Secrets

04| Confusion

Ruth has been sitting on the floor in her bedroom, pushing her back further into the corner while staring at the door.

She's still in shock over what happened minutes ago.

Was that even real? the thought suddenly crosses her mind. Maybe it's all in my head. She isn't sure if that's a good thing or not. But she'd prefer going mental than whatever's going on inside her house being real.

She wants to talk to Jade so bad. She wants to call and freak out on her. She has to, or she'll go crazy. But hasn't she already?

Ruth glances down at her phone's screen again, and her eyes water as the same 'no network' sign stares back at her. She closes her eyes for a second before desperately opening them back again. All she saw when she closed her eyes was the face that stared back at her in the mirror just a few minutes ago.

Her heart thumps faster and faster as she tries to shake the image out of her head. It doesn't work.

Maybe she's over reacting. It's just a reflection for God's sake. Her mind could've been playing tricks on her for all she knows.

But if that's the case, there's only one way to find out for sure. She shakily takes off her towel, changes into her night closes, and then makes her way to the bathroom once again.

The door is half way open just as she left it, so she takes a deep breath and steps inside. She immediately looks at the mirror.

She releases her breath as soon as she notices that her reflection is back to normal. The girl staring back at her now has a terrified look on her face instead of that creepy smile.

She breathes out in relief and steps closer to it. At least it's gone now. It was all in her head. Never has she thought that her mind playing tricks on her would ever be a relief, but it is now.

She reaches out and touches the surface of the mirror while still staring at her reflection.

But that's when she notices something she hasn't seen before. In the reflection of the bathroom door behind her, words were written on the inside of it with toothpaste.

She gasps and quickly turns around, and the words send chills down her spine. I know your secrets.

The most confusing part was that it was her own handwriting.

She glances back to check if her toothpaste is still placed on the sink under the mirror, and finds it squished empty. But what she sees when she looks up at the mirror is what scares her even more and causes her phone to slip out of her grasp and drop to the floor.

Her heartbeat abnormally escalates as she backs away from the mirror. Her reflection is once again smiling at her.

She holds her breath, too scared to make a sound. She blindly reaches out to the door knob and opens the door without breaking eye contact with that- that thing.

Her first thought is to run into the safety of her bedroom once again and crawl into bed, but it's not like someone's chasing after her. She's hiding from a damn reflection in the mirror. Her reflection.

She can't stay in that house any longer. She needs to call Jade and she needs to do it now. Maybe the network's back now. She remembers that she left her phone in the bathroom and curses under her breath. There's no way she's going back in there.

So she does the only sensible thing she can think of. She runs out the door and to the apartment next to hers. From what she had observed so far, the woman that lives in there is a single mom with two little boys who look to be around the age six. She's never even spoken to her before, but they've seen each other a couple of times and it's not like she's gonna ask for a big favor or anything. She just needs a phone to call Jade.