The House of Mirrors

Jack kept his head down as he hurried through his house. He heard the moans and the groans, the shrieks and the whimpers. Some of them were from but children. And yet he hurried onward.

He burst through the front door and sighed in relief. It was a dismal day - rain lightly pattered on his head from a grey sky - but at least it provided distraction from the horrors inside his house.

Jack started the walk into town. Today was his one day off per week from the factory, so he knew that when he Unloaded at the end of the day, as he had done every day for the past twenty or so years, it would not be as long of a process.

When a small child bumped into him, partially knocking him off of his path, he tried to ignore the tiny claws digging into his shoulder.

When a carriage passed and splashed mud on his shoes, although it was quickly washed away by the rain, he twitched at the gnarled fingers twining themselves in his hair.

Finally, he made it into town.

Jack entered the butcher's shop, as he did every week. "The usual, please," he told the muscled butcher.

The butcher shook his head and said gruffly, "Sorry, we've sold out. You okay with ham rather than beef?"

Jack felt rage bubbling within him as something huge and hulking loomed over him. No, he was not okay with ham rather than beef. Beef was the meat he ate every day at at least one meal. That was how things were supposed to be, and this fool was upsetting that order!

The creature standing behind him pressed a hand against his back and Jack winced as it fused with his skin. "That would be wonderful, thank you," he told the butcher with a smile as his anger seeped into the figure, leaving him empty and able to fake pleasantries.

Once outside, Jack saw a group of young women standing across the road from him, chatting loudly. He had been infatuated with all of them at different points in the past. The Unloading the days when they turned him down had taken hours.

One of the girls saw him and held a fan to her face, flapping it quickly. Jack recognized what she was doing from countless times of being on the receiving end of the trick - hiding her mouth so she could speak to her friends without Jack noticing. Her secrecy was ruined when they all turned to look at Jack, however. A few of them giggled.

Jack felt an eel-like shadow wind itself around his leg tightly.

*

His day continued in this fashion. Whenever anyone vexed or bothered him in even the most minor of ways, one of them took hold. 

Finally, the sun started to set, and he donned his top hat and headed for home.

It was early still, but today had gone much more poorly than expected, and he would have to get plenty of sleep for tomorrow's work at the factory. Since the Unloading today would unexpectedly take hours, he had to get a head start.

Jack knew that nobody else could see them, the shadowy figures that clung to him. He was alone in bearing his torturous weight, limping home with dozens of the monsters strapped to his body.

Had others been able to see what he saw, they would have cringed away from the terrifying, saddening sight - a mere mortal, dragging along with him creatures from the size of a fruit fly to that of a giant.

Finally, he arrived at his home. He was so early that his maid wasn't even done cleaning yet. He dropped his purchases from the day onto his dining room table, the surface that only he ever ate at, even though there were eight chairs. Ever since his mother had died, the young man had been alone.

"Please stay in the bedroom, Cecelia," he called to the maid.

"Yes, mister Jack," the young woman called, ever eager to please. She even went so far as to shut the bedroom door for him.

Jack stood in front of one of the larger mirrors in his hallway and pressed his palm to the upper right hand corner of the frame, careful not to touch the glass. Slowly, the creatures began to seep off of him.

The tiny ones leapt into the glass. The larger ones wriggled until they squeezed through. With each monster that released him, Jack felt himself getting lighter, less angry, more like the jubilant boy he had once been.

Finally, he had Unloaded all but one. The huge monster hulking behind him was an issue. It would have to go in the mirror in his bedroom.

Jack took a moment to stare into the contents of the mirror he currently stood before. The creatures had taken their true forms once inside the glass - the souls of tormented men and women, even children - but demons.

He watched them scream and writhe for a few seconds, until he heard a crash come from his bedroom - the unmistakable sound of shattering glass.

"Cecelia?" he called out, panic rising in his throat. Please be one of the smaller mirrors, please be one of the smaller mirrors...

But he knew that it wasn't. A sound that loud could have only come from one source.

The mirror holding the worst of the demons.

Cecelia flung open the door. "I am so sorry - " she apologized tearfully as behind her, a demon rose from the ruins of the mirror.

"What have you done?" Jack breathed. Then, screaming the words: "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

"I'm sorry - "

The first demon slammed into Jack. Then another, and another. He cried out as the raw pain overtook him and he fell to the ground. Cecelia screamed.

The man's body didn't stop twitching until long after the life had seeped out of it at the hands of his demons.