The Cursed Reflection

The moon hung low over the craggy peaks of the mountain, casting an eerie glow upon the old cabin. The air was thick with the scent of pine and the anticipation of dread, as four friends, Alex, Jamie, Sarah, and Mark, stood on the creaky porch, their breath visible in the cold night air.

"We shouldn't do this," Sarah whispered, her voice trembling with fear.

Mark rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Sarah. It's just a cabin. It's not like it's going to eat us alive or anything."

Alex, the daredevil of the group, chuckled. "Or is it?"

Jamie, the quiet one, nodded. "There's something... I don't know. It feels like it's calling us here."

As they stepped inside, the temperature dropped instantly, a chill running down their spines. The interior was dimly lit by flickering candles, casting long shadows across the walls. The floorboards groaned under their weight as they explored the decrepit cabin.

"This place gives me the creeps," Mark muttered, his footsteps echoing in the empty rooms.

Sarah shivered. "You think this is just a coincidence? We found this place because it's haunted."

The group moved cautiously through the cabin, each room more unsettling than the last. They passed a broken mirror on the wall, and Alex paused, peering at his reflection. "Hey, Jamie, look at this."

Jamie approached, and they both stared into the mirror. The reflection was distorted, like a funhouse mirror, but something was off. Alex's eyes widened as he saw a faint outline of a second face in the glass, watching them intently.

"That's weird," Mark said, stepping closer. "It looks like there's another person there."

The reflection flickered, and then the second face vanished. Sarah gasped. "It's gone."

Suddenly, a strange noise echoed through the cabin—a whisper, barely audible. "You're not alone," it seemed to say.

Mark laughed, trying to dismiss the fear. "That's just your imagination."

But as the hours passed, the whispers grew louder and more insistent. The friends became more desperate as they realized they were being drawn into the reflection's eerie gaze. The whispers grew into screams, and the mirror seemed to come alive, as if it were a portal to another dimension.

One by one, the friends began to change. Sarah's face twisted into a grotesque mask, her eyes hollow and soulless. Mark's skin grew pale and thin, his features becoming increasingly distorted. Alex's eyes became wide and wild, and Jamie's laughter turned into a chilling howl.

The reflection in the mirror was growing more defined, more terrifying. It was a face they knew all too well—it belonged to the cabin's original owner, a man who had once lived a tragic existence here.

The whispers grew louder, and the cabin seemed to shake. The friends were no longer just watching—they were being pulled into the reflection. Their bodies were being transformed, twisted and contorted, as if they were being forced to relive the man's cursed past.

Sarah was next. She fell to her knees, her face contorted into a monstrous grin as the cabin seemed to crackle and groan. Mark stumbled forward, his limbs becoming increasingly twisted, until he fell to the floor, his body contorted into a grotesque heap.

Alex's eyes were now glowing with a malevolent light as he moved towards the mirror, his body twisted into a shape that was no longer human. Jamie's howling laughter grew louder, and he too approached the mirror, his face now a monstrous mask of terror.

The friends were no longer recognizable. They were mere shadows of their former selves, trapped in the cabin's reflection, forever cursed to relive the man's tragic past.

The whispers grew to a roar, and the mirror began to glow brighter. It was as if it were the gateway to another dimension, the source of the man's cursed existence. The friends were being pulled in, one by one, as the cabin's walls crumbled and the mirror's surface seemed to melt away.

Finally, only one remained—the reflection of the cabin's original owner. The mirror shattered, and he stepped forward, a ghostly figure surrounded by the swirling mists of his past. The last friend, Alex, fell to his knees, his body contorted into an indistinguishable shape.

The man reached out, his hand passing through the air as if it were made of glass. "You are not worthy," he hissed. "You are just as cursed as I am."

With a final, anguished scream, Alex's form was pulled into the reflection, his body twisting and contorting as he vanished into the man's cursed existence.

The cabin stood silent, the last of its secrets revealed. The mountain's shadow loomed over it, and the reflection in the mirror was now nothing more than a distorted reflection of the night sky. The friends were gone, forever trapped in the cursed reflection, a haunting reminder of the tragic past that had once lived here.