Mirrored

Thing two

"Don't listen to them. It's what they want. It's what they feed on. You know you're stronger, you can face them."

I wake up on the dead, dusty wooden floor pressed against the side of my face. My eyes capture the quiet looking room in seconds; it's calm, untouched features, It's sad and old furniture, The green wall paper that peels away slowly. The only thing that seemed active was- and to no surprise, the unsettling mirror.

I let myself take the time to sit up, noticing that my hair is parted in two braids. A short strapless dress hugs onto my body tightly, my arms and legs left vulnerable for the cold breeze to attack at any given second, sending shivers down my spine and goosebumps on my skin. The key to the very room I sit in still rests around my neck. It's cool metal touch pierces my skin like a pinch that stings ones skin for a minute or two.

I could barely tell whether it was daytime or night. The wild vines and plants cover the entire window like a blindfold, shielding me from seeing further out. I only assume it's night because of the quietness coming from outside. No sounds of birds chirping or cars passing by, just the low hum of crickets and frogs.

Carefully, I stand to my bare feet, putting grace into my step in order to keep the tired floorboards from groaning at me wearily. After brushing the clingy dust off my dress I watch as the small particles float away soundlessly in a daze.

"Everything is so alive." I let myself whisper, getting no reply from the stilled room.

My eyes drift from the wardrobes to the walls, then from the window to the mirror, finally finding focus on it.

In the mirror, four people sit around me. A girl and boy sit on a desk together, the girl quietly explaining something to the boy as he stares intently at a wall. Another boy leans against the opposite wall, watching me with a sense of boredom to his face, and the last girl sits beside my foot with crossed legs, a wide grin on her face as she rocks back and forth, bumping my leg once or twice.

"What're you-" I turn to face them all, but no one is there. I stand alone in the room, the cold chill returning to my bare skin.

Sensing the strange presence the mirror always leaves me when my back is turned, I immediately spin back around. Instead of seeing people, I only me in the mirror again.

Despite being a few feet away, in the mirror I stand basically leaning over the dresser, still as a rock.

What looks like a broken skull mask lies over half of my face. The details in the mask seem so real- the cracks in the skull, the nothingness in the socket of the eye. It seemed almost overwhelming to stare at it. I reach my hand up to touch my face, but in the mirror my hand stays at my side, clenched into a fist.

It comes to my attention as I stare at myself that the me in the mirror blinks at different times them me, only the eye not covered by the mask moving.

Finally, the mirrored me lifts a hand, pressing it against the glass mirror. Her movements, though, remain her own. I dare to take a step forward just as her long fingernails dig into the mirror, leaving small scratches as she drags her hand down. She continues the process over and over again, her movements getting faster and faster as if she's becoming more desperate.

I stand positioned in my spot, not daring to help her or turn around again. Her eyes look into mine, urging me to help her. When I don't, however, she opens her mouth to yell something at me, both of her hands raised in fists. Her hands make contact with the mirror as she screams louder, though her voice is muffled from the barrier of the glass.

She bangs on the glass persistently, beginning to crack it as I step backwards. The four kids I had seen before had seemed to return and now stare at me contently. Clumsily, I bump into the girl who had been on the floor by my foot the first time. Though now she stands behind me, weeping silently through her hands.

Before I can do anything, the glass to the mirror breaks open. The Fiona that had been in the mirror says only one thing I can hear, her words sucking the oxygen from the air. "-your fault!" She shouts, her hands bleeding as she cries tears of black through her mask.

She leaps out of the frame the second the mirror gives out, diving toward me and grabbing both my shoulders. The two of us fall through the floor with a loud crash, then I feel her grip on me vanish. Instead, my eyes open to my bedroom again. My heart throbs through my chest as I stare up at the ceiling, covered in sweat from head to toe.

Even through the wall, the first thing I felt was the presence of the mirror begging me to visit it again.

I grit my teeth and dig my head into my hands, finding the courage to breathe again after a few seconds of fear that someone might hear me.

"I need to get out of here." I whisper, talking to myself so I know I still have my voice, "I need to get out".