T-007 Mirror

Threshold Institute · Case file T-007

Number

T-007 in the catalogue

Kind

Creature

Class

Class II: dangerous, and held in a cell

Found

Year 9, month 3, day 14

Where found

The ground floor of the observation wing

Status

Escaped when the panels came down

Now

At the lab and in the rift

Part

Part I: The tear

Containment procedures

T-007 is held in a cell lined with matte panels, with nothing in it that reflects: no glass, no polished metal, no water standing on the floor. The Institute's third rule comes from T-007: nothing in the cells reflects. The observation wing's mirrors were taken out; the cells are watched by camera. Guards' gear is dulled, and a guard who meets T-007 keeps moving and does not stand still before it.

Description

A cold glass double of whoever it watches, upside down and glitching, with their face and gear and a copy of the weapon in their hands, which it never fires. It moves as their reflection would, across a line halfway between them: step toward it and it steps toward you, step sideways and it steps the same way. A faint glass ring sounds as it takes its line. When its prey stands still for a second it comes at them and strikes in close. It is broken like any creature, and it shatters as it falls.

Discovery

The observation wing was built in year 8 so that the cells could be watched without opening them, through containment mirrors of one-way glass. Every mirror was to be covered at the end of a shift. On the night of the fourteenth day of the third month of year 9 one mirror on the ground floor was left uncovered. The night guard, Aron Mell, stood his watch on the near side of that glass. In the morning his post was untouched and he was gone. His reflection was not in the glass; T-007 was, wearing Mell's face and uniform and holding a copy of his rifle. It followed the day guard out into the yard, as his reflection, and came at him when he stopped to stare at it. Mara Okafor's team brought it down there.

Addenda

Addendum T-007-A

interview with day guard Rune Falk, Year 9, month 3, day 14. Interviewer: Director I. Varga

Varga: You knew it was not Mell.

Falk: It was Mell upside down, ma'am. His boots where his head should be. And it went the wrong way, every way I went. I backed off and it came on. I stepped left and it stepped left, like the glass was still between us. I walked into the yard to get out from under the wing, and it was there in the yard with me, walking my steps backwards.

Varga: When did it strike?

Falk: When I stopped. I only stopped because I could not believe it. It came straight at me.

Addendum T-007-B

note

The copy of Mell's rifle in T-007's hands was found unfired; it had no working parts. Mell was never found. Why T-007 was upside down no one at the Institute could say; the answer came from inside the building itself, in a room that had turned the same way (see T-014). T-007 was the last threshold of the Institute's first years to come out of the chamber. From then on, the rooms changed (see T-008).

Previous fileT-006 GrowthPart I: The tear Next fileT-008 Dark roomPart II: The rooms turn

In the file

• People: Director Ilse Varga, Mara Okafor, Aron Mell and Rune Falk.
• Places: The Institute’s site, The containment chamber, The cells and The observation wing.

In the game

The note you find in the game:

Year 9, month 3, day 14. Recovered from the ground floor of the observation wing, where a containment mirror had been left uncovered overnight. The night guard Aron Mell, on the near side of the glass, was gone by morning and his reflection was not in it; this was, in his face and uniform, and it followed the day guard out into the yard as his reflection until Mara Okafor's team brought it down.

It takes the face and the gear of whoever it watches, upside down, and moves as their reflection would. It holds a copy of what they carry but never uses it. It waits for them to stand still.

Held in a cell lined with matte panels, nothing in it that reflects. Status: escaped when the panels came down.

Today it is found at the lab and in the rift.

It goes down after losing 1100 ml of its 3400 ml of blood. How it hunts and where it turns up: see the zombies page.

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