Blood Flower

Prologue

Yuri gazed at her reflection with a suspicious look. Was something up with her face? Or was it just her imagination? Her hair appeared a little blonde and curly. And was it just her, or was she taller? 

She looked into the mirror more intently. To her horror, her reflection began to morph into...someone else. Her shocked face began to twist into that of a girl with whited-out eyes. It appeared to be taking one step at a time, closer and closer to the mirror. Yuri wasn’t even moving at all! She was frozen in fear. It crept even closer, it was just touching the glassy surface…

“Yuri?”

The door opened. Yuri’s adoptive mom, Haruka, stepped inside. Yuri spun around to face her mom, sneaking a glance at the mirror.
Everything was normal again. 
Long, violet hair tied hastily into a bun, dark, expressive eyes, and pale skin.
“I’m fine, Mom. Nothing to worry about.”
Haruka raised an eyebrow, then smiled. “Okay, then, dear. Call me if you need me!” She shut the door, making a loud sound.
“Well, that was one heck of a hallucination,” Yuri laughed to herself, flinging her body onto her messy bed. The latest book she was reading, Portrait of Markov, was open to page 74. A half-eaten chocolate cupcake from Natsuki was right beside it. Next to that was a tray with two cups of lemon tea. The banner from the poetry festival that read “Welcome to the Literature Club!” was draped over the headboard. All the stuff in the world that she loved.

Yet she couldn’t shake off the nagging feeling that the creature she saw in the mirror was more than just a hallucination.

Ever since she’d woken up that day, her birthday, she’d felt like she was being followed. On the way to school. In the bathroom. At the drinking fountain. She had seen something in the corner of her eye as she walked home with her friends from the Literature Club, but she’d brushed it off as her imagination. But with everything that had been happening recently, it felt like it was real.

And Yuri was determined to find out the truth.

She walked up to the mirror, staring at the eyes of her reflection. Then she asked aloud: 
“What do you want from me?”
In an instant, her reflection morphed into the blonde, curly-haired lady with white-out eyes. Yuri’s first instinct was to grab a knife from her collection. She quickly dug through the knife box, and selected the sharpest, most ornate one.
“Aren’t you going to say something? Come on, I dare you!” Yuri tried her best to sound confident, but the tremor in her voice was clear.
After what seemed like an eternity, the woman spoke.
“Open your Third Eye.”
She froze. “Wh-what?”
“Open your Third Eye,” she repeated.
“What Third Eye?”
“Open your Third Eye.”
Yuri’s grip on the knife’s handle tightened. “I-if you aren’t going to say anything other than that, th-then don’t say anything!”
“Open your Third Eye.” The voice grew more sinister.
“How can I do that if I don’t even know what you mean?”
“Open your Third Eye!” The woman lunged for the glass barrier. Yuri screamed and dropped the knife. She pushed the mirror, such that it was now lying horizontally on the ground. The woman’s head poked out of the glass, infuriated. She struggled to push herself out. A quarter of her body was out.
Now half.
Now three-quarters.
She stood on the mirror, one foot still inside. “Open your Third Eye!” she bellowed. The force of her voice almost blew Yuri to the ground.
As she pulled out her other foot, Yuri began to cower. I never thought it would end this way, she thought. Stabbed to death by a woman who came from a mirror and only ever says four words. It ends here, I don’t wanna look.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Yuri looked up. The woman was gone, but her room was still in disarray. Her phone was buzzing. She checked the caller ID. 

INCOMING CALL-SAYORI

“Yuri! You’re late to your own sleepover party! I’m downstairs; your mom got me some sushi!”
Right. Her birthday party at Monika’s. How could she forget? “Alright, Sayori. Just give me some time to get dressed and I’ll go.”
“Okay, then! See you soon!” Sayori hung up as Yuri grabbed an oversized beige sweater from her closet, which she pulled over her black tank top. She stuffed her phone into her skirt’s pocket and took the duffel bag from the wall, before going downstairs where Sayori was sitting on the sofa. She was wearing a red hoodie that matched her coral pink bob, and blue shorts. “Let’s go! Natsuki’s cupcakes won’t stay warm for much longer!” 
The two walked out of the house hand in hand.
And for the first time that day, Yuri felt at peace.

***

But the peace didn’t last long.
Sayori chattered non-stop along the path to Monika’s house. That wasn’t the problem, though.
Open your Third Eye kept ringing in her ears.
Soon enough, Yuri had had enough.
“Just shut up, alright?” she yelled.
Sayori looked at her, offended. “That’s not very nice.”
But Yuri couldn’t hear her. 
The only sound she could hear was the voice of the woman in the mirror. And she had finally said something else.
“Don’t you think that, at our reunion, you would be a little nicer?”
“You tried to kill me!”
“No, I didn’t. I was trying to get you to focus. You need to-”
“Open your Third Eye, right?”
“Yes, dear sister.”
Yuri paused. “Sister?”
“It’s not time for me to explain. But I need you to know something.”
“What is it?”
“That book you’re reading? Portrait of Markov? It’s not fiction. It’s a reality. And we both experienced it.”
That sentence was enough to make Yuri remember the sadistic, twisted grin of that man.

Renier Markov. The Demon of Russia.
The one who tortured her and her sister.
The one who rounded up people and turned them into bloodlusting killing machines.
The one who had her mother killed.

"Guess that Memory Modifier wasn't permanent after all," the voice said nonchalantly. "Tell Irina I said hi."
“Mother!” Yuri screamed out loud. The last thing she heard was Sayori calling out her name. She felt her body hit the cold pavement, wet with rain from the previous hour's thunderstorm.
And everything went black.