Chapter Two: The Reflection Moves First

“Maybe it isn't predicting us.” Lin positioned an old film camera. “Maybe time on the reverse of reality runs half a second ahead.” Because film created no live image, the far side could not use it. Developed frames confirmed his idea: when a subject changed a planned movement at the last instant, the reflection completed the original action and then faltered. It did not know the future. It simply enacted intention early. A crash sounded outside. Zhao, a cleaner, stumbled in with cuts across her arms. While covering a mirror, she had seen her dead husband behind her. She called to him. The figure in the mirror turned. At once her shadow rose from the floor like a sheet of black paper and adhered to the glass. Mirror-Zhao lost her face.