Beyond the Glass (Book 2)

Prologue

I awake and open my eyes only to be blinded by the bright, sterile hanging precariously above me.

I groan and shut my eyes. I turned my head to the other side and open my eyes again.

"Dr. Taber?" I muttered.

"Ah, Mitch, you're awake," Dr. Taber grabs his clipboard.

"What happened?" I asked, rubbing my forehead, sitting up and letting my feet hang over the side of the hospital bed.

"Loss of memory," Dr. Taber says slowly as he wrote it on his clipboard.

"What?"

"You blacked out."

"Blacked out? Why?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out. And we were about to call you comatose. But, you're awake now, so we can knock out that possibility. Now, Mitch, can you remember anything before you lost consciousness?"

"It'll sound crazy, Doc." I replied.

"Mitch, I'm a doctor. I've heard some crazy things. It won't faze me."

I raised an eyebrow. "All right. For as long as I could remember, whenever I got near glass I could..."

"Could what?"

I sigh. "I could hear it calling to me."

"Calling to you?"

"Yeah. There's this voice, deep and throaty, and it calls me by my name."

Dr. Taber is scrawling on his clipboard furiously.

"Go on." He says, not looking up from his clipboard.

"But yeah, I touched my mirror and I was suddenly stabbed in the chest with this sharp pain. It spreads to the rest of my body, and it refreshes itself in waves."

"Mm-hmm," Dr. Taber hums.

"It's almost as if someone is someone is chipping away at my very soul."

"Interesting..."

"And there's one more thing, but..." I licked my lips.

"But...?"

I swung my feet and looked down at them. I tightened my grip on the sheets.

"I'm afraid if I tell you, you'll have me in a straight jacket and throw me in a padded room before I can blink."

Dr. Taber finally recreates eye contact with me. "I won't."

I blink.

"This is just between you and I, Mitch. This is totally confidential."

"Then why are you writing all this down?" I asked, gesturing to the clipboard he's kept a white-knuckle grip on.

"Just observations. This won't go in any of your records."

I look back down at my swinging feet. "Am I crazy, Doc?"

"No."

"Not even a little?"

"You're perfectly normal, Mitch."

I look up at him and sigh. "Like the thing with glass, this man has always visited my dreams. There used to be a woman there, too, but she randomly disappeared one night when I was about 6 years old. Anyway, the voice I hear whenever I get near glass, it belongs to that man in my dreams. I call the man Kris."

"Is that with a 'Ch' or a 'K'?"

"A 'K.'"

"All right, thank you."

"As I was saying," I continued. "The man, Kris, always appears right before my dream ends. He says the exact same thing every time."

"Which is?"

"'You killed yourself, Mitch. You killed her. This is all your fault.'"

"Who is 'her'?"

"No idea, Doc."

"Okay. Please continue."

"Yeah, I don't know who he's talking about when he says 'her', and I don't know Kris. I've never seen him outside my dreams. But every time he says that, tears fill my eyes. I apologize and beg for forgiveness."

"Hmm,"

"And then I wake up. Every dream I've had for all of my 22 years, he always shows up."

"You haven't told anyone about this?"

"I just told you not two minutes ago that I was afraid I would be put in an asylum."

"Right. Well, Mitch, I advise you to avoid glass at all costs."

I scoff. "No dip, Sherlock." I added an eye roll for good measure.

"I'm serious, Mitch."

"I know, I know. But what did you think I was gonna do? Hang out in my bathroom and stare intently at my mirror? Might as well say 'Bloody Mary' three times while I'm at it."

Dr. Taber sighs and leans back in his chair, folding his arms.

I give him a toothless, smug grin.

Dr. Taber sighs heavily. "Stay away from glass if you don't want to black out again. As far as this Kris, I am questioning your sanity."

"Ha!" I huffed. "Thanks, Doc."

Dr. Taber stood from his seat. "I can't make him go away,"

"I'm sure you can't. Can't exactly control crazy people, can ya? You can put 'em in straight jackets, you can muzzle 'em, but they still act like their normal, crazy selves."

"Wanna join them, Mitch?" Dr. Taber retorts.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Not sure myself, Doc."

I feel a stab in the side of my neck.

My vision becomes black around the edges, and I slowly drift into nothingness.