Episode 16 - Before the Mirror

Olivia stayed behind after the meeting.

Charles had vanished mid-step, as he often did. Miss LaDonna had left through a door that hadn’t been there when they came in. Bernard faded through the ceiling, humming an 8-bit lullaby.

And Olivia… just sat for a while.

She didn’t cry. Didn’t panic.

She just existed. Fully.

She returned to the breakroom around dusk.

The kettle greeted her with a polite chirrup, already warming.

Her custom blend was waiting beside it. Not in a tin—just in a folded paper packet labeled in looping handwriting she didn’t recognize: “For Centering”

She brewed the tea slowly. Let it steep longer than needed. Watched the color swirl into golden amber.

When she brought it back to her desk, the lights had dimmed slightly, as if the station knew she wanted quiet.

She didn’t turn on the monitors.

She didn’t check the phones.

She simply sat and sipped her tea, the heat grounding her as her ears flicked slowly in thought.

She pulled out her notepad.

Not to take notes, but to write her own thoughts this time.

She wrote:

There is someone who looks like me. She’s already inside. The others are worried—but they’re calm. That means I can be calm too.

A pause.

The changes are still happening. I’m not done becoming yet. And that’s okay.

She added a final line at the bottom:

I think I’m ready to know who I really am.

Later, as she stood in the bathroom brushing her hair, she caught sight of herself in the mirror.

She froze.

Her reflection was… normal.

But not quite synced.

For a heartbeat—just one—it didn’t move when she did.

Her ears flicked. The reflection's didn’t.

And then it caught up.

She stared into her own eyes.

“Not yet,” she said aloud.

The reflection smiled.

Back at her desk, the lobby lights flickered.

Then steadied.

Olivia pulled her cardigan tighter around her shoulders, set her notepad back in the drawer, and whispered to the air:

“I’m not afraid of you. Whoever you are.”

The hallway echoed back softly.

Not yet.