Reflection

One cold winter night, 15 year old Kelly sanders was home alone, as her parents had gone out to a dinner party at a friends house. It had been snowing all afternoon, but had recently stopped. After studying for a while, she decides to relax a little; after all, she finally had the house to herself.

She makes herself some popcorn, gets a nice warm, fuzzy blanket, and snuggles under to watch one of her favourite movies. In their lounge room, the television is positioned a few feet in front of the glass sliding door that leads to the patio and backyard.

By midnight, Kelly's parents are still not home, and she begins to feel uneasy, but refuses to call them, for risk of sounding like she couldn't take care of herself. Suddenly, her eye catches a glint of light from behind the TV, and right there, just outside the glass door, was a crazy-eyed man, grinning maliciously at her, and holding a long, narrow blade in his left hand. Terrified, the girl panics, she pulls the blanket up over her head and grabs the cordless phone by her side.

Kelly calls the police, and as luck would have it, there was a patrol car less than a block from her house. In a matter of seconds, two officers are on the scene and Kelly tells them about the armed man staring through the glass. The first officer opens the sliding door and looks around the area. After a few moments, the officer turns and explains to Kelly that there couldn't have been anyone standing out there, as there would have been footprints in the snow.

The second officer tells Kelly that she is probably just tired and her imagination was playing tricks on her. The officer beckoned at the TV where the horror movie she had been watching was still playing. "Stuff like that didn't help matters either." The officer said smiling. Kelly smiled too, more at her own immaturity than the officers remark, still a little shaken. As the police are about to leave, the male officer stops and looks behind the sofa that Kelly had been sitting on. His jaw drops and eyes widen in shock.

Kelly and the other officer notice his reaction and follow his gaze; they both gasp. There were footprints and a discarded knife on the carpet behind the couch. Kelly hadn't seen the man outside the door; shed seen his reflection when he was standing behind her.