Phobia

[Chapter 9]

Eisoptrophobia- Fear of mirrors or of seeing oneself in a mirror

“Aubrey, wake up.” I couldn’t figure out who the voice belonged to.

“Why?” I said sleepily, turning over in the large bed.

“You used to never sleep this late,” they said innocently.

I lifted my head up and glanced at Blake through heavy lids, taking a mental note that I needed to decide whether to call him Blake or Charlie. It was hard to decide since neither name completely fit.

“Maybe if I sleep for a few days straight I’ll remember things,” I tried to say convincingly. There was a long silence that I took as a sign of victory. I closed my eyes and turned away from Blake, attempting sleep again.

“Or you’ll put yourself into a self-induced coma so you never wake up, much less without any memories.”

 This time I sat up, annoyed. “Where’s Jack?”

“Why do you want Jack?” Blake asked. He was either genuinely confused, or he was really good at acting.

“He’s the only one I’ve met so far that likes to actually give me answers when I ask questions,” I said coldly. I mentally scolded myself for my behavior towards Blake, remembering he was the one I felt was safe when I first woke up in this building.

Blake looked at me with a sorry expression, and made a gesture towards the door, “I’ll go get him.” He left the room without a response from me. I felt almost guilty for not thanking him, but pushed that feeling away. I leaned against the soft pillows and tried my best to stay awake while waiting for Jack to come. In the meantime I looked around the room and found it was pretty bare with a desk to my right and the door Blake just left through straight ahead of me. I sighed at how ordinary this place was. There was a plastic object on the desk, and I pushed myself out of the bed to see what it was. When I held it up, a bitter taste filled my mouth. It wasn’t anything bad, but it was the source of one of my phobias.

A simple, handy mirror. I quickly put it back down on the desk and turned around to find the blonde-hair, blue-eyed Jack watching me pleasantly.

“Afraid of mirrors?”

“How’d you guess?” I asked, still tense.

“Your entire demeanor went from curious to resentful in seconds,” he shrugged and walked further into the room, hands hanging loose by his sides. “Blake said you asked for me. I can’t imagine why.”

“I like you,” I said without thinking.

“Oh?” Jack said with a small smile.

“I mean, you tell me things no one else has, and you answer my questions. I meant it in a friendly way, of course. I mean, I like you, but I like the other Jack in a different way. Like you’re my friend and he’s my…,” My face heated up with embarrassment as I rambled and realized how awful I sounded.

“Boyfriend,” Jack said simply.

“What?”

“Jack’s your boyfriend.” He repeated.

I stayed quiet for a moment. I didn’t know what Jack was to me, and hearing that made it even more confusing.

“I – I meant he was your boyfriend,” Jack coughed, moving towards the bed to sit down. “I don’t know if he still is now that you’re back and can’t remember anything.”

“Thanks for reminding me,” I said sarcastically. It felt good to talk about Jack. He became someone I wanted to see every day just to know things aren’t completely crazy and I haven’t gone totally insane yet.