Cracks in the Mirror

Kate's Story

Feeling hopelessly horrible, I escape the house again, this time trying to find new friends in my neighbourhood. I see that the houses in the neighbourhood look a little livelier than my own. I spot a girl who looks about my age, plucking flowers in her backyard.

"Hey! What's your name?" I call out. The girl looks up for a second. She has dark eyes and straight, black hair. Then she looks down again.

"Heyyyy!" I called out again. She seems a little shy.

"Kate", the girl muttered in a low, gloomy voice.

"Huh?" I asked.

"I'm Kate, Lily." she said.

She seems as creepy as everything I've seen yet.

Side note - How does this random girl know my name? Does news really travel so fast in this neighbourhood? I didn't even tell her name to anyone else here. I haven't even seen anyone else here.

Huh.

Weird.

Anyhow, I like the girl instantly. (Please don't question my choice, I do that already.)

I know that she's awfully shy, but I don't mind.

Trying desperately to start a conversation, I call out again.

"Hey! How come I haven't seen anyone else in this neighbourhood?"

This sparks her interest, and her head jerks up.

Thank god.

For a moment there, I thought I was just grasping at straws awkwardly.

"Well...", she starts, an edge of suspicion in her voice.

I raise my eyebrows and step closer, encouraging her on.

"There were a couple of disasters here one after the other a couple of decades ago," she continues slowly, cautiously.

I look up at her pleadingly, silently asking her to carry on.

"Like bombings, hijacks, thieveries, you know, that kinda stuff. The people who lived here got tired of repairing each loss and spending so much money, so they declared this place sort of evil and inauspicious, and moved away permanently. That was a long time ago. At that time, my great- grandmother made a decision. She decided to stay here, because it was her birthplace. Because of this decision, we're stuck here too," Kate ends sadly.

"Why don't you leave this place? It looks so... dead," I say, revealing my feelings about the new place for the first time.

"We can't. My mother says that my great- grandmother cursed this place before dying. She says that we can't leave this place. If we do, we die. My mother actually believes in this so-called curse. I swear, when I grow up a bit more, I'll run away from here," she says matter-of-factly.

"How do your parents earn a living?" I ask, awkwardly trying to change the subject after a minute of complete silence.

"My mother used to work at the mirror shop. It's a small shop about a kilometer from here. She died a couple of months ago, probably from natural causes."

"Hey! I've been to that shop!" I reply.

Suddenly, I realize what she just said, and my eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Huh? Did you just say that your mom probably died from natural causes?" I asked, mystified.

" Yeah, that's right. When the doctor came over, it was too late. However, afterwards, we were informed that she had no illness, didn't have any sort of accident, no over-bleeding, no internal injury..... nothing. Not gonna lie, it was sort of creepy. However, the doctor found a really, really tiny piece of mirror pierced near her heart." Kate replies, her voice starting to crack.

"Now daddy runs the mirror shop." she adds sadly.

"I'm really sorry," I say, not knowing what else to add.

"Yeah, me too. I really miss mom sometimes. But luckily, I'm not in such a bad situation. I still have daddy," Kate replies. Tears are running down her cheeks now.

I walk back to home feeling much, much worse than when I left.