S.O.S

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐨𝐨𝐫

Suddenly, one of the reflections disobeys me and when it turns around, I no longer see myself. I freeze. It's replaced with a hooded face of a white ghost, black gaps as eyes and mouth opened in a silent scream.

Instinctively, I flinch in disgust and back away until my back hits a mirror. I feel a cold hand on my skin, it is running back and forth my spine sending a shiver through my stiff body. I gasp aloud and shrink away but when I turn around there's nothing.

My reflections all around me start knocking at their mirrors, toothy sinister smiles plastered on their identical faces, blood-red eyes mocking me. They look willing to swallow me in full.

Dimash, Dimash, Dimash.

My inner demons are calling out my name. The ones that will haunt me forever. The ones that make sure I'll never love myself for what I did in the past. The ones that are now embodied in the forms of demonic witches.

Dimash, Dimash, Dimash. You are a zero. You are a sinner. It sounds like a choir of demons singing with a deadly, blood-curdling harmony. Terrifying but intriguing. Spellbound but cursed. And every single word of theirs is true.

It is wrapping me in a shroud of dangerous trance, petrifying every single ounce of my being. Their whispers echo in my head, making me forget about everything else. I feel a pair of slimy, skeletal hands grabbing my shoulders, closing around my ankles, my wrists...

I would've willingly let them put me into a cradle of self-loathe if it wasn't for my mind to switch off in defense. The minimal yet strong part of me that shakes me back into reality and breaks the spell that has been cast upon me.

It tells me that I have twenty-five seconds left. I have wasted too much time.

I struggle to break free from their grip and start to run, mentally blocking my senses to stop listening to any more of their whispers. I avoid their fingers that try to reach for me again and pull me underneath the gloomy swamp of despair and suffocate me.

I need to focus. I need to fucking focus. What has gotten into me? I should be able to resist them, I am stronger than them.

The time runs so fast, almost faster than I can. This whole simulation is like a running competition between the two of us. It's no wonder no one has ever passed this. How can you compete against the time when it's all you're lacking?

You can't possibly beat something at its own game. You have to move forward on the battlefield. Where is the door? I think feeling the panic climb up my gullet again. I can't see it!

The maze twists and stretches like an illusion hampering my navigation, messing my inner compass completely. My reflections start screaming at me making the matters even worse.

The door is over there!

No, it's here!

You are going the wrong way!

But they can't release themselves from the mirrors. All they can do is to try to catch me.

Fifteen seconds. I'm running out of time.

With all my strength, I break through a random mirror and the stupid reflection shatters into a distorted patchwork of forms and colors. Shards of glass bite into the skin of my upper back like my mother's fangs before but this time a tenfold amount of pain in a larger area. These are no normal shards - more like tiny devils with a mind of their own set on one goal which is hurting me as much as possible.

But what I see behind it pays back the effort and makes my relieved heart skip a beat. The third door. I start running towards it without hesitation.

Eight seconds.

My world starts shaking. No, the ground under my legs is shaking.

Seven seconds.

I am almost losing my balance.

Six seconds.

The quake makes me land onto my knees and a pang of pain shoots up my spine. I bite back a groan that is about to exit my mouth.

Five seconds.

I stand up once again.

Four seconds.

I continue running. As long as my legs aren't injured, I can do that.

Three...

Two...

One...

I almost bump into it, hands shaking and searching for the doorknob. When I open it and stumble through it, the timer strikes zero.