Short Stories

Mirrors

I could hear footsteps echoing down the hall, the fear in my face staring back at me from all directions.

What had I gotten myself into?

The entire house was painstakingly dark as if distant from the rest of the world. The seconds ticked by slowly and I was trapped. There wasn't a place I could think of that would protect me from her horrible mirrors.

She was getting closer; her giggles more menacing than anything I had ever heard before. But I had one chance; I remembered that one room was completely safe from her. If only I could make it without being caught. Slowly I made my way down the hall constantly checking that yellow eyes weren't watching me. I prayed that no floorboard would creak, altering her to where I was. The study was only a few rooms away, I was almost there.

"Rebecca, where are you?" she called her voice sounding like the howl of the wind. My heart rate accelerated and I rushed to get to the study, where I could be safe. I stumbled and the clatter that followed completely gave off my position. Her footsteps picked up, she was laughing now, and I had never known a sound so bloodcurdling.

I slammed the study shut and lay behind it, panting like I had run a marathon. The worst part was that I had brought all of this onto myself. Now I understood why the last owner had boarded up all the mirrors. She had hid before it had gotten this far, before she was in as deep as I was. Ana was coming for me because I had set her free.

Across the room lay the doll, a perfect replica of the monster, who was now calling from the other side of the door. The doll was what had started all of this, the day I had uncovered all the mirrors I had thought it to be so beautiful. But with it came the little girl who it belonged to. Though I should hardly call it a girl, the kind of demon she was, came only out of your deepest darkest nightmares. She had been stuck here unless someone set her free, and I had. I was completely unaware at the time as to what I was getting myself into.

I remembered what she said, how she tricked me into giving up everything.

She had asked me how I liked the house, if I would be happy to live here forever.

"It would be nice but forever is such a long time, especially to be stuck in a place like this" I replied. At that he almost gave me a knowing smirk. Whenever I asked her question about where she came from and where she lived, she would always brush them aside, by asking me questions about my life.

A life she seemed to know a lot about.

"What would you say if I said that you could stay here for as long as you wanted and your parents would never bother you?" she asked. I hadn't really adjusted well to the move, causing a rift between me and my parents. I blamed them for the situation, which had caused the move. So selfishly I wondered what it would be like without them here and I realized there wouldn't be much of a difference, considering the fact that they were hardly here anyway. Gone in the morning before I was awake and home only just before I went to bed. So I agreed to the little image she had placed so seductively in my head, just Ana and me in this giant hose, never having to think about any adults telling us what to do. But as soon as those words had escaped my lips I knew I had made a very grave mistake. She had frozen, but the way she was staring at me was beginning to frighten me, she had started to change, her feature becoming more menacing.

I stared back at the doll, getting so angry with myself that I stormed toward it and picked it up. I then noticed how quiet it had gotten on the other side of the door.

Where was she?

I cautiously walked back towards the door with the doll, becoming so furious with each step I took, that I opened the door to throw the doll out. That second was all it took for her to grab hold of my wrist and hurl me out of the study. Her face was like nothing I had ever seen before, it was almost like it was falling away and being replaced, with a face that seemed oddly familiar. She smiled revealing sharp teeth, yellowed with age which matched her eyes, she had waited centuries for this moment; but I wasn't going anywhere without a fight. The mirrors constantly flashed with every single one of her movements.

She stepped towards me, but somehow I managed to knock her back. Looking down at my hand I realized that I was still holding the doll, which I immediately dropped as if it had sent a shock up my arm. But that was the only shot I got because she was so much stronger than I was. She effortlessly picked me up and threw me against a wall with such force I wouldn't have thought possible from someone of her stature.

Unconsciousness was trying to pull me under, but I kept fighting.

I wouldn't lose; I never lose!

The mirrors seemed more ominous with every glance. I hadn't realized that she was dragging me down the hall, towards the giant mirror, which dominated most of the wall of the hallway. She was getting excited now; she couldn't wait to be free. I tried to swing my legs out, to trip her but it seemed she had been anticipating it. She grabbed my legs and slammed me against the wall, without thinking, I swung my head forward. YES CONTACT. But it seemed that shot was I needed to be rendered unconscious.

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I awoke early, unsure of my surrounding or even of the outcome of last night, all I knew is that everything was extremely bright. I got up and looked around. I was in the hall, directly in front of the giant ornate mirror; it was so bright. I bet mum and dad haven't even left yet, I rushed down stairs to the kitchen, but something wasn't right, everything was so bright, too reflective.

Somewhere behind I heard voices. I rushed back upstairs, down the hallway. I happened to give the mirror a glance; I came to a complete halt. I could see my mum and dad coming down the stairs, but there was no one behind me, how could that be?

And behind my parents ... was me.

But that couldn't be right because I was standing right here. But why was it then that my parents were talking animatedly with someone who looked exactly like me. The fake me turned towards the mirror and smirked, a smirk I would recognize anywhere. There wasn't anything wrong with my parents. It was me! I was stuck in the mirror. Ana had replaced me; the face that had been growing underneath her old skin was mine.

And now I was stuck, stuck in this house without my parents all alone with Ana, exactly what I had wanted. But now I was stuck in the mirrors and I had no way of getting out. Ana soon enough convinced my parent to move out of the house, and in their absence I slowly began to fade, until I was gone altogether.

All that was left behind was a doll, a perfect replica of me; it sat right in front of the giant mirror in the hall,