Written by: Al-Aber

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 The well that reflects other souls

There are places in this world that should not be approached... places that pulsate with secret, breathe darkness, and hide behind their silence doors that can only be opened at a heavy price. In a remote village, hidden among the trees is an old well. It is said that anyone who dares to look into its waters will not see their reflection as they know it, but something else... a dark version of themselves, waiting for the right moment to emerge.

Tonight... we will tell you what happened to the girl who broke the rule and looked into that water. This story has only been told once... and whoever hears it will never be the same again.

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The village was small, surrounded by dense forests on all sides, and no one dared to go out after sunset. In the midst of this eerie silence, ancient tales continued to be passed around among the residents about a mysterious well located on the side of the road leading to the old cemetery. They said that the well had been dug hundreds of years ago, and that its builder was not entirely human, but rather a being who knew the secrets of crossing between worlds.

The elderly used to cautiously tell us that the water in it didn't reflect people's faces as they really were, but rather revealed their hidden truth... or their other version, the version that shouldn't be revealed to the world. For this reason, everyone avoided approaching it, except for one girl... Lian.

Lian didn't believe in superstitions. She thought everything said about the well was nothing but illusions created by fear. But that night, curiosity drove her to go out alone. The moon was full, its silvery light guiding the path. With each step, the silence grew heavier, until she could hear her heartbeat more clearly than the sound of her footsteps.

When she arrived, the well stood there, a mass of darkness, its smooth stones reflecting the moonlight like a snake's skin. Slowly, she approached and stretched out her body to look inside. At first, she saw nothing but blackness... then her face appeared. Or so she thought.

But this face didn't look familiar. The eyes were wider, the smile frozen as if etched into the skin. Something in her features whispered that she wasn't Lian... but something that was adept at imitating her.

Then came the voice…a faint voice, but it seemed to come from inside her head rather than from the air:

> “You’ve opened the way… now… you must enter.”

She felt something cold wrap around her wrist, as if the water itself had hands. Before she realized what was happening, she found herself being pulled in. The sensation of drowning was different… it wasn't exactly water, but a mixture of heavy liquid, suffocating fog, and the smell of ancient mud.

When she opened her eyes, she wasn't in a well, but in a long, narrow corridor, its walls made of dark stone, from which sticky black drops dripped. The lights that illuminated the corridor weren't fire, but luminous threads that moved slowly, as if breathing.

On the walls were drawings of human faces, but they were distorted. Their eyes were black, with no whites, and their mouths were open in an eternal scream. A shiver ran down her spine, but fear didn't stop her from moving forward.

She took cautious steps, but noticed footsteps following her. She turned around suddenly… No one was behind her, but her shadow stretched on the ground longer than it should have, then slowly climbed the wall until it disappeared into the ceiling.

At the end of the corridor stood a massive wooden door, her name engraved on it in a strange script, as if the inscriptions were alive with a special quality. She hesitated, but the door opened by itself, as if something had been waiting for her for a long time.

Behind the door, she found the same well… but this time it was in another world, the sky a deep red, and the wind carried distant screams. Above the well, her dark version stood, with the same black eyes and unwavering smile.

She said in a voice as cold as rain:

> “Now… it’s your turn to stay here, and I’ll take your place.”

Lian tried to back away, but she felt the ground beneath her turn into sticky water, and her feet sank in. The clone advanced slowly, pushing her away without violence, as if it were frantic. She fell into the well again, the water closing in on her, but this time she didn't feel like she was drowning...more like she was being erased.

In the village, Lian emerged from the darkness, shaking the water off her clothes. She smiled at everyone, but those who knew her sensed there was something different about that smile… something not human.

—

The villagers say that Lian changed after that night. She no longer laughed like she used to, and she began to watch people's faces in long silence, as if studying their features. And the strangest thing... is that anyone who looked into her eyes for even a few seconds felt a chill in their bones, as if they were standing on the edge of a deep well.

As for the well itself, it has become quiet again... but whenever the moonlit nights shine, you can see a reflection in it smiling at you... a smile that is not human