The rumour had been circulating through the school for days, whispered between students in hushed tones—an abandoned house, hidden away on the grounds, left to decay and forgotten by most. Some said it was haunted; others said it held secrets no one dared to uncover. But for Dan, none of that mattered.

He was just bored.

"Bored out of my mind," he muttered as he and Luck made their way through the schoolyard, both of them dodging the occasional student who eyed them curiously. "This place is too predictable. I've been itching for something... interesting."

Luck, walking beside him with that typical unreadable expression, glanced over at him. "So you thought sneaking into an abandoned building would be a good cure for boredom?"

Dan shrugged, his hands stuffed into his pockets. "What else is there to do? Besides, everyone's talking about it. I thought it might be worth checking out. You know, something to break the monotony."

Luck didn't respond, but his eyes narrowed slightly. He seemed to take it all in without showing much reaction. As they approached the house, an unsettling silence surrounded them. The windows were boarded up, the door slightly ajar as if daring them to enter.

"Looks exactly like something out of a ghost story," Dan said dryly, glancing around. "Not sure whether we're going to find a haunted mansion or just some forgotten junk."

"You wanted something interesting," Luck replied, his voice flat, but there was a glint of curiosity in his eyes.

Dan snorted and pushed the door open. The hinges creaked loudly in protest. Inside, the air was thick with dust, and the smell of mould clung to the walls. Their footsteps echoed in the silence as they moved deeper into the house, which looked as if it hadn't seen any real activity in years.

"Not much here," Dan said, poking around an old, broken chair. "I thought there'd be more. Maybe some creepy old man, maybe a skeleton or two."

Luck continued walking ahead, his attention fixed on the walls and the strange emptiness of the place. "There's no sign of anything dangerous. It's just... forgotten."

"Well, that's kind of disappointing," Dan muttered, following him down a long hallway. "For once, I wanted something with a little more... excitement."

They reached the end of the corridor and entered a large room, stacked high with old books; their pages yellowed with age. It felt like a forgotten library, one left to rot away. At the far end of the room, a massive mirror stood against the wall, its frame decorated with intricate carvings—now covered in layers of dust.

"Okay, this is getting interesting," Dan said, his voice laced with more excitement than he'd shown all day. "I mean, what's with all the books? And this mirror... Who even puts a mirror this big in a room like this?"

Luck, ever the observer, remained silent. His eyes were glued to the mirror, but he didn't say anything.

Dan started to walk toward it, but then, as if on cue, his phone began ringing. The eerie distorted ringtone filled the room with an unsettling hum.

"Great timing," Dan muttered, flipping open his phone. His hand froze, though, when he saw the caller ID—there was no name, just a strange, jagged string of numbers. "Who's calling me now?"

He answered it, holding the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

The line crackled, and then a whisper came through, so quiet it was almost drowned out by the static. "I see you."

Dan's heart skipped a beat, and his eyes flicked toward Luck, who was now staring at him, his expression unchanging but his gaze intense.

"What the hell does that mean?" Dan muttered under his breath, lowering the phone. But when he looked at Luck, the curiosity in his friend's eyes matched his own sense of unease.

Just as he was about to say something, the phone line went dead with a sudden click, leaving an eerie silence hanging in the air.

"You heard that, right?" Dan asked, looking at Luck for confirmation.

Luck nodded but didn't speak, his attention now fixed on the mirror. Dan followed his gaze and noticed something that made his blood run cold. There, in the reflection, was a shadowy figure, just behind him.

Dan spun around, his heart racing, but the room was empty and he pointed at the mirror.

"Did you see that? ... There is a Man in the Mirror," Dan said, his voice shaking slightly.

Luck's eyes remained locked on the mirror, his face eerily calm.

Dan turned back to the mirror. The figure was gone, but something about the reflection was off. It felt wrong. There was a sense of distortion in the air, a rippling effect in the glass that made Dan's stomach churn.

"I don't like this," Dan muttered, his unease growing.

"Look," Luck said, his voice soft.

Dan turned to look, but when he did, his eyes widened in disbelief. The hands of his watch were spinning counterclockwise. His pulse quickened, and he glanced at Luck, who was looking at his own watch, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"This is... impossible," Dan whispered. "It's like—everything has been reversed."

"We've entered it, the mirror world," Luck finished, his voice barely audible.

