Fragmented Soul

14. Whispering Mirrors

He stood quite still. The only sound was his steady breathing, rhythmic and constant. He was alone once more, in the shadows where he was from. They say that darkness is the absence of light, that there is no good without evil. Josh knew this but it was also impossible to keep a hold of the light, it was like a match that kept burning out, you would try to keep it just that little bit longer, to stay out of the dark but inevitably you will get burned and that is when the shadows come.

Gradually his eyes adjusted and the gloom slowly sharpened as his surroundings became more defined. There were mirrors all around him forming walls and columns. He was in a maze. A maze he had to get out of. He took a step, then another, he walked tentatively forward deeper into the shadows, further into the warren. There were voices following him, he could hear their whisperings curling around his back and slithering in his ears. Josh spun around expecting to find someone standing there, maybe the girl or the host. Yet there was no one, just a blank space, a void. Like the one inside his chest. He turned and continued onwards turning left and right in an attempt to move in the straightest line possible. The voices followed. Josh spun around once more only to find the mocking blank space on the floor gazing up at him. His pace began to quicken and the voices followed suit. Josh was soon running, his feet unable to outrun the voices. He turned left and right, randomly, but could not evade them. Eventually he stopped and they fell upon him in a swirling mass of scratching clawing anxious whisperings. He was knocked off his feet and fell to the cold floor the whisperings cutting into him with venomous malice.

Josh crawled back until he felt the cool mirror at his back and leant against it drawing one knee to his chest. He sat staring forward at himself staring back into those eyes his own peered and his own peered back, infinity.

“It’s over.”

“She’s dead.”

“So are you.”

“Again.”

“Never see her.”

“Drowned.”

“Because of you.”

The multitude of condemning voices became fragmented crackling like a static radio. Then there was nothing, just electric silence. A silence immediately broken by a piercing scream, it was the only other person in the maze, the girl. Josh tensed but did not move adrenaline slowly building up in his muscles. Fight or Flight. He looked into the mirror in front of him. His reflection was standing up and smiling. He began to walk into the other mirrors and Josh quickly rose and followed himself, the screams turned to sobs. Josh new the ones, he had heard them before, the kind you hear when you lose something. Not just anything, when you lose someone, usually yourself. Josh walked after his image turning randomly before eventually came out at a small clearing, a circle of mirrors.

The girl lay curled up in the centre like a flower when the sun goes away, her hands covered her head and her body shook with sharp irregular breaths. Josh walked over to the fragile mess that lay before him. She turned onto her back, arms outstretched on the ground, a flower blowing in the breeze. Josh looked at her face, so pale, quiet and strangely calm. Josh brushed her hair to one side to see her more clearly. Her eyes seemed to have glazed over appearing a cloudy white, like to pearls. She tried to speak, her mouth moving a fraction, lips trembling with fear or pain. Josh leaned in, his ear close to her mouth. He could feel her warm breath on the side of his face and then she said it, just two words.

“Kill me.” Its emptiness and the hollow manner in which it was uttered ensured a haunting echo that reverberated around the two of them. A pain so great that one wished to kill themselves, that was the desperation of a life not worth living. Josh stood up, unable to take her life, he wouldn’t. He had to get out. The clearing had closed in. A wall of mirrors, a wall of himself lost, now surrounded him. The reflections soon began to move without Josh. Shadows circled around the girl and she let out a scream. The shadows clawed in through her mouth and her eyes changed from the milky hue to a deadly black. The colour seemed to fade from her completely and she was soon dead; an empty broken body, a shadow. The shadows began to seep through the cracks in the floor, melting away like bad dreams when the morning comes.

Josh turned to the mirrors and saw himself laughing at the girl, a twisted evil laughter that he did not possess. It was the maze, the whispering mirrors twisting and poisoning his mind. He stepped toward the nearest mirror and smashed his fist into the face of his reflection. It smiled before fragmenting and falling to pieces on the floor around his feet. Josh turned, blood flowing from the shards of reflective evil now embedded in his hand. More reflections were smiling back at him, some even laughing, mocking him. Josh yelled and charged toward the mirrors smashing everything that possessed an image of him. Soon the clearing was free of all mirrors, darkness had descended once more.

Then there was a click, a light switch. An artificial green, a luminous light appeared above him. It was a sign. The usual fire exit sign that simply read “exit” above a door that was previously concealed by a mirror. Josh’s mind was spinning but he had to get out. He pushed the door and white light grew from the crack until a window of white presented itself before him. Josh was blinded by the brightness, he stepped forward and embraced the unknown.