THE BATHROOM...
{EXCERPT FROM THE MERCY RECORDS EPISODE 2/ATTENDANCE}
The bathroom was empty when Michael Vasko pushed through the door.
That was what he thought first.
Then he heard the tap running.
Cold water. Thin thread. Steady. The sound that makes a room feel occupied by something patient.
Five mirrors over five sinks.
Five pale rectangles.
Five versions of the same morning light, fluorescent and flat and unkind.
The center one was fogged.
That made no sense. The water was cold. He could hear cold water. No steam rose from the sink.
But the glass had gone gray from the inside out. As if someone had breathed on it from behind the silver. As if something was waiting for the surface to receive the message.
Michael took one step forward.
Not because he wanted to.
Because his body had not yet understood that curiosity and obedience were sometimes the same thing.
The fog thinned at the edges. A letter almost formed.
Then did not.
The surface cleared just enough for him to see himself standing there — book bag sagging against his hip, mouth slightly open in the foolish way people look when they do not know they are afraid yet.
His reflection raised its right hand.
Michael did not.
The reflected hand lifted slowly to the reflected mouth.
One finger against the lips.
Hush.
Behind him, inside the far stall, a girl’s vinyl book bag slid out from under the door and stopped exactly between his shoes.
No girl spoke.
No feet showed under the stall wall.
The name on the bag had been rubbed so thin he could not read it.
The center mirror fogged again.
This time the word arrived complete.
COUNTED.
Michael ran.
He left the bag where it was.
Seven minutes later, Caleb Rusk came through the same door.
The bag was gone. The tap was still running.
All five mirrors were waiting.
The mirror wasn’t finished.
Episode Two of THE MERCY RECORDS is live now.