As the mirror cracked open, the light inside wasn't blinding—it was soft, like the warm glow of a candle in a room you haven't entered in years. It spilled across the floor and gently wrapped around their feet, inviting them forward.
The four of them stood together.
But not the same.
Mikael no longer felt hollow. For the first time, the pen in his hand felt weightless—not because it lacked power, but because it no longer controlled him. He chose to carry it.
Elise's breathing was steady. The anxiety that had always hovered in her chest like a bird in a cage had gone still. Her voice, when she spoke, didn't tremble.
"I thought rewriting myself meant erasing everything," she said. "But maybe it just means choosing what stays."
Lina looked down at her hands, which now shimmered faintly with ink and light—truth and memory, balanced.
"I used to only write endings," she said. "Because they were easier than beginnings."
Arielle didn't say anything. She only smiled and nodded.
Beyond the mirror, there was a blank space. White, endless, silent. A canvas.
"It's not the real world," Mikael said.
"No," Arielle replied. "It's your world now."
A desk appeared—then two, then four. Pages floated in the air, waiting for hands to give them meaning.
No Editor.
No Dollhouse.
Only them.
"You were all stories once," Arielle said, her voice distant now, almost fading. "Broken, rewritten, rearranged. But now… now you get to be the authors."
Mikael turned sharply. "Wait—where are you going?"
Arielle's form shimmered, becoming translucent.
"I was never meant to stay forever. I'm the idea that led you back. That's all."
Lina ran to her. "But you're real—aren't you?"
Arielle gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "Real enough to remind you that your voice matters."
And then she was gone.
Not erased.
Written into the next page.
The white space remained. Waiting.
Mikael sat at his desk. No fear this time. Only hope.
He picked up his pen.
And wrote the first sentence of a new story.
"We were never characters. We were always the ones holding the pen."