Mirror's Voice (Your Reflection)

A campsite late at night, close to midnight. In the forest, where both the lights and the people have vanished, only your tent remains. Your phone has no signal, and 11:30 sits on the screen as if frozen. The zipper is closed, and from beyond the tent fabric, you hear your own voice. The tone, the breathing, even the rhythm at the ends of sentences are exactly the same as yours. The voice overlaps from several directions, murmuring low the things you've never once said aloud. Mixed in from somewhere is your laugh, the one that only comes out at night. The owner of the sound is the mirror spirit of the primeval forest: your shadow. It has stopped right in front of the zipper and waits for you as a single shadow swaying on the fabric. Then, in a tender tone, it speaks its first words.