Mirror, Mirror

Just do it, she whispers in my ear. 

"No, I couldn’t possibly do… that," I reply in a hushed tone, staring at the poor little creature in front of me. 

She sighs, Oh, come on! It's not the end of the world, just do it! 

"I can't! Look at it, it's scared!" I start to panic and glance over at Serafina, imploring her to understand that I couldn’t just kill one of God's creatures…and for no reason. She responds by raising one of her perfectly arched eyebrows with an expression that crumbles my defences- after all, how am I meant to say no to my best friend, especially when she's the only one that loves me? 

"Fine!" I whisper back, mentally preparing myself to the feel the animal's crunching bones.

 For Christ's sake, Rosalie, hurry up! It's not like you haven't done anything like this before, Serafina mutters.

“It’s just a mouse, just a mouse,” I repeat in my head.

Yeah, your adoptive sister’s mouse, the voice reminds me. 

Taking a deep breath, I screw up my eyes, hoping that it will make it easier. I pull my right leg up and quickly stomp it down on the mouse as hard as I can. 

“It’s disgusting! Why did you want me to do this?!?!” I whispered to Serafina. Beneath my shoes, I could feel the bones breaking and popping, its skin bursting and the noise! Oh, Lord! The noise was a disgusting wet crunch. Nonetheless, I’d done it and couldn’t resist a smug smile. Serafina is smiling too applauding my achievement. It wasn’t that hard, was it? She smirks. 

I run over and kiss her on her painted red lips as she wraps her arms around my waist. Let’s go to bed now Rosa, she whispers in my ear, tomorrow is going to be a busy day, I have plans for us. 

I smile up into her bright green eyes and agree, walking up the stairs quietly to our room, placing my finger on my lips in a hushing motion to quiet her; my parents don’t know about Serafina and I intend on keeping it that way, they’d just take her away from me. We sneak back into my room and fall unceremoniously onto my king bed and it’s only then that I notice a blood trail behind us, a thin smear down the stairs.

Don’t worry about it my love, Serafina calms me, it’s late and I know you’re tired. Sleep. Now Rosa, She demands. What can I do? I am but a slave to my best friend, and I fall asleep safe in her arms.

However, safety soon gave way to my recurrent nightmare: My birth mother is here, she’s screaming and my brother is crying. Why are they upset? I glance around the room panicked, only to find I’m back in my old house, where my birth family was murdered. How did I get here? My mother is in hysterics leaning over something, someone? Dad? I creep closer, wanting a better look only to find that I’m correct, it’s dad, but he has no head. What is happening? Why am I seeing this? I wasn’t even here when they were killed! It is always the same dream, my father’s face – his head strangely elusive.

A blood curdling scream erupts through the house. I recognise it as my brother’s and rush to the source, but I’m too late, his tiny little body is already mangled beyond recognition, hanging lifeless from the ceiling fan. I don’t understand, I never saw any of this; the neighbours called the cops, I was with Serafina and never really saw anything, but my subconscious was now yielding up hidden memories, one morsel at a time. 

“Please, Please baby, don’t do this, we love you, we can get you help,” I hear my mother pleading with someone. Confused, I slowly trek back to where I left her and see her talking to the thin air. I tread closer to her and watch in horror as a horizontal line of blood appears on her forehead, and her scalp gets pulled back. And for the first time in this whole ordeal, she actually looks at me. “Why, Rosa? Rosa?” she whispers before her blue eyes lose their vibrancy and turn glassy. The nightmare fades unresolved, as it always does...