The weight of that collective attention was palpable, a physical pressure that made the air itself feel thick and viscous in their laboring lungs, each breath a struggle against the crushing gravity of that regard. The being from beyond the Mirror tilted its blank face in a gesture that might have been curiosity, its smooth surface reflecting their terrified expressions back at them with cruel clarity, distorting their features into grotesque parodies of fear.
When it smiled, the expression manifested not on its featureless visage but in their minds—a slow, predatory amusement as old as the first stars, a cosmic joke whose punchline was written in the ashes of dead civilizations.
