Confession under the crown of thorns

The Clock Tower Meeting 5:55 PM

The gears of the pocket watch clicked like a dying machine. William counted the steps of the spiral staircase—the thirteenth step was engraved with a small soul-binding mirror symbol, identical to the pattern on the obsidian shard. The grayish-purple patches still lingered in his right iris, and every time he looked at a reflective surface, the image of Emily digging in the rose garden would appear.You are thirteen minutes late.

A hoarse voice came from the shadows. An old man in a wheelchair slowly appeared, with a rusty iron box on his lap. William's body tensed instantly—this man was Joseph Kane, the former janitor who had been missing for many years. Legend had it that he had rescued seven students in a fire at the academy twenty years ago, but had lost half of his face in the process.Do you know Margaret Carter?" William pulled out a photo from his pocket watch.

The old man's burned fingers traced the lock hole on the iron box: "Know her? Child, I was the one who helped her hide the first mirror.

The Truth in the Iron Box 6:13 PM

When William inserted his mother's amethyst earrings into the groove on the side of the iron box, three locks sprang open simultaneously. The contents of the box made his blood run cold:

1. A half-broken vanity mirror, its edges stained with dried blood

2. A fragment of a ship ticket dated April 10, 1893, from New York to Southampton

3. A cast of an infant's footprint, labeled "E.M. 2005.8.23

Your uncle and Margaret's daughter, Joseph's voice sounded like a rusty hinge, "is Emily's mother.

William's pocket watch suddenly started ticking wildly, with the hands rotating counterclockwise. His two shadows split again—the shadow on the right picked up the torn piece of the ship ticket, while the real William clearly hadn't moved.

The Resonance of Keys 6:47 PM

The amethyst earrings suddenly melted, and the liquid metal reformed into the shape of a key in William's palm. At the same time,

the key in Emily's pocket became extremely hot,

the rose thorns in Victoria's tattoo pulled themselves out and floated toward the clock tower,

and Old Rockefeller's wheelchair suddenly turned northward in the mansion.Joseph grabbed William's wrist and listened as the two keys merged.

The bell suddenly rang, and the old man felt as if an invisible force had gripped his throat. William watched helplessly as the patterns of the Soul-Binding Mirror emerged beneath his burned skin. The last words he managed to utter were, Don't let the mirror complete itself.

Bloody Omen 7:00 PM

As he descended the stairs, William noticed crimson droplets seeping from the inside of the pocket watch's glass. The blood droplets formed the outline of Victoria's profile, with a countdown below:

13:00:00

12:59:59

12:59:58

When he rushed out of the bell tower, a torrential rain poured down. Before hitting the ground, the raindrops all solidified into tiny amethysts, forming a path leading to the pavilion in the middle of the lake. In the reflection on the lake's surface, William clearly saw another version of himself inserting a key into some device, while that William's neck was wrapped in rose vines.