A fear of mirrors.

The hallway.

You slowly open your eyes in the darkness. Light then fills the room. Was it morning? You look ahead, and see a long hallway in front of you. No, it definitely wasn't morning. You don't know how you got here, but you knew this place all too well. But for some reason, you can't seem to remember where you've seen this place before.

You don't think about it much, and decide to start walking forward. You only look forward, nowhere else. Your expression is blank, your arms are at your sides, and your legs move forward without you even telling them to.

The hallway seemed endless, as there seemed to be no where to go. There were no turns, just one long never ending hallway. You keep walking, keeping the same pace. That's when you see it. Something out of the corner of your eye. Something more colorful, unlike these blank white walls. You don't stop walking, just turn your head to see whatever it was. It was a painting. It looked like the inside of a house. The inside of your house, to be exact. You look back forward, and keep walking.

More paintings. They begin to fill up the walls that are on both sides of you. At first they were innocent, but then they became grotesque. You spot people in the paintings now. People that you know. People that you love. One showed your best friend getting ripped apart by rabid dogs. Their limbs were getting torn from their body and there mouth was hanging open. Their eyes already looked lifeless. Probably dead from the blood loss, you thought to yourself.

Another showed another one of your close friends. It showed a burning house, with a corpse crawling forward and trying to get out. They were barely recognizable because of their burnt and melted skin. But, you knew who it was. They had their hand outstretched towards you, almost as if they were asking for you to take their hand. You couldn't really see their eyes, but you could tell their mouth was open in a silent scream.

You see many more paintings after this. They all seem to involve your friends, and later on, your family. One had their eyes beings gouged out by no one in particular. One showed a family member hanging them self. Another showed one of your friends being decapitated. You felt like all of these paintings should make you cringe, should make you feel uneasy. But they didn't. You kept a blank expression and just kept walking forward through the endless hallway.

Finally, the paintings seemed to be going away. The further you went through the hallway, the less and less the paintings would arrive. After what seemed like hours, you saw no more paintings. Or, so you thought. A little bit longer past, and from afar, you saw another painting.

This one looked huge. It was to your left, so you knew where to turn your head as you slowly walked. Upon reaching it, you took one glance before stopping in your tracks. You didn't stop to look at any of the other paintings before, only this one. You turned your whole body to face the painting, and just stared.

It showed a sibling of yours. They were on the ground, mutilated. They were on their back, and their head was rolled to the side to face you. Eyes were wide open and lifeless, and blood dripped from their mouth. A pool of what you knew was their own blood surrounded them. You scanned up the painting to see more. What you saw next made your eyes widen. Beside your dear sibling, you saw feet. You scanned up the legs and torso to the face of the person. It was you. You were now looking into the eyes of yourself. Like yours right now, they were wide open in the painting. What was different about your appearance in the painting is you had a huge smile on your face and were covered in blood. In the painting, you looked to your hand. You held what looked to be a butcher knife, maybe. And beside you looked like a table with multiple tools on it. You looked back up to your face in the painting. That smile. Those eyes staring right back at you. You felt like you were going to vomit.

You forced yourself to turn and move forward. You couldn't look at that picture any longer. For a while, you kept your head hung low as you walked, staring down at your feet. You couldn't get that image out of your head. Your lifeless sibling. You standing over them with a smile. You wanted to lift up one of your hands and slap yourself. Say to snap out of it. Tell yourself you're dreaming. But you didn't know if you were dreaming. It all felt real.

When you look back up from your feet, you stop in place. There's an end to the hallway. The end wall was white, just like the other ones beside you, but it seemed to have something hung on it. You squinted your eyes, trying to see what it is. You couldn't see it, you'd have to get closer. So, you began walking once again.

If you had a conscience, you would of told yourself to stop, turn on your heel, and head back the way you came. But you didn't seem to think. Why did you have to? You kept walking, letting your legs take you to the end of the hallway. You stop when you're right in front of the object hung on the wall. It was a mirror. It was average size. Didn't fit our whole body, but showed from your lower torso-up.

But there was something different about this mirror. It didn't show the right reflection. You weren't looking at yourself. You saw a pure black figure in the reflection. You could barely make out any of its qualities because of how dark it was. The only thing you could see was its main shape, and it's eyes. It's eyes were a piercing white, and seemed to have a little glow to them. It reminded you of fresh snow. You decided to test something, and lifted up your right hand.

It did the same. So it wasn't even reflecting you properly, as you both lifted up the same hand. It should've lifted up its left. You wave your hand. It does the same. You make some signs with your fingers. It does the same. It's copying you correctly, but isn't mirroring you correctly. You decide to try something else. You lift up your right hand, and put it to the mirror. It does the same.

Your heart begins to pound fast in your chest. You can hear your heartbeat in your ears. Warmth. You could feel it through the mirror, like someone had their hand pressed to yours. But it was a mirror. Glass. They couldn't reach you. How could you feel them? Their skin felt smooth, but thick. Maybe a little leathery. The entity then smiles, showing a row of bright white teeth. You gasp and start to pull your hand back. It grabs your wrist.

You want to scream. It's hand had come out of the mirror, and taken ahold of your wrist. Smile fading, it begins to pull itself out of the mirror by using you to tug on. It opens its mouth, and lets out an ear piercing shriek. No, shrieks. There were multiple. It sounded like a million voices in one. You wanted to cover your ears, so that's what you do. You pull your hand away from its grasp, and place both hands on the sides of your head to cover your ears. It stops screaming.

Slowly opening your eyes, you jump back as you're now staring into blank white ones. It quickly extends out an arm, and wraps its hand around your neck. You gasp for air, and it reaches out another hand towards your mouth. Your eyes widen as it forces your mouth open with its fingers before slipping them inside, followed by it's whole hand. You feel bile rise in your throat. It's skin tasted and had the texture of ink. You could feel the skin around your mouth stretching uncomfortably. The entity continued to shove it's whole hand down your throat, following by the beginning of an arm. Your mouth stretches more, and tears prick your eyes from the pain. It stuffs it's whole arm in, getting to the shoulder, and you hear a sickening riiiiip. Your eyes widen and you try to let out a scream. Your skin is tearing. You begin to hyperventilate, breathing out of your nose. Your body twitches and spazzes as it continues to try to stuff more of its body down your throat. Tears stream down your face as you feel your skin rip more and more. You feel as if you're going to pass out.

Your eyes open wide and you sit up quickly. Tears stream down your face and you let out shaky gasps. You feel around your mouth. It's fine. You look around your room before your eyes stop on the mirror. You get up from your bed, and with wobbly legs, slowly walk out of your room and head to the restroom. You've had this reoccurring dream since your were very little, and it still makes you feel queasy. It's also the reason why you have a fear of mirrors.