The words seemed to hang in the air, and the realisation hit them both like tonnes of bricks. They weren't in the same world anymore. Whatever was happening, they had crossed over into a space that didn't obey the normal rules of reality.

The faces on the mirror looked odd and incorrect. The stacked books that were once on the left side appeared on the right.

Before they could process what was happening, the silence was broken by a sound—the faint scraping of something moving. Dan turned back to the mirror, and the reflection shifted.

A figure stepped out from the depths of the mirror. Tall, cloaked in shadow, with eyes that seemed to pierce through the dimness of the room.

The silence in the room felt suffocating. The reflection in the mirror had shifted again, and the tall, shadowy figure now stepped forward, emerging from the glass like it was made of liquid. His form was ethereal, shifting, almost as if he didn't belong to the world they knew.

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Dan's heart hammered in his chest, his pulse quickening with every passing second. He stepped back, but his feet felt like they were rooted to the ground, as though the room itself was holding him in place.

The figure's presence was overwhelming, dark yet commanding, his eyes gleaming with a strange intensity. There was a faint distortion in the air, a crackling energy that seemed to vibrate with power.

And then it happened.

With a sharp, bone-chilling sound, a crack split the air. It was like the shattering of glass, but the noise seemed to reverberate through both the mirror and the entire room. Dan flinched, his hands instinctively reaching for his ears, but the sound didn't stop. The very fabric of reality seemed to bend and twist under its force.

The mirror, which had once held only reflections, now seemed to tremble and fracture. The crack grew, spreading across its surface like lightning, splintering into a thousand shards. But instead of breaking apart and falling, the shards remained suspended in the air, swirling around the figure as though controlled by some unseen force.

Luck, standing still beside Dan, narrowed his eyes, watching in awe as the air around them seemed to warp. The room felt like it was shifting, the edges of reality blurring.

And then, with a final, deafening crack, the mirror shattered—not into glass but into a kind of shimmering void that swallowed the room's reflections. The air went still, heavy, as though everything had been rewritten in an instant.

The man stood there, unaffected by the destruction, his voice low and chilling as he stepped forward, his gaze never leaving Dan and Luck.

"I am Kael Shadowcre," he said again, his tone sharp and final. "And now you're in my world."

For a moment, the space around them seemed to pulse with a strange, oppressive energy. The very air felt different, thick with a sense of power that weighed heavily on their chests.

Dan's breath was shallow as he struggled to process the magnitude of what had just happened. "What... what did you do?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper, disbelief colouring every word.

Kael smiled, a slow, eerie smile that sent a shiver down Dan's spine. "I did nothing. The mirror world simply exists—what you see, what you feel—it's all part of it. And you two have been brought here, whether you understand it or not."

Luck, ever the observer, stepped forward. "This isn't some illusion, is it?" he asked, his voice sharp with growing suspicion. This is the first time he was here, but its not the first time he has heard of it.

"No," Kael replied, his gaze unwavering. "It's real. You're here, and you can't leave unless I allow it."

The silence that followed was almost unbearable, the weight of Kael's words hanging heavily in the air.

And then, as if the oppressive atmosphere had been lifted for a moment, Kael's voice softened, his tone almost casual.

"Oh, and by the way," he added, his lips curling into a slight smirk. "I'm your classmate."

Dan blinked, unable to process what Kael had just said. "What...?"

Kael's smile widened, but there was something dangerous in his eyes now, something that hinted at the mystery behind his true intentions.

"That's right. I'm in your class, but till now I have kept a low profile."

Dan's mind raced, trying to connect the dots. A classmate? How could he have missed someone like this? Kael's presence felt... alien. Like he didn't belong in their world at all.

Luck's gaze never left Kael, his expression unreadable. "So this is some kind of game to you?" he asked, his voice low, filled with quiet malice. "What is it that you want?"

Kael's eyes flashed with amusement, but there was a danger lurking beneath his calm demeanor. "I don't play games. I just want to see what happens when two people like you step into my domain."

Dan glanced at Luck, then back at Kael. The room still felt wrong, like everything was suspended in time, and the crack in the mirror was still fresh in his mind. His watch—still spinning anticlockwise—seemed to mock him, reminding him that nothing in this world could be trusted.

"You've changed everything," Dan said, his voice firm despite the fear creeping up his spine. "What is it you want from us?"

Kael's smile flickered again, but his gaze softened, a coldness creeping into his tone. "I don't want anything... yet."

