Aurelia and her friend Maia roamed the city's glowing labyrinth, the neon lights casting surreal hues on their faces. They laughed and shared secrets as they wandered, but their carefree evening took a sinister turn when they passed an old, dust-covered antique shop.

In the shop’s grand, floor-length mirror, something caught Maia’s eye. She froze mid-laugh, pulling Aurelia to a stop. Aurelia’s reflection stared back, but with one chilling difference: her mirrored self wore a wicked smile and had crimson horns protruding from her head.

Maia, quick to react, raised her phone and snapped a photo. Aurelia turned to look at her friend, confused by the sudden shift in her expression.

“What’s wrong?” Aurelia asked, her voice tinged with concern.

Maia's face went pale. She turned the phone screen to Aurelia, showing the captured image. It was unmistakable — there she was, with malevolent eyes and demonic horns, staring back with a grin that sent shivers down Maia’s spine. Yet, when Aurelia turned to look at the mirror again, her reflection was normal, innocent.

“Must be some kind of glitch,” Aurelia said with a nervous laugh, though the unease in her eyes betrayed her. But Maia wasn’t convinced; the photo was too clear, too real.

As they moved on, the atmosphere grew heavier. Every reflective surface they passed showed that same devilish version of Aurelia — in shop windows, puddles, even on the shiny surface of a parked car. It was as if her reflection had a life of its own, taunting her with that sinister smile.

Desperate to understand what was happening, they sought refuge in a quiet alley. Maia pulled out her phone to examine the photo again, but it had changed. The image now showed Aurelia reaching out from the mirror, her eyes glowing like hot coals, fingers stretching as if to break through the glass. And there, in the corner of the screen, a timestamp flickered that read: “11/08/3024”.

“That’s... a thousand years from now,” Maia whispered, trembling.

Suddenly, the phone overheated, burning Maia’s hand, forcing her to drop it. Aurelia stepped back, horrified, as the screen shattered on impact, releasing a burst of static. The shards of glass scattered across the ground, each fragment reflecting Aurelia’s devilish grin back at them.

Before they could react, the streetlights around them flickered and died, plunging the alley into darkness. The mirrors lining the shops nearby began to pulse with an otherworldly light. Aurelia’s distorted reflections emerged from each of them, surrounding the girls. The reflections moved in unison, whispering in a language neither of them could understand, a chorus of their own twisted voices.

Maia grabbed Aurelia’s hand and tried to run, but an invisible force held Aurelia in place. Her body convulsed as if being pulled from within. Her eyes rolled back, and a guttural, otherworldly voice escaped her lips, “I am not of your time.”

In a flash of blinding light, the reflections shattered, and Aurelia vanished, leaving behind only the broken glass and the echo of that sinister laugh. Maia was left alone in the darkened alley, her phone miraculously restored, but the photo now gone.

She never saw Aurelia again.

But from that night forward, whenever Maia passed a mirror, she would catch a glimpse of her friend’s face with those terrible horns, grinning back at her from the other side.

The world moved on, unaware that something had crossed over, a being not of their time, lurking in reflections, waiting for the next soul to claim.