00:00The ninth mirror did not reflect the room. It reflected the room 10 seconds from now.
00:06Ellis Crane took the night guard job at the Halloran Museum because it was quiet.
00:11No crowds, no questions. Just long halls, locked doors, and the old mirror exhibition that no one
00:17was allowed to touch after dark. There were nine mirrors in the North Hall. Every night at closing,
00:23the staff covered eight of them with black cloth. The ninth, tall, silver-framed, older than the
00:31building itself, was never covered. The head curator only said, leave that one alone,
00:37and never stand in front of it after midnight. Ellis laughed the first three nights. On the
00:43fourth night at 12.07, he walked past the ninth mirror and stopped. His reflection was not walking.
00:49It was standing still, facing him, smiling, 10 seconds before he understood why. Then his
00:55reflection raised one hand and pointed behind him. Ellis spun around. The hall was empty.
01:01When he turned back, the mirror showed the hall exactly as it was, normal, still. He told himself
01:08it was exhaustion. The next night he tested it. He stood before the mirror at midnight and lifted
01:14two fingers. His reflection lifted them, but a breath too late. Then it lifted a third finger
01:20that Ellis had not raised at all. The night after that, the mirror showed him bleeding from the
01:25forehead. Ellis touched his skin, dry, whole. Ten seconds later, a frame fell from the wall behind
01:33him. He ducked. The corner grazed his brow. The bleeding began, exactly where the mirror had shown it.
01:40He tried to cover the mirror himself. At dawn, the cloth lay folded neatly on the floor as if someone
01:46polite had removed it. On the seventh night, Ellis did not patrol. He sat in the security office and
01:53watched the camera feed. On the monitor, the north hall stood empty and dark. Then, in the ninth mirror,
02:01he saw himself walk into the hall, stop before the glass, and knock from the inside, begging to be let
02:08out. The museum found his uniform folded by the door at dawn. The ninth mirror still hangs there.
02:15And if you stand before it after midnight, it will gladly show you what happens next,
02:20ten seconds before it does.
