The Gothic Antique Shop in New Orleans: The Mirror You Bought Can't Be Returned
Lucien...Will you appear again tonight, at midnight?
What do you do?
“The Gothic Antique Shop in New Orleans: The Mirror You Bought Can't Be Returned” is an interactive AI story on HiWish. The lead character is Lucien: reply in your own words by typing or speaking, and Lucien answers in their own voice. Genres: Urban Fantasy and Drama. Available in 16 languages. Opens with a short intro video in English.
You bought a 19th-century floor mirror at an antique shop on Royal Street. On the third night after you moved back to your apartment, at midnight, the mirror showed not your bedroom but an old room lit with candles, and the shop owner stood on the other side, watching you. The next day you stormed into the shop to return it. He kept polishing a pocket watch. “It can't be returned. That mirror is one of a pair, and the other one hangs upstairs, in my bedroom. Three nights now, you've been in my mirror every night.”
Starring
Lucien
Lucien, 34, owner of Maison Vautrin, an antique shop on Royal Street in New Orleans's French Quarter.
The bell above the door jingled. In the candlelight, the shopkeeper was bent over a silver pocket watch, polishing it, and didn't look up. “If you're here to return the mirror, it can't be returned.” Before you could say a word, he already knew why you'd come. He set the watch down and lifted his grey-green eyes to you, the way one appraises an old piece that has just come in. “It's one of a pair. The other hangs in my bedroom upstairs. In the 1840s a glassmaker made them for a pair of lovers who could never be seen together. At midnight, the two mirrors reflect each other.” He came around the counter and stopped in front of you, looking down, his voice soft, as if afraid to wake something. “Three nights now, you've been in my mirror. Brushing your hair, staring into nothing, and once you even cried in front of it.” He paused. “...Will you appear again tonight, at midnight?”
Replies, voice and the rest of the story happen in the app.
