The Girl in the Mirror

A L E X A N D E R  H A L E  was the enigma of his school. Smart, good looking, kind but distant unless he is with his mates Ezra and Isaiah.

He was someone who blended in the shadows so well. It was very difficult and rare to even get a glance at him. Mostly in the corner of the library surrounded by the smell of old dusty books and graphite surrounding the air and his palms as he sketches on the sketchpad he carries around everywhere.

Today was like any other day, Alexander was sitting under the tree beside the edge of the lake sketching the scenery in front of him while Ezra was lying on the ground getting 'tanned' after a hard morning in his classes. "You know getting detention was inevitable if you were going to place a firecracker right under professor Dawson's chair," Isaiah said walking towards both his best mates trying to hold in his laughter but failing since the sound of him trying to stifle his laughter could be heard by both Alexander and Ezra. "Maybe if he hadn't given us so much homework and given me such a horrible partner I might not have put it there in the first place." said a scowling Ezra, propping up on his elbows to get a better view of Isaiah. "But still, how did you manage to put the cracker before class?" asked a now curious Alexander. "That is for me to know and for you to never figure out," Ezra said with a cheeky smile only to receive an eye roll from both his mates. "I'm gonna head to the library." And with that Alexander left both his mates near the lake.

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"Alec!" The boy whose name was being called fell off his bed at his friend, Isaiah screaming his name at the top of his lungs. "Alec are you ok?" Ezra asked, looking at his friend with a concerned look. He and Isaiah were both aware of Alec's constant visions of a girl with deep chocolate brown eyes and honey dripping brown hair. It started when he was fifteen, a year ago.

The dreams began with the said girl, being no older than five or six, smiling at an old couple as they were giving her gifts on Christmas morning. The same dream kept appearing, again and again, every night as soon as Alec was sent into the darkness of sleep that it became like a burned memory in his mind. It felt like he was physically there by her side or perhaps even her, reliving the moment of her happiness and excitement. For the next few weeks, he looked forward to sleeping. All he wanted to see as he fell into the pit of the darkness of sleep was to see the smiling little girl in his dreams living the life he wished for but never got from either of his parents; but as months flew by, these visions kept growing, Alexander's 'visions' on this girl kept on getting darker and darker. As if the once happy child had been forced to grow and see the monsters under the bed. No longer was the happy little girl who smiled at getting her Christmas presents, here stood a young woman who looked as if she had fought too many battles for her age and seen every inch of the world's horrors.

Alexander and his mates called the mystery girl, the girl with brown honey dripping hair. Now at the age of sixteen, a sleep-deprived Alexander was afraid to go to bed and tonight was no different. Today Alec decided to take a walk to the seventh floor of Whitewater Academy to clear his head. The seventh floor was an abandoned floor where students weren't supposed to go. There wasn't anything there anyway. Just a plain hallway to pace around. At around half past midnight Alexander got off his bed leaving a note beside Isaiah's bed in case he got in the middle of the night. Alexander wore his thick black woollen coat and tied a grey scarf around his neck and tied his wristwatch before grabbing his satchel that had a pocket lamp in it. He slipped out of his dorm and went upstairs to the seventh floor. As expected the floor was an empty hallway with nothing but the hall lamps lit. He sat on the corner furthest away from the staircase and began drawing on his sketchpad. Halfway through his sketch, he heard a slight creak behind the wall he was currently sitting against. The creak was followed by a heating sensation. Immediately he sprung from his position against the wall to see the outlines of a green door appearing on the wall.