The room was heavy with tension, the echoes of Kael's voice lingering as the mirror shattered. The oppressive weight of the mirror world faded, but its unsettling presence was still felt, like an aftershock. The figures of Dan and Luck stood unmoved, their expressions unreadable, yet both radiated an aura of power—magic and intellect—but that makes them ever more scary and more formidable than anything Kael had expected.

Kael straightened, an amused smirk creeping onto his face as he looked at them, sizing them up. He had come into this encounter prepared for resistance, but the calm that radiated from both Dan and Luck was palpable. They weren't just ordinary students—they were anomalies in this game of life.

"So, the rumours were true," Kael mused aloud, his tone a mixture of admiration and curiosity. "You both are more than you seem."

Dan gave him a calculated glance and sighed. "You seem to think you know everything," he said flatly, his voice unwavering. "But you still haven't answered the question. What do you really want from us?"

Luck remained silent, observing the exchange with a sharp, analytical gaze. His mind was already calculating the possibilities of what Kael might be after. He could feel the magic in the air, thick and charged, but his own power was an equal, if not greater, force. Still, he refrained from using it, watching to see how Kael would respond.

Kael smiled, sensing the undercurrent of both their abilities. "You're right," he admitted, his eyes locking with Dan's. "I underestimated you two. You're not just strong in magic or intellect. You're both dangerous in your own way. Your Monsters"

Dan's eyes narrowed at the word "dangerous." He was used to being underestimated, but Kael wasn't wrong. Both he and Luck were more than capable of handling themselves—individually and together.

"So, what do you want with us, then?" Luck finally spoke, his voice cutting through the tension. "If you're expecting us to fall in line, you'll have to do better than some childish display."

Kael's smile faltered for a brief moment before returning. "It's not about falling in line," he said, his tone more serious now. "I simply wanted to gauge you two—see where your limits are. You're capable of far more than you let on. I'm not asking for your loyalty or your obedience. I'm offering a partnership, a chance to explore the full extent of your abilities... and mine."

Dan's gaze never wavered. "Partnership?" he repeated skeptically. "You're delusional if you think we'll just join forces with you after pulling us into a world of illusions."

"Illusions?" Kael chuckled darkly, stepping closer. "No. What you saw wasn't an illusion. The mirror dimension is only one facet of what exists in the space between realities."

Luck's expression remained unchanged, but his mind was already processing Kael's words. The offer was intriguing—but dangerous. There was no such thing as "partnership" without a price, and Kael's powers were clearly formidable. The question was whether or not they could trust him.

"I'm not interested in your games, Kael," Dan said firmly, his eyes cold. "But you've made one thing clear. You're no ordinary classmate. And we don't take kindly to people who play with our reality."

Kael raised an eyebrow, the amusement in his gaze returning. "I see you're not so easily swayed. Well, then, I'll let you decide." He grinned, showing a glimpse of teeth that were far sharper than normal. "You can either keep resisting, or you can accept the truth. Magic, intelligence, power—they're not just for show. They're tools. Tools that, with the right guidance, can reshape everything. And that's what I want from you. Not allegiance. Just the chance to work together."

A silence fell between them, the weight of Kael's words hanging in the air.

Dan's watch—the one that had been spinning anticlockwise earlier—had returned to its normal ticking, but the strange feeling that something wasn't quite right lingered. He glanced at Luck, who met his gaze, understanding the silent exchange between them. They were both strong, in their own ways, but this... Kael was different. His offer wasn't about friendship. It was a test. And they would have to be careful.

"Well, I guess we'll see how this plays out in class," Dan said after a moment, his tone flat but sharp. "Just don't think for a second we'll be fooled by your little performance."

Kael's smirk never left. "I'm not asking you to trust me immediately. But in time, you'll understand. My seat is next to yours in class, after all. That should give us plenty of time to... get to know each other."

And with that, Kael turned, his cloak swirling around him as he moved toward the door. He paused, his back to them for a moment.

"Oh, and by the way," he added over his shoulder, "don't keep me waiting too long. I wouldn't want to be friends under false pretences."

The sound of his footsteps faded as he left, but the strange tension in the air remained. Dan and Luck stood still for a long moment, both aware that this wasn't over—not by a long shot. Kael's words, his power, his confidence—it all pointed to something much larger than either of them had expected.

But for now, they would play it cool. Class would be their next battlefield.