you have hatched...
Alexia is fourteen years old. She's in a classroom at school, with other girls and boys.
The teacher seems nervous as he scrawls on the board. He's teaching them the magic arts, and this spell has a very long formula.
A large shadow in the room seems to move of its own accord. Alexia notices before anyone else. Then the teacher - and other kids - notice it.
The shadow forms the shape of the Devil, with long spindly fingers that curl and beckon to the teacher, then point at the class.
From the shadow, a voice demands that the teacher pay the price of one soul in return for the magic he was taught by the Devil himself.
The other kids seem to know what's going on, and stare at the teacher, waiting for him to choose who will die.
Alexia doesn't understand. She's frozen, with both horror and fascination. The teacher is also frozen, until the shadow claws its way up his body. He shouts, "Devil, take the hindmost!" And then he runs.
The chlidren scream and run after him, squeezing out of the door, shoving each other, stampeding. Alexia takes a second to realise that she should run, but which point she is at the back of the pack.
As she runs to be last out of the door, the Devil reaches out to snatch her soul.
Alexia sees her own shadow on the door, and shouts, ""Take her! She's the hindmost!" The Devil grabs for Alexia's shadow, and it is torn away from her body as she makes her escape through the door.
Alexia is safe on the other side of the door, and the shadow screams before it vanishes. The teacher wants to know who he took, who did he take? Alexia tells him: "The Devil can only see the dark in people, so he saw my shadow and thought it a girl."
Alexia leaves the school. She does not complete her training to become a witch. And now she has no shadow. No shadow at all, nor any mirrored reflection.
