Big reflections

Chapter 1: Calla Sullivan

       THE AIR AND life that surrounded Calla angered her, the happy smiles that made the envy deep down in her bubble and explode, it was easy to say Calla Brown wasn't a likable person, in fact, that's what was normally said around the halls of her school.

    She didn't have friends, and even if people approached her, she would stay quiet and not respond to whatever the other person is saying, the only thing stopping her from responding is her own mind.

    Her curse, of course. It follows her everywhere she goes, she was perfectly fine when she was little, but once she reached the age of 5 even her mother noticed she was acting odd, that something had happened to her on that faithful trip to the beach, and the abandoned house she got trapped in while she explored.

    Turns out, there was a corpse in the house, but when Calla was questioned about it, she couldn't remember ever seeing a corpse in the house, they just took it as a sign of repressed memories, perhaps a lie not only to them but to herself.

    But she was honest, she couldn't recall a corpse, but she could recall something else. The house was full of mirrors, reflections, and people, the mirror wasn't empty, with only her and the rest of the house or rooms, she wasn't alone, not at all, and she would never be alone for the rest of her days.

    I guess the creature warned her, warned her that she would have to live with the burden of the creature, making life even harder for herself.

    Calla was alone, her only company was the creature, everything else felt empty, nothing made her feel ok, nothing soothed her, it's like she either lived in constant stress or constant emptiness. Nothing ever made her happy, angry, or alive.

    Whenever she tried getting a friend, she would push down everything, up to the constant emptiness inside her,  put on a smile, and the rest of her lacking emotions. But none of it worked, the creature would punish her for faking to be something she isn't, for ignoring the voices in the back of her head.

    She was so tired, constantly. Her eyes were always full of darkness, she constantly felt the urge to sleep, to close her eyes and never wake up, live in an endless dream, where the monster could no longer follow her.

    She had avoided this fateful day for years, the day full of relief, freedom, a day that would finally give her all she wanted. The creature had told her, that the only thing she would gain from this day, was for another person to get tortured as much as she has, maybe a child, or maybe an adult, but Calla wasn't brave anymore, she was a coward, she couldn't stand the tauntings of this monster every day, all the time, for more years, or even weeks.

    It was torture, more than torture, she thought, this isn't living, this is just breathing without purpose, dragging her body to things that didn't matter, look and hear things that didn't matter.

    So she dragged her body one last time, and back home, walked into the empty house, and into her room, this was never home to her, just a capsule to her already empty body. A shell for a crab without meaning.

     She looked into the mirror, that for so long, was covered with paint, or a bedsheet. The mirror in the bathroom and the yellow framed one at the bottom of her bed, on the small black table against the left wall. And so it was there, the giant and skinny man who stood beside her everywhere she went, it used to be only in the mirror, but as the years went by, she could feel him on her back, always following her.

    'This is a bad idea, Calla' it whispered in my mind, I looked up to look at his skinny, and pale face, with black eyes, and the black hair all over his face, almost trying to cover the most shameful part of itself, which wasn't even close.