A reflection of the past

Chapter One:

It was a warm day on the 4th of July. birds were singing, leaves were dancing in the soft breeze of wind. The sun was bright, illuminating all the houses in a welcoming yellow glow. But most importantly, a loud groan of frustration can be heard from none other than our protagonist Alex, who stood in his house, cleaning the mirror decorating his hall with just about any cleaning product he could find.

"God what is wrong with this mirror! I've already used all the cleaner I have and nothing has changed, I still can't see my own reflection." That was true. The mirror was absolutely filthy, thick coats of dust like a disgusting icing covered the mirror, no matter how hard Alex scrubbed the mirror, it was clear it hadn't received proper care in decades.

"Why is it so dirty? You'd think for a family heirloom people would keep it pristine." The auburn haired man muttered to himself, he was tired and bored of spending so long cleaning a mirror only to make little to no progress. God was he getting pissed off. The male grumbled under his breath, trying to calm down he grabbed a j-cloth and started wiping down the mirror again, this time he actually started to uncover a Male silhouette, he was so tried and angry before that he quickly finished and smiled so he could just stop cleaning and go do something else with his day.

However, if he actually took the time to look at the so called reflection, he would realise that it wasn't his.

Alex ignored the mirror for a few days, just walking past it everyday while going out to do photo shoots or meetings, he never payed much attention to the mirror before cleaning it anyway. Sure it was his fathers, and for that he loved it, but despite being so handsome, Alex wasn't at all a fan of his own complexion.

He was never one to take may selfies, his Instagram only revolved around drinks he'd had from local cafes to promote small businesses, pictures of beautiful scenery, or cute stray cats he would find on his way to work. It was actually very rare he would take a picture of himself, so to stop to look at himself in a mirror wasn't in his character, therefore the family heirloom would go unnoticed.

Another day rolled around like any other, Alex grabbed his keys and walked down the hall of his house to leave when he stopped to look at the mirror and- wait a minuet. Was this reflection taller than him?
The Auburn haired man stepped closer and sure enough, his face didn't match up with the one in the reflection, maybe it was a painting? It had been so dusty over so many years people had assumed it was a mirror, but the obvious feel of reflective panes made it certain it was no painting.
Alex looked behind him worried. Did someone sneak into his house? Was some random stranger waiting behind him and that was the reflection in the mirror? But as suspected, nobody stood behind him. The green eyed boy sighed and face palmed. "Maybe I'm just tired... I was up all night getting work done, maybe I'm hallucinating."

And with that, the mirror was ignored yet again, until he came home and glanced at the object of his growing torment and curiosity, low and behind, there was no reflection that was taller than him anymore, in fact there was no one there at all for that matter.

It was unsettling honestly, instead of a mirror it was more like a window, a window into the life of another person, but that couldn't be, could it? It was just a simple mirror, one his family has had for years upon years, decades upon decades, surely if something were to be wrong, the message would've been told through his family, right? Surely he would've been told if this mirror his father loved, was actually a portal to another world, perhaps something of dark magic cursed by witches years ago?

The young model chuckled at his own stupidly and stared at the mirror, now he was just being dumb, of course it wasn't haunted by witches, magic doesn't exist, it's just a normal mirror and his mind was playing tricks on him. He just needed rest. That was right. It was a long, long week for him and he just needed to sleep. He would check again first thing tomorrow.

So he did as he said, he took off his clothes, put on some boxers as not to go fully nude and sleep, it was very hot mind you, but he wasn't that scandalous. What if someone needed him and he would have to spend minuets changing as to not scar them? That was Alex's mind for you, very paranoid, but also very creative. Whether that is a bad thing or not is debatable.

While tossing and turning at night, our protagonist found himself dreaming about the mirror, he was paranoid. But honestly? Who wouldn't be paranoid? A mirror which he is starting to think was cursed by dark witches, or now the flashy, albeit weird, home for angry spirits. Was resting in the hall of his home as if it isn't a danger to his well-being.

Maybe you could say he was being paranoid, actually, he was definitely being paranoid. But that didn't stop Alex getting up in the middle of the night and walking towards the mirror.

"Listen here, ghosts I don't hurt you, you don't hurt me. Got it? Good. I'm glad we could come to an arrangement."
Alex is ashamed that he honestly spoke to the mirror as if it could respond, and frankly, the spirits would spit in his face at that proposition if there were even any to hear it. But the young man was scared, he had a wide imagination, and that imagination was making him worry about what could be calling that mirror home, so much so he was standing there now, debating on whether he should take it down, lock it in his attic, and never even look at it again.

Alex sighed and cautiously trudged back to his room, turning off the light and going into his bed to drift off into a sleep, I wish I could say it was peaceful, but judging by our characters relentless tossing and turning, we can probably guess he didn't get much sleep that night.

The next morning was a warm Saturday morning, he was tired, he needed to get to the bottom of this mirror. Pulling on the closest outfit to him, (a white button up shirt, blue jean pants, brown boots and a long green cardigan, with the closest pair of glasses he had on his desk.) He walked down the hall of his house and stared at the mirror, slowly putting his hand up to the reflective surface...

"What's going on with me... am I dreaming? I've seen this mirror all my childhood and nothing weird happened-" Alex sighed and reached his other hand that had idly been playing with the collar of his shirt up to the mirror's surface to join his other hand there.
"There's just something so- dark about this. something about this dammed mirror is making me so on edge."

The curly haired man looked at the mirror's reflective surface with a cold stare.
"Really makes you wonder about this, what dark things happened during it's history."

As soon as the final word of his sentence left his chapped lips, unexplainable occurrences started happening as if the young man had muttered the starter to a spell. Firstly , it began to suddenly get very cold. a powerful breeze that shouldn't even be out in mid summer, swept the hallway. Alex shivered as more strange things started happening, the mirror's frame rattled and shook almost flying off of the wall as the glossy surface beneath the boy's hands started to glow an ominous blue before everything went still.

The breeze stopped, the mirror no longer shook or glowed. But most importantly, Alex was gone without a trace.