Hawkins – Tuesday Morning
The town was fraying at the edges.
Lights continued to flicker across neighborhoods. Dogs barked at nothing. Electronics shorted out. People complained of headaches, static in their ears, and mirrors cracking without cause.
Something was pushing through.
And every time Lena and Will touched—even a brush of fingers—the buzzing grew louder in both their minds.
They couldn't avoid it anymore.
---
Hawkins Middle Gym — "War Room"
The old gym smelled like dust and damp sneakers, but it had become their base. Max, Dustin, Mike, and now Lucas helped board up the windows and line the walls with what remained of their old monster-fighting gear.
Walkie-talkies. Binoculars. Compasses. Flashlights. Dungeons & Dragons notebooks filled with too-real drawings.
Will pinned a map of Hawkins on the wall.
Red strings connected every place where the power surge had hit.
Lena circled the spots where mirrors had cracked.
They aligned.
"Here," she said, tapping the center of the web. "This is the eye."
Dustin leaned in. "That's… the old clocktower."
"It's been abandoned since the fire," Mike added.
"Not anymore," Will said. "We go tonight."
---
That afternoon — Lena's house
Lena stood in front of her mirror. This one hadn't cracked. Not yet.
She held the shard they found in the forest, wrapped in cloth, and stared into the glass.
Her reflection didn't move.
Until it did.
It wasn't Mirror Lena this time.
It was her mother.
The reflection spoke, but her lips didn't move.
> "You were born from glass, Lena. And glass remembers every version of itself."
Lena whispered, "You're not her."
> "No. But you were never truly hers, were you?"
> "You're ours."
The mirror exploded in a burst of silent energy.
Lena staggered back, uninjured—but marked.
Another spiral burned faintly behind her ear.
---
That night — the clocktower
The group stood at the base, flashlights off.
Lena turned to Will. "If we go up there, there's no turning back."
He nodded. "We're already in it."
They climbed.
Step by creaking step.
As they neared the top, they found broken glass embedded in the walls, forming a spiral pattern.
Then, something strange:
A body.
Laid out in front of the bell like a sacrifice.
Dustin cursed. "What the hell…"
Lena stepped closer.
It was a mirror version of Max—eyes empty, skin gray. Cracks ran down her arms like shattered porcelain.
Max stared in horror. "That's me…"
"It's a warning," Lena whispered. "They're showing us what happens if we lose."
Then a familiar voice echoed from the darkness.
> "You already have."
A figure stepped out from behind the clock's mechanisms.
It was Lucas.
Their Lucas.
Holding a mirror shard in one hand—and glowing with the same spiral mark as Will.
---
"You betrayed us?" Max gasped.
Lucas' face was twisted with guilt. "I didn't have a choice. They showed me… everything. Versions of us where we died. Where Max died. Over and over. But in one version—just one—we lived."
Will narrowed his eyes. "And what was the cost of that version?"
Lucas looked at Lena.
"She opens the gate. You complete it."
Lena stepped back, heart pounding. "You… were the leak."
"I led them here," Lucas admitted. "I thought if I helped them, they'd spare us."
"They lied to you," Will snapped. "They always lie."
Suddenly, the mirrors on the walls pulsed.
Dozens of shards lifted into the air like knives.
From them stepped echo-versions of the group—each twisted, ghostly, barely human.
Mirror Max.
Mirror Dustin.
Mirror Mike.
Mirror Will—eyes black.
They surrounded the tower's edge.
Lena grabbed Will's hand.
As she did, the spirals on both their skin ignited.
The tower shook.
> "You see?" Mirror Will said, stepping forward. "Even now, you're the lock and key. All we need… is your choice."
---
In Lena's mind — a flash.
She stood on a fractured glass bridge. Below her, infinite realities. She saw Will, again and again, broken. Possessed. Screaming.
But in one, they stood together, hand-in-hand, facing a storm—and winning.
She looked at her real Will.
And chose.
"No," she said.
Her voice rang out across dimensions.
"I won't be your lock."
Will squeezed her hand. "And I won't be your key."
They stepped back from each other—
—breaking the connection.
The tower shuddered.
The echo-versions screamed in pain.
The mirror shards cracked, then shattered.
Subject V's voice echoed in fury.
> "You delay nothing! The reflection always returns!"
---
Lucas dropped the shard.
It fizzled to ash.
He dropped to his knees. "I'm sorry… I didn't know…"
Max pulled him up, not saying anything.
The group ran.
As they escaped the tower, it collapsed behind them in a burst of white light and mirror dust.
---
Later — Lena's porch
Will sat beside her.
Neither spoke for a long time.
Then Lena whispered, "We did something tonight. Something they didn't expect."
Will nodded. "We didn't choose each other to unlock the gate… we chose each other to fight."
She leaned against him, eyes closed. "But this isn't over."
"No," he agreed. "But we'll face it together."
He took her hand.
This time… the static was gone.
Only warmth remained.
---
Far away — in the Echoverse core
Subject V stared into a spiraling glass vortex.
Mirror Lena stepped beside him.
"She rejected the vision," she said bitterly.
He smiled.
> "Then we'll give her a better one."
Behind them, a new version of Will floated in the glass—half-formed, but smiling cruelly.
---
End of Chapter 7