Aiden’s breath fogged up against the cool window of the bus, obscuring the reflection from the window. He felt his body shake and jolt as the bus moved. The signs advertising various places and products that he didn’t bother to read, their glow lighting up the dark, cloudy morning.

In the corner of his vision he saw a small movement. Turning his eyes and head slightly towards the movement he realized that the source was his reflection. It was smiling at him. He was not smiling back, in fact, since he’d seen it he had taken the face of a deer straight into the lights of a car. Shard didn’t just move in public spaces, eyes especially not in one like the school bus.

Aiden quickly looked over as subtlety as he could at his seat neighbor, who was lucky still staring at their phone, music way too loud over their earbuds. With a small sigh of relief, he relaxed back against the window from the tense posture he must have shifted to when he saw It in the reflection. He looked back at the window, his reflection matched all of his movements and probably looked like a normal reflection.

Except, to someone who was looking for something (or was particularly observant), it looked off. There wasn’t anything obviously wrong with it, but it had uncanny valley vibes, and if you looked too closely for too long it felt like somethingwas watching you. Aiden knew that for other people that the watching you feeling felt awful, but for him it felt like safe-care-love, he knew that wasn’t natural. Sure, Shard seemed to care about him, but he definitely didn’t feel safe with the murderous thing. He’d seen far too many blood covered corpses for that.

His reflection only looked like that when Shard was lingering in it. He felt the sensation of arms wrapping around him and a head on top of his (he tried not to shiver as the safe-care-love feeling grew stronger). Guess Shard is feeling cuddly today, he mused.

He grabbed his headphones and pulled out his phone. As soon as the music was playing, his head was against the window. He elected to ignore his reflection and the phantom limbs around his own in favor of dissociating to the sound of Est-ce que tu m’aimes? by GIMS while staring out at the early morning scenery.

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You could tell that the workers at the agency were excited about the presentation their higher ranking agents were doing, albeit many less so about the students (which was honestly pretty understandable).

They had been given clear water bottles (with the agency logo printed on the sides, of course) filled with a small pamphlet and a pen when they walked in. They were quickly taken to a small auditorium and strongly encouraged to sit down in the chairs by the single chaperoning teacher. He felt bad for Mr. Stockholm, their Studies of Mythical Creatures teacher, the poor shifter was trying to wrangle his 30-student class into a semblance of order.

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The students were shushed as soon as the lights dimmed from headache inducing to a dim glow. A woman introduced herself as the head of the branch in Eres. She then introduced a group of four people - the higher ranking agents who were visiting.

First was a charismatic blonde with a bright smile, a human, who acted as both team leader and a mage, he introduced himself as agent Miller. Second was a dryad with an angular face and a serious but joyful expression, who acted as the main researcher for the team, they introduced themself as agent Lichen, from a more traditional dryad family then. Third was a stern red headed human with green eyes, unlike agent Lichen, he did not also hold joy in his face, he held the role of defending the team, he was also a minor seer, he introduced himself as agent Meyer. Fourth came a serene looking woman, a shifter, her lips were turned up in a slight smile, she was the mage of the group, she introduced herself as agent weaver.

They began a long presentation on the workings of the agency and how they tracked down more problematic entities.

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Aiden quickly dried his hands with the cheap paper towels that were in the public restroom. He kept his eyes firmly on his hands and his attention on the rough, slightly gritty texture of the paper towel.

An agent walked to the sink next to him and started washing their hands. The wet paper towel was a terrible texture but he refused to look towards the large mirror on the wall above the sinks.

He spotted the trash bin on the side of the restroom. He moved past the agent and dropped the wet blob that used to be a paper towel into the bin. As he walked by the agent again he saw them lift their head up.

A sharp gap from the agent. “Kid? Is everything okay?”

Aiden pauses his movement towards the door. “Huh?”

The agent quickly backs up closer to him and speaks with an urgent tone. “Kid, we need to go now! There’s an entity in the mirror! It’s aura is not safe.”

Aiden feels nothing but dread. Hands that don’t exist settle firmly on his shoulders. The lights flicker. He looks towards the mirror. Shard’s there, angry features distorting and twisting, the shadows of its face lengthening in ways that should not be possible.

The agent moves to push him out of the room at the same time Aiden is pulled into the cold, closed door. The agent only has a moment of shock before the mirror shaders.

Broken glass flies outward.

The glass is embedded in the walls, stuck in the sink, and covering the floor. But Aiden is okay, he’s uninjured, a few pieces of glass have slashed his clothes, ripping a few holes.

The agent.

Their blood gurgling around the shards in their throat. They are covered in deep, bleeding cuts, many pieces of glass still impale their body. But their eyes.

Their eyes are both bloody, gouged holes filled with gore and broken glass. The blood is splattered on the floor, some of it mingling with water on the tile floor. The clear to red gradient of some of the puddles only serves to make him nauseous.

As the blood flows and the body begins to cool, Aiden can’t help it.

He screams.

It can be described as bloody murder as much as the scene in front of him.

Shard hugs him as he screams, he hates that it provides comfort.