Ghosts Of The Attic

10. Strain

10     

     When you’re in a mental hospital for basically six months, you begin to notice things you’ve never noticed before like the tell tale signs of a pathological liar or practically anything that involves a person’s mental status. And when you notice those things then you make a game out of it, trying to decipher who has what; it’s something to preoccupy yourself with while you suffer from your own inner demons. Yet as I continued to stare at her, I couldn’t read her. There were no physical ticks, not even her eyes darted in a certain direction. Her straightforward gaze put me on edge and I nervously tapped my fingers on my thigh.

     She let out a huff of breath before grabbing the tea cup and leaving for the back room. The clattering of dishes and the sound of running water filled the awkward silence. Sorrow and loss. The two words rang throughout my mind.

     After running a hand through my hair, I stood up and began to pace the room. My footsteps made impressions in the soft rug. I couldn't stop looking down at them. My mind was sorting through all the scenarios that could happen once I crossed into the other world. I paused. The other world. The idea of it still felt surreal yet I couldn't deny it. It made sense. Somehow. My eyes nervously glanced at the mirror.

     “Where is she?” I murmured.

     My eyes snapped back towards the curtain before I cautiously made my way towards the mirror. When I was here earlier, I hadn’t inspected the object but now I could see every, little detail. Highly elaborate skulls morbidly grinned back while poppies and lilies were carved into the metal. The obsidian stones glittered from the eyes of the flowers and I traced one of them. It felt cool and smooth under my fingertip, but then I sensed a tiny imperfection in the otherwise flawless stone. I continued to trace it, feeling the scar stretch into a circle. Squinting, I could see a florid pattern etched into it, but that was that. It was difficult trying to decipher what was actually in the pattern other than the fact that a large circle was the center of it. It looks somewhat familiar though…

     And then the surface of the mirror began to ripple. It started off slow as if a solitary drop of water had suddenly fallen before the waves became much more violent. My eyes were glued onto the surface, watching how the once grey background was clouding with inky swirls. Curiosity and fear intertwined themselves in my stomach as I waited for whatever was going to happen. In the distance, a small dot was getting ever so closer and larger with exceptional speed. With anticipation filling my veins, I took a step back. Then the surface exploded; instinctively, I raised my arms to cover my face. The sound of shattering glass filled my ears yet no shards sliced my skin; only a cool mist sprayed my arms when suddenly something slammed into my body, knocking the air out of me as I fell onto the floor.

     “Oomph!”

     A pressure rested on top of my body as I struggled to sit up. Verona stared down at me with a dazed look in her eyes for a split second. Then after realizing what had just happened, she rose off of me and nervously tugged at the hem of her peacoat. “S-s-sorry,” she stammered out.

     “It’s fine,” I sighed, watching her.

     This time I couldn’t help but notice how different she looked. Strands of hair were sticking up in random directions, giving her a frazzled look. Her eyes had even lost their animated spark and dark circles rested under them. But most importantly, she was flickering in and out of focus like a bad image caught on video. After standing back up, I slowly took a step towards her. “Are you all right?”

     She averted my stare and started for the curtains. “Is she in there?”

     “Verona.”