Mirror of Graves

Chapter Thirty

Anna.

The room became dark and dull with the original dust sheets and bare walls. Anna was the girl's cousin, and she was the woman he had had an affair with. Calvert was her future husband- obviously I knew that already. Then what happened to the girl, and to Anna? Although the girl was claimed to have run away, did she run because she saw her cousin and her man have an affair or was she kidnapped?

"You have made some discoveries." The cold voice sounded behind me. "But not enough to clear your confusion."

I turned around slowly, and she was there, the woman only this time she didn't look scary, only this time she looked like the sixteen-year-old excited for marriage, only this time she was not terrified and crying. She took a long look at her room.

"I never got to wear my wedding dress." She pointed at the material that sat atop her bed, it had long rotted, and bits of pieces were scattered around. "I never got to say goodbye to my family." She shook her head and walked in.

"Have you ever been so much in love that it blinded and hurt you?" She asked, her blue eyes watched me wearily. She laughed then her gaze ran down my stomach. "But of course, you have, and you are."

I didn't say anything as she assessed her room. "My cousin, my dear Anna, how much of a sister she was, since I was my parents only child. " She shook her head and walked out the room: running her hand along the bare walls. Her reflection could be seen in the mirror, the once beautiful and joyful young woman, ripe and ready for marriage.

She walked till she stood at his door, it was locked. "Want to know what happened next?" She asked with a smile. Her touch opened the door and the chains and padlocks fell to the ground. It gave a loud groan as she stepped in. Her bare feet making prints on the dusty floor. "This is my favourite room, for two reasons,"

She moved to the bed and pulled at the drapes that circled the bed. I took a step back: "One because I killed my own cousin on this bed and two," She pointed towards the side of the room, were a chair sat and a decaying corpse was tied to it. It had a chain around its neck and its hands were tied behind its back. "Where I was killed." She laughed but it was dark and with no humor. She pulled at the clothes at the foot of the bed and they dropped down.

"Surprised?" She asked. By the corner where her dead skeleton sat was a mirror the same mirror that had been on his desk, the same mirror I had touched. Only this time, it faced her but not upside down.

"What do you want from me?" I asked the young girl as I took a step back, she laughed. "Isn't it obvious?" I shook my head, she nodded. "Okay, so after he left my room, he went down and told my parents that he had something of great urgency he needed to pick and that he would be back very soon, so he left."

She circled the bed and I could make out the figure of Anna lying face down with a knife in her back. "He had this set of rules, no one was permitted to roam his house, and if caught they faced consequences. No one knew why, even up to this date no one could explain his odd behavior, well except you and me." She nodded to herself.

"We know his little secrets." She giggled and I became visibly aware that there were mirrors lined up along the whole room.

"She slept in his bed, such a sweet angel with an innocent face. He had never brought me to his room, even though I was to be his future wife, his thirteenth wife." She laughed while clapping her hands. "And do you know what I did? I came up to his room, opened the door, held the knife up in the air and killed her. Then as I had her blood on my hands, I scratched her name on the mirror Anna Sylvia McCurrie."

Her eyes darkened and she walked over to the vanity table. "You see I thought he would be so happy, I killed her, I was willing to forgive her for hurting me and I was also willing to accept him in my arms, but he was angry. He came home soon after and walked in on me, he grabbed me and beat me up then he tied me to that chair." She pointed at it.

"You see I didn't know that this man was way older than me." She giggled. "But he was rich and that was all that mattered. She ran her hand along the long mirror cleaning off the dust, her reflection came into view, but It was not so clear. She looked up immediately, and a small smile played about her lips.

"She is here." She moved around the room, leaving her prints on the dusty objects. "Such a small world to be salved."

She sank down on a chair and looked out the window. "Every girl he brought home was killed in front of a mirror, that's why there are so many, but." Her voice hardened then she giggled again. "You have not seen the lot of it." She pointed out towards the back, it was dark and I couldn't see anything, not that I was eager to look.

"I was special because I was killed in front of a special mirror and he had found a way to tame me, to keep me at bay. That was when you came along, Anna Sylvia McCurrie." She spat at the floor. "He had never had a generation flowing out from him, he had never talked about takin me to bed." Her voice darkened and so did her expression, then it softened.

"But he took her, and she bore him a child, a child that was raised outside and his line continued. The line of the McCurries. You know, I never liked that name, it sounded like some spice for cooking. But it was powerful and well respected. The ton always talked of how I was marrying from my family, the same blood but I didn't care I loved him but he betrayed me." Slowly she rose from her position.

"From the mirror I watched as he took many girls home. He never got his wealth from hard work, but simply from cold blood. The mirror of graves, strange is it not? Why such name?"

My mind got me thinking. "Because each girl he killed was buried there." She nodded. "They were killed in front of mirrors, but unlike me, I was special."

A gruesome smile settled on her lips. "And now look you are his last generation I simply can't let you live plus I am going to make sure that thing is not born." She stood up in her full height and her body changed to that of the woman in the mirror.

"But I didn't do anything." I tried saying. Her explanation didn't make sense. She had an issue with the man and not me, so why me?

She smiled. "I know, but you see, he trapped me in and you brought me out that means-" She didn't let me think up something as she came running towards me with the knife that she pulled out from Anna's dead body.