FLESH covered LIES

The Reflection of Tenebrocity

1:02
Hey. I was just wondering if you got a chance to look at my writing recently? Sorry, I know you may still be busy, I'm just really struggling to get my ideas down at the moment. Something pretty shocking happened here, I'm still kinda recovering. 
Gerda.

My email was short and rushed, I still really wasn't in the mood to put any effort into anything at the moment. The Sherlock incident had still only happened the day before yestarday, and the twinges of shock still hadn't left my body yet. Within 10 minutes, my phone binged, I had got a reply.

1:11
Hi Gerda. Yeah it's true, everything is kind of busy back here. Sorry, I forgot, but I'll look at your writing at some point today, I promise.
Mr Sed

Okay. Yet again I felt like no one really cared. These thoughts were common for those with social anxiety, but today they were hitting me pretty hard. Recently, the gripping hand in my stomach had become less of that, and more like a metal claw, with huge amounts of energy being pumped into it, so it could afford to squeeze for as long as it wished. Talk of monsters and death was freaking me out, sure, but I knew that the real monster lived inside of me, threatening to visit at least once a day. Who even cares, I thought to myself. Why the hell do you care about Mr Sed anyway. He's just your old teacher. You don't even know his name for Pete's sake. Lazily, I picked up a book from the pile Jonathan and I had been studying earlier, and continued my reading. 

Another "common" but less known about cannibal-like creature is known as the Jikininki. Hunting by night, these poor cursed souls were the ones who were vain in life, and are now left to haunt others as the flesh eating ghosts, with the power to disguise as anyone throughout their life in the daytime. Their almost iconic red eyes.....

Shivering, I put down the book. An image of Tyler sprang to mind, rotting skin and red eyes. Maybe horror wasn't my kind of thing after all. 

This was hopeless. I couldn't read a book for more than 2 minutes anymore. One event had shaken me to the bone, and still I wasn't sure when I would stop trembling, and be able to live as I always had. What the hell am I doing here? I thought to myself. The library which had first seemed ever comforting was like a fortress of mystical creatures ready to strike whenever I let my guard down. Sherlock had been traumatic enough, but somehow I knew deep down that there was more to come.

Just at that moment, a short sharp scream came from an adjacent room, right on que it seemed. I jumped, immediately terrified that yet again, someone had fallen to their death. Knowing it was Tyler, I sprinted to where the sound had come from, and found him shaking, eyes wide with fear and tiny hands clenched into fists. Looking at him now, from a distance, I could tell he had barely aged. Tyler was still my cute little brother, always giving me a reason to go on. He was staring at a mirror, a crack down it I was sure hadn't been there before. 

Jonathan was standing in the opposite corner of the room, panting, as if he had just run here too.

"Hey, hey. Tyler what's up? What happened?" I bent down to his height, trying to calm him. His face was twitching with terror, real fear being screamed from his face without any actual words.
"In... In the mirror." He stuttered. "There was a... man in the mirror."
"Michael Jackson?" Jonathan offered, smirking at his own stupid joke. I shot him a disapproving look, and glanced back to Tyler. 
"What do you mean Tyler?" I was rubbing his arms furiously, to get him to feel safe, and to warm him up. God it was freezing in here, what happened to the central heating in this stupid house. 
"I don't know." Tyler said, looking down at the floor. It was as if he was already losing faith in trusting what he thought he had seen. I hated that. I didn't want him not to believe those bright eyes of his. I never wanted anyone to tell my little brother that he was wrong.
"Okay. Let's go downstairs where it's warmer alright." I looked over at the cracked mirror, sure I could see glowing red eyes peeking out of every nook and cranny in the reflection. My constantly anxious mind was playing nasty, childish tricks on me again. Jonathan followed us as I took Tyler's hand, squeezing it tight. I turned my gaze over to Jonathan, wondering if he had finally regained his mature yet spooky phyco look and abandoned his random jester one. He smiled as apologetically as he could muster, and just then I saw the glint of something sticking out of his trouser pocket. It shined like metal, like a blade. He shoved it back into the pocket, blushed and brushed past me as we left the room. I didn't want to scare the still shivering Tyler anymore, so I ignored it, planning to ask him later when I next saw him.

But the memory of that unexpected gleam faded all too fast from my mind, and I never did.