Broken Mirror

Chapter Three: Broken Glass, Faceless Threats, and Disquieting Whispers

The rest of the afternoon and night went by too fast for my liking.

Macy and Cynthia made us dinner as we still didn't have cooks at Momma's request that we didn't need any.

Maggie and I then took baths and after talking in my room for a few hours, went to bed.

I was lying on my back staring up at the ceiling unable to sleep as I found myself in a strange, new place, in a bed which wasn't mine from home. Just as I was about to drift off to sleep, a strange sound came drifting into my room from the open window. It sounded like a clap of thunder in the distance, but was much sharper and was more like a cannon blast. I got out of bed and crept over to my window and looked out at the pitch-black darkness. I saw nothing, but the noise continued. I then went to Maggie's room to see if she had heard anything.

I went into Maggie's room after knocking to see her standing by her window, trying to locate where the strange noise was coming from.

"What do think that is?" she asked me, a little scared.

"I don't know," I replied, "Get your shoes and coat on. Let's go outside and check it out."

After we both shoved our shoes and coats on, I grabbed a lantern and we went out the back door.

The noise continued adding to the shivers already going down my spine caused by the chilly air.

Maggie followed close to me and she kept making nervous glances on all sides of her as we walked.

"It sounds like it's coming from next door," I whispered, "I wonder what our neighbor is up to this late at night."

Maggie said nothing in reply and we started to cross our lawn towards our neighbor's.

I knew the house next door was probably at least a good half mile from ours and whatever they were up to, it had to be loud for the sound to carry all the way to our house.

As we neared the house, we could smell smoke from a fire and soon we saw the faint outline of the house against the dark sky. No lights were on inside, but as we got closer towards the back yard there was a soft glow from a bonfire; the smoke curled into the air and formed strange shapes.

There had been a pause in the noises when we had reached the neighbor's lawn, but as we dared to get closer, the racket continued, this time it was louder and was followed by the sound of glass shattering.

"What's going on?" I wondered to myself, but soon both Maggie and I could see clearly what our neighbor was doing.

We were still some distance away, out of sight, but the light from the fire was enough to see the silhouette of a figure.

The person was undoubtedly a man who was dressed in a long overcoat and had a cap on. He was standing with a revolver in his hand, pointing the weapon towards his woods where a table had been set up with empty, liquor bottles on top of it. He had made a makeshift shooting range and appeared to be taking out all of his anger as he fired each bullet, the sounds of breaking glass following after each ear shattering crack of gun powder igniting.

Both Maggie and I stood there dumbfounded and in shock. We didn't know why this scene was taking place in front of us nor did we want to go and ask the mysterious man, for we were both scared of him.

"Let's go," I whispered to Maggie with wide eyes and in a nervous voice.

She didn't need to be told twice and we half walked and ran back to our house, careful not to make any noises as we did so.

We burst back through the door, both of us panting, out of breath, and still shocked about what we had seen.

"What was going on over there?" Maggie asked me once she caught her breath.