The Last Lesson

The first thing she noticed upon waking was the weight of the wedding ring on her finger—a ring that wasn't hers.

Then, her reflection in the mirror.

The eyes were familiar, but everything else screamed strange.

The voice behind her sounded calm, almost serene:

"Finally awake. I thought you'd sleep forever."

She turned. The man sitting in the armchair watched her with a cup of coffee and a look that mixed anger and relief.

"What did you do to me?" she whispered, her voice trembling, trapped in a body that reacted in ways she didn't understand.

"Me?" he gave a half-smile. "I only fulfilled the agreement. You said you wanted to understand what I felt, didn't you? That I exaggerated, that jealousy was weakness... Well, the spell agreed with you. Now, for a week, you'll live exactly what I lived."

She took a step back, feeling the light fabric of her nightgown move with the air.

"This is a joke."

“No, love,” he replied, with the cruel calm of someone who has already cried all they had to cry. “This is the punishment.”

She looked at the mirror again, her heart racing.

The reflected image blinked once, twice—and, for a moment, it seemed as if another woman was watching her from inside the glass.

His voice echoed through the room:

“When you learn what it means to lose your own reflection, perhaps the spell will return yours to you.”