A Collection of Short Stories

9. In the Mirror

Delilah's heart was racing as she stared at herself in the mirror. She couldn't see her reflection. In its place was the shadow of a black, hooded man standing right in front of her. She looked behind her, but there was no one there. She looked back in the mirror and the figure was gone. Her reflection was there. It was like nothing happened. Was she dreaming? Was she imagining it? Was it all in her head? Or was it real?

She washed her face and tried to calm down, but she couldn't. She looked in the mirror again and the same figure was there, staring at her. Only this time, its hand was reaching out. Delilah tried to move back, but the hand came out of the mirror and pulled her in. She screamed and cried, but nothing worked. Delilah was trembling as the figure was staring at her. She looked around and saw her house. Everything looked normal. Nothing was out of the ordinary...until she got to the living room. 

Her mother and sister were both dead and dismembered. Their eyes were open, and their necks were broken. She headed into the bathroom where she saw her own dead body. The mirror was smashed, and Delilah was slumped over the counter, bleeding from the head. The hooded figure was standing over them, holding a knife and staring right into Delilah's dead eyes. 

She blinked, and she was back home. The mirror was intact and everything was back to normal. There was no sign of the hooded man. Delilah was safe. For now. 

She went to the living room and her family was there. Her sister was on the couch watching a movie, and her mother was making dinner. Nothing was off. Maybe it was a dream. Maybe Delilah was imagining it. Maybe she was just making it up. That's what this was. Just her imagination. Nothing else. 

Delilah went back into the bathroom where she stared at the mirror. Her reflection was there, but so was her family. She was standing over their dead bodies, holding a knife. No. No. It can't be. Delilah blinked, and looked again. She was still there, and her whole family was dead. It looked just like the one from earlier. Except this time, she was the one who killed them. She couldn't erase that image from her head. It haunted her. She had nightmares about it almost every night. 

Every time she looked in the mirror, she saw him. He haunted her the most. He wouldn't leave her alone. He wouldn't stop until her whole family was dead. Until she was dead. But...why? Why her? There had to be some kind of explanation for it. What did she have that he didn't? A family, a home? A life? Was he even real? Delilah didn't know anymore. She didn't know what to do. She tried telling her mother about it, but she didn't believe her. She thought Delilah was crazy. of course she would. But Delilah wasn't crazy. Was she?

Delilah went into the bathroom a third time. She jumped back in horror when she saw the black figure again. It pulled her in the mirror and this time, she saw herself...standing in the mirror. She saw her room, her house, but it was...different. It was like she was stuck in another dimension and she couldn't get back. She kept walking around the house, and everything was the same. She was reliving the same thing over and over again. The hooded man led her to the living room. On the wall, there was writing in blood. It read, "KILL THEM..."

As if on command, Delilah's eyes turned bloodshot red and she picked up the knife. She stabbed her mother forty seven times and her little sister sixty times. She then dismembered their bodies and buried the parts around the house. Her sister's right leg in the freezer, her left one in the bathtub, and her torso in the kitchen. It was brutal. But she loved it. Every minute of it. She was possessed. This is what the hooded man wanted. For her to kill her family and to commit suicide because of the guilt. He brought Delilah back to her real life and left. 

Delilah snapped back to life and opened her eyes. She immediately looked in the bathtub and found her sister's left leg. She ran to the living room and there they were. Her sister was dead on the floor, stabbed sixty times, and her mother was too. Delilah was horrified. Did she really do this? Did she really kill them? She couldn't have. How? She goes back to the bathroom and sees the knife on the sink. She looks down, and her hands are stained in crimson blood. 

Apart from the knife, she sees writing on the mirror in blood. The same as the wall. "YOUR TURN." Her turn to die. Her family was dead so now it was her turn to die. The figure appeared again and pulled her in the mirror. Delilah tried to resist as much as she could, but nothing worked. She was back in the mirror again and this time, she saw...herself. Twice. 

She saw herself staring at the bloody mirror and she saw a different version of herself sneaking up behind her. This version of her seemed...possessed. Her eyes were bloodshot red and she smiled a smirk. She was holding a knife, the same one she used to kill Delilah's parents. She plunged a knife into her body, and Delilah fell to the ground, dead. 

The mirror smashed, and pieces of broken glass were everywhere. Police were called to the scene of a murder-suicide. They recovered the dismembered body parts of Delilah, her mother, and sister, as well as the bodies. They also recovered the kitchen knife used to kill them. Police at first didn't know what happened. They thought either someone broke in, killed them and left, or Delilah brutally murdered her mother and her sister. But it never occurred to them that the killer wasn't Delilah. It was the smashed mirror inside the bathroom and the monster that lay inside.