Mirrors (Haunted)

Chapter 1

It's been a while since I shared my story; let alone expose it to any sort of media. It's something that would make one uncomfortable, or fearing it would have other uncomfortable as well. Now as I'm older and it's something of the past, I wouldn't mind telling what happened to me nearly five years ago.

I was thirteen years old at the time. Slightly friendless, awkward with my being, and incredibly shy; I'm sure many people at this age felt this way as well. But I wasn't one to speak up about my thoughts and feelings. I had an irrational fear of what people would think of me. Which I suppose now looking back made me an easy target.

In the summer times my younger sister by three years, Ava, and I would visit my father, along with my stepmother and two half siblings. They lived in a large cape cod. It was adorable, with its powder blue walls and red mum flowers planted below in the white window boxes. It was a charming neighborhood, if you didn't notice the old cemetery behind the thick bushes that separated the land. Our house was the closest, but I was never bothered by it. I was drawn to spooky things. It was a treat for me to stay up past my bedtime and watch "Ghost Adventures" with my dad (I was inlove with Zac). Yet again, I thought the supernatural could only harm you if you messed with Oujia bored's or something stupid like that.

Odd things occurred in our house, but nothing to drastic. Small things, such as strange smells. The most popular ones being old lays perfume and maple syrup. The sent would drift by your nose for a moment, and just as you think "What the hell?" It's gone.

But the things I saw later was nothing compared to this.

My brother Micheal, who at the time was just about three, and I were sitting on the steps of out in ground pool in the back yard. Ava and I took turns watching him, our kid brother boring us as he only wanted to play with his small pool toys on the aqua blue steps. While Micheal and I played, his attention quickly flickered away from me and to Ava, who was swimming around in the deep end like an excited dolphin.

"Who's the man?" Micheal asked, his eyes on our sister.

"What man?" I inquired, blocking the sunlight from my eyes as I searched for apparently a man.

"The man swimming with Ava." He answered nonchalantly. My eyebrows furrowed together in confusion, only seeing Ava.

"Micheal, there's no man."

"Yes there is. Just tell me, sis." He demanded gently, his tiny hand holding my shoulder. I froze in the water, unsure of what he was talking about. It was a bit creepy, but he was still a toddler. His imagination is probably off the charts. And when I repeated that there was no one with Ava, he let it go and resumed playing.

About a week went by, and by then I had forgotten about the "man in the pool". I woke up in the middle of the night, gasping for air as my eyes snapped open. I was in the cold sweat, my breath uneven. I turned my head and saw the red numbers on my alarm clock read 3:00 am. I looked around the room, remembering my dream. Blurry pieces of memory floated up. A black silhouette of a man standing over my bed. The room around him was a blur, like I was underwater. It wasn't much, but the atmosphere around me was suffocating. Now that I was awake, and could hear the soft snoring of Ava sleeping on the top bunk of our bunkbed, and my German Shepherd, Daisy, sleeping on the floor besides me; the feeling of safety blanketed me and I feel back asleep.

Three minutes later, Daisy started barking like mad. I shot up, extra my startled by her threatening voice. Her head was pointed upward at the corner of the ceiling. She ran from corner to corner, continuing her loud barks. Until she reached the third corner where my door was, she stopped. Not even a grow lingered out of her. She stated at the door, as if she was puzzled. Then, she stalked over to my bed after sat beside me, like she was now on duty to watch out for whatever she saw. Shaken up by her barks, I turned on the bedside light to protect us both. I didn't dare move any farther than that. I laid there with sleep dry eyes for the next few hours; until the sun came up and could keep me safe.