Mind Games

Chapter 4

I walk through the open door and it slams behind me. In front of me is a full length mirror.
My short blonde hair looks so different than the copper with specks of red and brown that I used to have.
My once tan and smooth skin, is now pale with fear. I stare at my bloodshot, blue eyes. My lips, pink, and full, hide perfect teeth behind it. My nails were long. Too long. My clothes, rugged and hanging off my thin body had me wishing for a soft sweatshirt.

"I'm scared." I whispered to the girl in the mirror. She stares back, giving me a reassuring smile.

"PLEASE PLACE YOUR FEET ON THE FOOT PADS."

I hesitantly place my feet on the bloody foot pads, facing the mirror. A kind of cheese grater pushed against my heels and I realized immediately what it was used for.

"DING! NEXT: PLEASE PLACE YOUR HANDS ON THE HAND PADS BESIDE EACH FOOT PAD."

Bending over, I placed my hands on either sides of my feet on top of the hand pads. A cutting blade contraption grazed my middle finger. Would people's fingers get cut off if they didn't fit in the hand pads? My heart was hammering hard inside my chest. Please don't let them cut a piece of me off, please. I prayed selfishly.
A nail clipper slid out of the machine and started cutting my long nails. "Ouch!" Blood dropped down from my finger tips as the machine clipper cut my nails close to my cuticles.

"DING! NEXT: PLEASE STAND UP STRAIGHT AGAINST THE MIRROR."

"Oh my god." There was a slicing object hanging above the mirror.

"Let me be the right height,Let me be the right height, please Let me be the right height."

I stood up against the mirror, shaking hard. The object lowered down. I flinched.

"PLEASE STAND STILL."

Willing myself not to flinch, I watched it as it dipped lower, and lower, and lower.

"It's going to chop my head off! I'm too tall!" I panicked.

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"Mallory, Mallory Mathews. She was 19." Dani says, bending over to read one of her machines. "Time of death? 3:30 in the morning of the 22nd."
Bishop stares down at the body.

Both of her middle fingers were cut down to the first knuckle. The back of her heels looked as if they had been grinded down, they were bloody. Her nose also looked as if the tip of it was chopped off. Both feet were missing toes, they had been cut passed the knuckles. Her face was caked with bronzer, in fact her entire body was covered in self tanner and bronzer. She had blonde hair with dark roots that was topped off with a jagged choppy haircut. When Dani opened her eyes she had dyed blue irises. Her body looked way too thin and beat up, bruises covered her arms and legs.

"This girl was definitely beat out of shape to fit someone else's profile." Marks said, stepping around to inspect the nails, which were cut down to nubs.

Marks and Bishop step back into the hallway.
"So what we have is a crazy kidnapper who remolds his victims to look like someone else?" Marks says, running his hands through his thick, tousled hair.
"Maybe he uses his victims to resemble someone he once knew. We need to figure out the pattern."
"So he bleaches their hair blonde, dyes their eyes blue, cuts their nails to numbs."

"Chops off their heel if it's too big, cuts the middle finger if it's too long."

"Don't forget, the toes."
They stared at each other, their discussion settling in.

"We need to find out what happened to Sarah, she was blonde haired, blue eyes, 5'5, thin, with nubs for nails. Her shoe size was a 6 1/2." Dani interjected, joining them in the hallway.

"We need to call Buzz and have him start looking for anyone that died with that description." Bishop states, pulling out her phone.
"That could take months. We don't have that much time" Marks whispers, hearing a squeak they turn to see a janitor staring at them from down the hall.

"It's all we can do for now." Bishop sighs, walking away, while dialing Buzz up. Dani returns to the body, leaving the janitor and Marks alone in the hallway.

"Detective Marks, I'd like to ask you a few questions." He says, rolling his shoulders back and walking towards the glaring janitor.

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The cutting blade dropped lower and lower and I shrieked. With a thwack, the blade came down and slapped the top of my head and stopped.

I stayed motionless

A second contraption, a huge pair of scissors, slid out from behind the mirror and chopped my already short shoulder length hair, both blades cutting on either sides of my chin.

"DING! NEXT: PLEASE PLACE YOUR FACE ON THE MACHINE INFONT OF YOU."

An object that reminded me of something you use when you got your eyes checked, lowered in front of the mirror. I placed my face in and was nose to nose with my reflection.

The object squeezed tighter, measuring my ; cheek bones, chin, eyebrows, ears, eyes, and nose.

It seemed satisfied and I relaxed, having no idea what the object would do if I failed the measurements.

A light from behind the mirror blinded me and I stared right back into it. What an idiot. The light switched from one eye to the other.

A mans voice, not a robot, came on the speaker.

"ARE YOUR EYES REALLY THAT BLUE?"

"Actually no they aren't. I woke up and found this contact case in my pocket and I figured; "hey! Why not?"." I forced myself to say sarcastically. I heard him press a button and I punched the mirror. "Hey! Who are you?! Why are all these girls here?!" I only had a few moments to grasp the reality of what was about to happen as the huge flat piece of metal flew down again and crushed my skull.

"ARE YOUR EYES REALLY THAT BLUE?"

I stared at the mirror, shocked that I hadn't just died. "Um...y-y-yes the-the-they are." I whispered nervously. Glad to hear a normal voice but terrified at the same time. In the back of my mind I kept repeating "If your not Sarah your dead."