Subject Zero: Mirrors (Book 2)

Chapter 3: 1155 451208

Friday, May 17, 1985
8:05p.m.
Cabin, Bluebell Forest

Jesper has already finished dinner and is now sitting in his shared room, finishing up late assignments for school while Zero's watching television and their guardian, LeAnna, washes the dishes.

He's feeling only slightly stressed, but it's nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to schoolwork. Being stress-free is less common in school than one would hope.

Crunch. Crunch.

The sound of footsteps crunching on leaves outside. When he hears this, his head shifts and he looks right at his window.

All day, he's felt like there have been eyes on him. It's been a more common occurrence these last few months, actually. He almost brushes it off as paranoia, but he's startled him when he sees a figure dash by the window.

Being caught off guard, Jesper sits up straight, dropping his pencil on his desk. He looks at the pencil, then looks at his door. His attention goes back to the window and he grabs the scissors from the pencil-holder-cup and he vanishes, only to reappear on the other side of his window.

A fort he and LeAnna built over a year ago is near, and he takes a few steps toward it, holding the scissors like he would hold a knife. He's very aware of his surroundings, taking note of every noise and staying on high guard.

He super hesitantly peeks into the fort, not seeing anything different... Anything wrong. Except for a handheld mirror lying on the pillow, even though it wasn't there the last time he was in the fort, which was only an hour ago.

A feeling begins to overwhelm him... The feeling that someone or something is standing right behind him. He quickly turns around, holding the scissors up and preparing to use them as a weapon. But there's nothing, no one. No people, no animals... He only hears two pairs of footsteps walking away.

Melancholy Woods

     "Whoa! Look at this!" Naomi chuckles as she looks at an old record-player, while she and Norman are wandering in the treehouse. She stands next to a large, full-size mirror. They have flashlights with them since it's getting dark.

Norman walks over to his sister, looking at the record-player. "Ooo..." He ganders around again. "Whoever's treehouse this is definitely collects a lot of weird stuff. I mean..." He picks up a box of spoons, forks, and cutlery. "Who collects silverware?"

She looks at some of the buttons on the record-player, pressing a few in curiosity. "Y'know how to work one of these things?"

"I think so." He reaches over to it, but freezes in place when he hears rustling outdoors. He stands silent, looking at her with fear instilled. "Naomi, I think something's outside..." Norman said quietly, feeling frightened already.

     "You heard the rustling, too?" she asked, with a worried expression on her face. She grabs her flashlight, switching it on.

He gently slaps her arm and says, "I told you we shouldn't have come at night! It's scary out here."

"I know, I just didn't expect anything to happen. Sorry. But we'll be fine, okay? Just let me handle this the dumb way since I can't think of anything else right now." Naomi steps over to the entrance of the treehouse, peeking outside to see if she can see anything abnormal.  "Who's there?" she asked, even though she's thinking: Who am I kidding here? No one would respond to that.