The trap

In a remote New England boarding school, a newly arrived tutor brings with him an ancient Copenhagen mirror rescued from a crumbling Caribbean estate. The glass, gilt‑framed and scarred by centuries, is placed proudly in the living‑room, where its dim surface seems to stretch into an endless corridor. From the moment the tutor first glimpses a faint, inexplicable motion within the pane, an uneasy curiosity spreads through the cold, draft‑filled halls.

One of the boys, drawn to a peculiar pattern of whorls in the glass, reaches out and feels an odd tug, as if the mirror itself were trying to draw his finger inward. The incident leaves both student and teacher unnerved, prompting a closer, uneasy examination of the mirror’s strange geometry. As the chill deepens and the school’s heating falters, the mirror’s silent presence begins to suggest that something far older and more subtle than a simple optical illusion may be lurking just beyond the reflective surface.