Mirror, Mirror | ✓

•Day 37• Ava

"Julia!" I shouted, hoping that my therapist would hear me. Veronica and Thea were standing in tow and watched the scene unfold. It was half past seven in the evening and all of Julia's appointments for the day were over. I was hoping to catch her before she left and thankfully, I did.

She was just about to get into her car, when she turned around at the sound of my voice.

"Ava?" she asked quizzically, a tired grin plastered on her face. I smiled back, relieved that we'd caught her in the nick of time. I ran up to her with the paper in my hand.

"I'm so, so sorry for coming to you at this time. I know it's late and you're done for the day, but this is important," I said breathlessly. Immediately, Julia pulled her coat tighter over her chest and pointed towards her office. "It's cold out. Come inside," she said, and we followed behind her in tense silence.

She flicked on the light and took a seat behind her desk, motioning for us to follow suit. I took a seat in front of Julia, while Thea and Veronica pulled in chairs from the waiting room outside. Slowly, I placed the paper in front of her.

When Julia had made it to the very end of the page, she drew in a sharp breath of air. I watched her as she re-read the page several times, unable to process the words scrawled over it. "Where did you find this?" she asked finally.

I turned towards Thea, who hung her head in silence. She looked like she wanted to be anywhere but there. Ver, on the other hand, stared right at Julia, her head held high. "In Holly's room," she said confidently, her voice unwavering.

"Why were you in Holly's room?" I asked, testing her. I knew this wasn't a primary concern, but it still bothered me how Thea looked so guilt-ridden. She was transparent all the time. It was something I normally envied her for, but now merely pitied.

"You told me you needed my help with handling Brynn, so I thought of looking for clues about her personality in her room," Veronica answered, not in the least embarrassed for having violated someone's privacy.

Her confidence was another thing that I normally envied, but now I felt nothing but anger towards it. How could she break into someone's room and steal their things? Better yet, why did she have to find that paper and overcomplicate our mission further?

Thankfully, I wasn't the only angry one. "You know you weren't supposed to do that!" Thea jumped in, going red in the face. "I told you it was wrong. I only went in after you to stop you."

If I were Ver, I would've looked like I'd been slapped because of that sudden betrayal. She, however, looked unfazed.

"I know, Thea. I did force you into it. I don't regret it one single bit. What we found is of high importance to all of us. I did us a favor," she said simply, smirking.

Julia wasn't even listening to our petty banter. She was far too absorbed in the piece of paper that lay before her. And with good reason, too. If we found out how Holly killed Kat, that meant we could also find out how to avoid killing the other splits.

The last thing we wanted was for one of the splits to disappear. If they disappeared, Holly would get closer and closer to coalescing. Or, closer and closer to losing her memory.

Plus, I loved them. All of them. Even Brynn. They were all different in their own ways, but they were people with their quirks and perks. They were all little parts of my best friend.

"It's coming true..." Julia whispered to herself, and I edged closer in order to hear her better. "What's coming true, Julia?" I asked, getting scared. This reminded me of the last time I was in her office, when Will had called to tell me that Holly's personalities were coming together and she was starting to remember things. I didn't know if I could handle any more bad news.

"I made a theory back when I first met Holly that each of her personalities are based off of one particular emotion or memory..." she started, and I nodded. "I told you this much a long time ago, isn't that right?" she asked. I nodded again.

"Afterwards, I followed up with Mr. Mills on this and together we discovered that there's a reason for every personality trait the splits possess. Alora is based on the memory of Holly's mother, Daisy's based on Holly's excitement and creativity, Elody's based on her love for literature and Katherine- Kat- was based on her strength and bravery," she continued, and Thea and Veronica's ears piqued up with interest at the mention of Kat.

"The only way to get rid of an alter is to provoke it using the trait it stands for. Once Holly began developing insecurities and fears, it was clear that Kat wasn't going to stand a chance. So, it was Holly's own mind that had killed her."

"The way Holly wrotes about, it seems like she was trying to get rid of Kat. That means she was intentionally hunting around for things that could scare her, right? But why would she want to do that?" Thea asked slowly. That's when it dawned on me.

The answers were right there, lying before us. "Will," I whispered.

Will was Holly's whole life. She knew that she couldn't spend enough time with him because she had Kat taking over half of her life. Thea played a part in this too. The days that Holly was Kat, Will spent time with Thea. Jealousy was what made her kill Kat.

"She was so eager to know what would happen if Kat disappeared," I said aloud. "Curiosity killed the Kat."

"And her mind punished her for doing that, too," Thea said suddenly. "Because instead of getting rid of her disorder, it only aggravated. Kat was replaced with three alters."

"Four," I corrected.

Julia gasped. "That's it!" The three of us turned towards her in surprise. "Kat's bravery had to have been replaced, right? The insecurity couldn't have just dissipated from inside of her."

"And from what I know, Diasy's the most insecure out of all of them. But that's not even because of self-hate, someone else is the reason for that," Veronica supplied. I shivered at the mention of 'someone else'. She was referring to the letters. I didn't want anything to do with that day every again.

"Exactly. But for Kat to have truly disappeared, another alter should have taken her place to represent her exact opposite," Julia said, and all of our mouths dropped open at the same time.

Someone so terribly insecure that they wore heels higher than their self esteem, more makeup than Holly's yearly supply and someone who insulted everyone else to keep her mind off of their own self deprecating thoughts.

"Brynn."

. . .

A/N I think you ought to have understood that I never put in happy chapters unless there's a huge revelation/ tragic chapter following it. Hope this revelation didn't disappoint you!

What do you think's going to happen? Are Thea and Veronica just as eager to avoid killing the splits as Ava or do they want them gone, because of, I don't know... Jealousy, perhaps? ;)

Until the next chapter~