The Haunting

Four

Lisa

I smiled as I stared at her in the mirror, standing behind me.

Her long black hair was floating and her lips were curved into a huge smile. It is morning, but the daylight was blocked by the curtains I had drawn. She had told me in order to see her, I must draw the curtains because light annoys her.

She began approaching me and I started chuckling and applauding. She was mouthing something incomprehensible, and before I could try to understand what she was mouthing, she abruptly vanished as the door was opened, making me frown. Doris walked into the room and was utterly confounded by the drawn curtains.

"Lisa? What are you doing? Why are the curtains drawn?" Doris asked me, eyeing me in bafflement. I turned around and looked at her with a smile.

"Because I'm talking to my friend," I retorted, still smiling slightly. My rejoinder seemed to somewhat confound her, as she raised an eyebrow and kept staring at me with a half-open mouth.

"Your friend?" She muttered, completely astounded. I nodded and kept smiling, as I took a quick look behind me at the mirror then turned my gaze back to Doris who was still stunned.

"You can see her through this mirror," I suggested, referring to the mirror standing behind me. After standing there for a few minutes, Doris began nearing me, as her confusion dwindled a little.

"What is her name?" Doris asked as she approached me and glanced at the mirror, narrowing her eyes at it.

"She hadn't told me her name yet," I answered, gazing at the mirror. "Because she says I will find out later."

Doris's confusion seemed to increase again as she kept staring at the mirror. I could notice Doris's eyes begin to widen as she appeared behind her, with her hair floating. Doris backed away from the mirror and began breathing heavily as she eyed the mirror in pure terror. Doris glimpsed at the mirror one more time before she ran out of the room. I sat there, wondering why was Doris so frightened. My friend isn't scary, she is friendly and cute. Perhaps, Doris was just not expecting to see her.

Doris

My heartbeats accelerated as I sprinted out of the house.

As I stopped running, I breathed in and out slowly, trying to normalize my rapid breathing. After inhaling and exhaling for a few minutes, I could feel my quick heartbeats begin to slow. What I had just seen was inexplicably terrifying.

A mysterious girl in the mirror, who Lisa calls her friend.

My brain was in a state of disorganization as unsettled questions jumbled it. Who could that girl be? And why could I only see her in the mirror? Can Lisa be having an imaginary friend? If so, how can I see her? I was probably hallucinating. This is the only plausible justification. Worse thoughts replenished my mind but I straightaway brushed them off.

Can the girl be a ghost?

No. Ghosts aren't real.

Right?

I attempted to calm my nerves down by breathing in the fresh air. I'm just being needlessly disquieted for no apparent reason. It could've been just my imagination. Honestly, that is the only logical explanation. I should just forget about it.

My thoughts were interrupted when I saw Judy, her shirt smudged with drops of a red substance which I refused to believe was blood. As I slowly walked a little closer, my hands automatically rose to cover my mouth.

Alexia...was being killed...by Judy.

I rubbed my eyes as I was starting to distrust them. I was so dumbfounded to the extent that I couldn't even move or scream. I stood there frozen, silently watching Judy glide the blade across Alexia's throat dramatically slowly, trying to cause her as much pain as possible. When I gained my consciousness back, I didn't think twice about screaming my lungs out, which angered Judy.

"Stop! Leave her!" I yelled, gazing into her emotionless eyes. She eyed me with resentment and closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them I gasped at the sight. Her iris were gone and her eyes were completely white, later turning black as a black substance began dripping from them.

She dropped Alexia and ran towards me at an extraordinarily fast speed. She gripped my neck and lifted me a few inches up. I began kicking my legs as I panted and gasped for air. I battled against her grip but my attempts were barely even affecting her. I was on the verge of losing consciousness when she suddenly dropped me.

"Judy? Doris? What happened? I heard screaming!"

It was mom who was scampering towards us. I was gasping for air as I was sitting down on the grassy ground where Judy dropped me. I looked up at Judy to see that her facial expression had completely changed; she now wore a sad frown and acted as if she was sobbing. Mom ran towards us and the first thing she did was to check on Judy as if I was a shadow sitting there.

"What happened?" She asked us both. I glared at Judy who slightly smirked at me. She kept pretending to be whimpering as she pointed at Alexia's body.

"Alexia is dead," she said between hysterical outcries. Mom looked at Alexia and she was left open-mouthed at the sight. Alexia was lying lifeless in a pool of blood, with her eyes wide open.

"Oh God," Mom muttered as she made her way toward Alexia. I could see tears form in mom's eyes but she held them back. Mom truly loved Alexia, and of course, seeing her dead greatly saddened her.

Later, when dad came from work, he buried Alexia and I watched in complete sorrow. Alexia was our first pet and we all truly loved her, but Judy had to end her life. But why did Judy do that? What happened to Judy? All of my questions remained unanswered.

Meanwhile

Quinn

I went outdoors to purchase a few things from the nearby grocery store. I put my hands in my jeans pocket to ensure that the list mom had given me was still there, and thankfully, it was.

As I was passing by the neighboring house, my eyes landed on a window with open curtains where an old woman stood, staring at something. Once she beheld me, her eyes grew three times bigger and she opened her mouth as wide as possible, and I later discovered that she was screaming. She was pointing to her left, where our house stood.

I stared at the old woman in total shock as two nurses scurried and pulled her back, drawing the curtains after that. I stood there for a few minutes, utterly bemused and astonished. Why did the woman start screaming once she saw me? Why was she pointing at our house? No matter how much I strained my brain to understand, I just couldn't.

As I was about to walk away, I bumped into someone. As I looked at who I bumped into, I figured out it was a teenage girl with caramel-colored hair that stopped at her shoulders. My eyes widened when I noticed that she was holding a Starbucks cup and some of her drink spilled over her clothes. She looked at me from head to toe with a surprised expression, like I was some alien.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry, I-"

She cut me mid-sentence, "You better save her before it is too late."