"Only the chosen can see the third lantern." That's what my mom and everyone else told me.

I don’t believe in the ancient stories. Not really. My mom did. More than anyone in fact. She was a Lantern Watcher once. Then she vanished. Everyone says she drowned. They say that when the Lake takes people.

Tonight, it was my turn to be a watcher.

I got picked at a ceremony a night ago. I didn't want to be taken by the lake, but everyone has to do it. Some do survive. Like my sister. But some don't. Like my mother.

The village lit the two lanterns at dusk, just as the moon cracked open the sky. They floated across the surface of Black Mirror Lake, casting golden light that flickered in perfect twin patterns. One for the lost. One for the return.

I stood on the shore beside Kaito, the other Watcher. We weren’t allowed to speak during the watching. Just watch. Just wait.

Kaito looked...wrong in this light. His face didn’t shift with the lanterns’ flicker. His eyes didn’t reflect the fire. Still as the water, they said. That was what Watchers were supposed to be.

I tried.

But around midnight, the wind stopped. The air turned heavy, like something had sucked all the sound out of the world. Then I saw it.

A third lantern.

It wasn’t lit. Just a dull glass frame drifting between the others like it had always been there.

“Kaito?” I whispered, breaking the silence.

He didn’t move. Not until I reached for the lake. Then his hand grabbed mine. Cold, fast, wrong.

“You can’t touch it,” he said. “If you do, it knows you.”

“What knows me?”

He looked away and he didn’t answer. He looked scared.

I yanked my hand free. “What is it?”

Kaito exhaled like someone who’s been holding in a scream for a century. “It was supposed to stay sealed. The pact. My role. I kept it locked.”

“Your role?” I stepped back. “What the heck are you talking about?”

He looked at me then. Really looked.

“I was Chosen. A hundred years ago.”

I laughed. “You’re seventeen.”

“Well,” he said, softly. “I lied.”

Then the water split.

Not splashed, not rippled. Split, like something peeled it open from below. The third lantern shattered, and something dragged itself out. Arms too long, head tilted wrong, skin stretched too tight around a mouth that didn’t know how to be human.

Kaito stood in front of me.

“I kept it locked for a hundred years. But they changed the ritual. Someone thought two lanterns was enough. Someone forgot the third.”

The creature hissed. Not air. Water. Like a dying breath from the bottom of the lake.

“Go,” he told me.

“No.”

“You’re not supposed to be here. You weren’t the Chosen. It was supposed to be someone else. Until you take their place.”

He looked at me like he knew. Like he knew I switched names with Mina. My best friend. So she wouldn’t have to do this.

“Kaito,” I said, my voice shaking. “What does it want?”

“Freedom,” he said. “And a body.”

He turned to face the thing fully, and I saw it smile.

“I kept my promise,” he whispered. “Now keep yours.”

Then he stepped into the water. The thing took him. Dragged him down.

I held in my screams.

The surface smoothed. The lanterns went dark.

And I stood alone on the shore, holding nothing but cold air and regret.

A week later, I rebuilt the third lantern.

They didn’t want me to. Said the lake was calm again. Said Kaito was never real. Just a village myth. A leftover name on an old list.

But I know better.

Somewhere in that temple beneath the water, he’s still watching. Still keeping it sealed.

And someone has to keep the lanterns lit.