
And worse, it was only the beginning.
But it was late. Tired and spooked, the group made a quiet agreement to meet again the next day—at Noah's house—to go over everything together.
As they exited the church, Paige kept casting suspicious glances behind her, and Leah clung a little closer to her brother. Quinn walked in silence while Jamie mumbled theories under his breath, probably trying to distract himself from the fact that he had nearly lost his best friend.
Noah, at the very back, touched the edges of the journal beneath his coat.
He didn't know why he had grabbed it.
But something inside him said—
He was going to need it.