Read No Evil: Anthology of Terror

Stark

Her feet slipped outwards on the wet autumn leaves as she rounded the corner, the cold evening air shocking her throat and lungs as she inhaled deeper, faster. With each footfall a jarring pain shot ankle to knee, ankle to knee. She didn't stop, not until she put enough distance between her and her attacker.

After what seemed like forever, she came to a halt, resting her body against a tree. Her mind demanded questions she could not answer. Breathing in and out, she tried to calm herself down, reassured herself that she was still alive and that she had survived.

Her peace was short lived. Once again fear found her. It spoke to her in its cackling voice, telling her legs to go weak, her stomach to lurch and her heart to ache. The sun had set and her surroundings darkened. As the light drained away there was barely enough even for shadows. The darkness came and under it everything in this forest was well hidden. Even the stars and moon cowered behind a dense layer of clouds.

Samantha breathed heavily, forcing her legs to move forward without direction. Her palms were sweaty and the adrenaline coursing through her system was shutting down her ability to think logically. All she knew was that she couldn't stop. She had to move before her evil reflection found her again.

Then the eeriness crept in. In a form of silence that fell right before you got knifed in the back. It sent a shiver down her spine and she felt her blood chill in her veins. All she could hear was the beating of her own heart and scuffing noise her own feet made as she stumbled through the dark forest.

Her body was shutting down and her eyes found it harder to lift her eyelids and keep them open. Her leg hit something and she stumbled forward, slamming her body onto the ground. Samantha let out a muffled cry. She dragged her eyes to the cause of her stumble and abruptly froze.

To her horror, she had tripped over someone. A dead someone. The corpse was almost devoid of skin and pitted by burrowing insects. Smell of rotting meat filled her nostrils and she felt her stomach heave, the bile rising up to her throat. Even when she knew she shouldn't notify her attacker by any means, never having seen a dead body in her life caused her to let out a painstakingly loud scream.

Her scream was the kind of strangled cry that belongs to those not long for this world. A scream of one in mortal terror, rooted to the spot and too afraid to run. Color drained from her face, as white as a slice of bread. Her body went rigid, incapacitated with fear. In the grip of fear and utter speechlessness, panic seeped through her half functioning brain. That corpse would be her if she didn't get out of here. She would be dead if her evil reflection found her. With her shaking legs and shallow breaths, she pushed herself up for god knows how many times today.

Her fight was still long. Surviving by eating whatever fruits she could find, Samantha knew every day was a survival battle. Every breath, every moment of peace must be appreciated. Even every night was a battle too albeit of different kinds. It was a battle in which she would lose her sanity should she fail to win.

Each night, as she climbed up the tree and fell asleep on its huge branch, she cried with great exertion. Tear after tear that made no difference, and in the morning carrying a vigorous desire for never giving up she went off heedlessly looking for her way home even when she had no map or direction.

Her heart broke several times as memory of the past came in full swing. How could she do those horrible things to those people? How could she break her own mother's heart knowing that all her mother did was provide her and her needs? How ungrateful of a daughter she was to her mom who had been working so hard, pouring her blood, sweat, and tears, to keep a roof over their heads since her father bailed on both of them?

Unconscious to the abundance of her feelings that subjugated her and drove her crazy. What was she supposed to do? Was she supposed to seek closure in the ideas that one day before her attempts turn to dust, the pieces will fall into place, that she would wake up and find that this was all just a dream? What was she supposed to do with this madness that made her lose any sanity she had left? Would that mosaic made out of broken pieces was still going to come together as a resplendent work of art? And until then, should she laugh hysterically at the confusion, desperation, and weariness that it brought?

On her last brink of sanity, the world seemed to think it was time to stop punishing her. That after all her struggle, she should be given a chance to strive. A hope. This time, it was in the form of a house. Samatha held her hand tightly, knuckles whitened. Her watery eyes enlarged and the hairs on the nape of her neck bristled. Slow and deliberate, the door handle turned.

Something didn't feel right. Despite sensing that this was the end of her long battle of survival, she also sensed the danger drawing near. Finally, the door creaked open and her horror stood only a few feet from her, still wearing that mischievous smile on the face full of scars. Samantha tried to scream, but the inside of her mouth lacked any moisture and a croak was all that issued from her gape.

This was it. The chase was over. She had nowhere to run. She was trapped. The adrenalin flew over her veins like a carp through the river, but she couldn't move a single muscle, not even to scream. The absolute horror completely paralyzed her, and the more she thought about running away, or simply moving a bit, the more she felt discouraged and utterly terrified.

Her body was no longer hers. No matter how many times her mind ordered them to move, to back away, they did not comply. Her evil reflection was closing the distance between them. Samantha's heart was racing despite her body being completely still. Her reflection lifted one hand and surprisingly, her own hand was lifted as well, following her reflection's move.

Wasn't it supposed to work the other way around?

Samantha's hand met hers and then everything else fell away. She no longer had any fear left. All made perfect sense as she watched the scars on her reflection's face heal one by one until all that was left was the exact replica of herself.

Her reflection smiled. Only this time, it was a sincere, reassuring smile as if telling her that things were going to be alright. "Now is your second chance. Make it right, Samantha."

Her eyelids fluttered open and it wasn't her reflection she saw, it was the white ceilings before her mother obstructed the view. "Oh my god, you're awake. You're finally awake!"

She heard her mother frantically pressing the bell to call the nurse. "I've been waiting for so long but I refused to give up, I knew you'd make it, baby girl."

"Mom," Samantha swallowed hard, surprised by how hoarse her voice sounded, "what happened?"

"You were drowned, sweetheart. You were comatose for five days." Tears spilling out of her mother's eyes, like a dam that had been broken. "But now you're awake. Now you're alive."

Only then Samantha knew what her reflection's final words really meant. She had been granted a second chance. A chance to make things right. A chance to be better, to do better.

AJ Rosen is an Indonesian Wattpad Ambassador who lives and breathes Greek Mythology. She spends most of her free time sitting on her bed writing stories off the top of her head while fantasising Christian Bale saved her instead of Gotham. Her first book Entwined is part of the Wattpad Books and sequel Enamoured is in the Paid Stories program. You can find her on social media under the same username. Read more of AJ's stories here .