The Boy In The Mirror

Nine

Hearing footsteps, Hazeh quickly hid the journal and the others under her bed, when she turned back around she saw her mother at the doorway. Her mother looked tired, her pretty face looked worn and she held the cat in her arms loosely, Hazeh noticed all these things but decided to not say anything about it. The cat was licking its paws whilst staring at Hazeh, her mother was still silent at the door.

"Mother?" Hazeh asked uneasily. "Do you need anything?"

"No." Her mother replied blankly, her head slightly nodded.

For the first time Hazeh seemed quite afraid of her mother, she seemed so distant and yet they were in the same room.

"I thought you were cooking?" Hazeh asked, trying to get her mother to snap out of her unfamiliar trance. "Shouldn't you be downstairs?"

"There's someone behind you." Hazeh's mother said.

Hazeh turned around to find only her bed and the poorly hidden door.

"Joking." Her mother whispered and left the room as if nothing happened.

Creeped out was an understatement of what Hazeh was feeling, she decided to talk to her father about it later. Deciding that she had read enough of the strange book for one day, Hazeh felt like she should talk to Jimin before her father. The journal had Jimin's name appear quite a lot, the journal must be his father's, yet again Hazeh's curiosity brought her to the small door. Opening it, after making sure her parents were busy, the familiar darkness welcomed her in.

"You're back!" Someone shouted with glee, Hazeh turned around to see Jimin waving at her. "I've been waiting for ages."

"I have only been gone for a couple hours." Hazeh said, slightly annoyed at the boy's everlasting happiness. "Don't be so impatient."

"I'm sorry," Jimin seemed unhurt from Hazeh's remark. "It has just been such a long time since I spoken to someone that wasn't myself."

"You talk to yourself?" Hazeh laughed bitterly. "That is strange, maybe you should go see a doctor and get checked out."

"You can't talk!"Jimin pouted. "Your whole family, including you, talk to yourselves all the time! At least I talk to myself because there isn't anyone else and not because I'm ignoring the ones I love the most."

"How did you-?"

"You have witnessed it yourself," Jimin started to pace around the mirror. "When you nearly broke a vase, you saw that the mirror wasn't showing what it was meant to."

"That doesn't explain how you are spying on my family and I." Hazeh began tapping her foot. "That is awfully creepy to know someone is watching you like that."

"It's not my fault, I do get bored." Jimin stops pacing and Hazeh stops tapping. "Anyway, the mirror is more of a window than a mirror."

"You live in between the walls?"

"No, I'm not entirely sure where I am." He sits down, Hazeh does the same. "I believe I am stuck in between reality and the afterlife and after watching your parents, I don't think I'm alone."

"What do you mean?" Hazeh felt irritated that a stranger could say such things to her. "Are you telling me my parents are dead?"

"Look," Jimin sighs. "I've been here for years and yet I'm still not sure what has happened to me, I don't have all the answers."

"What even happened to you for you to be stuck in a mirror?" Hazeh asked before she could stop herself.

"Well," Jimin was taken back by her sudden question. "You don't like to cut the corners do you? You're just like my father, straight to the point and never considers others feelings."