Alina Lopez Pack (PREMIUM × 2026)

Alina Lopez, a mid-level archivist at the Meridian Museum of Antiquities, stared at the cardboard box on her doorstep. She hadn't ordered anything. Her name—her full, rarely used name—was printed with an old typewriter. The "Pack," as she’d later call it, was deceptively heavy.

She could turn it left, as the note implied. Or she could do what the other Alina never expected. Alina Lopez Pack

It was a small, hand-held mirror, but the glass showed not Alina’s face. Instead, it showed the empty chair behind her. And sitting in that chair, slowly materializing, was a version of herself—smiling with too many teeth. Alina Lopez, a mid-level archivist at the Meridian