As the last bell rings, Riley Quinn, a sophomore at Woodvale High, runs out of the classroom and sprints down the crowded hallway, pushing and shoving past people just to get to the door. She's nervous and breathing heavily as she tries not to look back. Her only wish was to get home, the only place where she felt safe. She's near the exit and is about to push open the doors when she hears a vaguely familiar voice calling her.
"Hey Freak. Leaving so soon?"
Riley turns around and sees Camie Hayler, a spoiled rich girl, blonde with pale blue eyes. She always got everything she wanted and no one said no to her. Camie's best friend, Kimberly, also a sophomore, said
"Wait. Where did you get those hideous clothes? Did you find them in a garbage dump?"
Riley doesn't respond.
"Freak, I asked you a question. What's wrong? Cat got your tongue? Say something!"
Riley can feel the tears start to swell up in her eyes. Ever since she transferred to Woodvale High, everyone hated her. They hated how quiet and shy she was and how she looked. She always wore glasses, had short, coffee colored hair, and red freckles on her face. Although she was at a prestigious school, she never fit in. So without saying anything, she pushed the door open and ran straight home.
She gets home and sees her mom, Melissa Quinn waiting for her in the kitchen.
"Hey Riley. How was school?" she asked.
"Fine."
Riley lied as she went up the stairs, still crying, to her room. She did her homework and went downstairs. She had dinner with her mother who told her that she should dress differently and have more confidence in herself. Riley just said "Whatever," and then went to bed.
She couldn't sleep. She was tossing and turning, with flashbacks of terrible memories from earlier. Everything they would do to her, laugh at her, call her names, send her death threats constantly.
"Freak. No one likes you, Freak. Do us all a favor and jump off a bridge."
She woke up in the middle of the night, hyperventilating. "I need to calm down." Riley goes quietly into the bathroom to wash her face. "Relax, Riley. You're letting this affect you." She tells herself. Riley looks down for a second, trying to catch her breath. She puts her hands on her face and looks back closely into the mirror. But this time, she noticed something...different. Her reflection was smiling back at her.
She quickly jumps back in shock. "I'm probably just imagining things. It's nothing." She's about to go back to her room, when her reflection starts talking to her.
"Wait Riley. Don't go. I only want to help you."
"Who are you?" Riley asked.
"Oh come on. You know how I am. I'm you," Alyssa replied.
"What's your name?" Riley asked.
"Alyssa. Alyssa Quinn." Riley was shocked. Her middle name was Alyssa.
"If you're really me...do you know everything I'm going through? Everything that's happening to me?"
Alyssa smiled, and in a low voice, she said
"I know everything about you. You need to learn to stand up for yourself. Don't let them hurt you. Don't let them tear you down."
"But...how? Everyone at school hates me."
"Trust me on this. I know what I'm doing. Listen. The next time someone does anything bad to you, don't be scared to fight back."
"I can't. It's just not me. It's not who I am."
"But you can't keep quiet and let them get away with it. You know what, if you can't do it, then I will."
Riley soon begins to feel dizzy. She doesn't know what's happening or why. She sees a glass window in front of her and gets close to it. On the other side, she sees herself in the bathroom. That's when it hits her...she's trapped inside the mirror. She then desperately starts screaming for help. Alyssa looks at her, smiles and says
"I said I would help you, didn't I?" She then goes back to Riley's room and sleeps for the rest of the night.
The next morning, Alyssa walks downstairs and greets her mom. "Hey mom. Good morning. I'm off to school."
"Wow. You look different."
"And you're happy too."
"Yeah. I listened to your advice from last night. I have to agree. I feel so much better after last night. Anyways, I gotta go. See you later."
Once she got to school, the day went on as it normally would. Students were pacing the halls and collecting books from their lockers. But at the end of the day, as Alyssa opened her locker, she found a ragged doll with a rope around its neck and in big, bold letters was the word "DIE." written on a paper pinned to the doll's head. As Camie and Kimberly approached her, Camie said
"It's a shame you're getting death threats all the time. I feel really bad for you."
The sarcasm was noticeable. Alyssa then angrily slams her locker and says "You're gonna regret this." Kimberly, urging her on, said "Oh. She just backtalked you, Camie. She's finally standing up for herself. What're you gonna do about it?" Camie gave Alyssa a nasty look and left with Kimberly.
When everyone left, Alyssa was ready to carry out her revenge. And as Alyssa promised, Camie would regret it.
Alyssa knew that Camie walked through the woods, a shortcut she used often to get home. She followed Camie, who was unaware that she was being followed. Alyssa called out to her "Hey Camie," and as she turned around, Alyssa stabbed her in the stomach. She fell down, face first into the dirt. "Who's the freak now, Camie?" she said. She then put her hoodie on and walked back in the opposite direction with a smile on her face.
The next morning, everyone gathered around in the hallway. Alyssa joins them. "What's going on?"
"Didn't you hear?" said one of the classmates, almost bursting into tears. "Camie's dead. The police found her body last night along Archer Avenue."
"You mean... the isolated Archer Avenue? I never go there. Too isolated. I wonder what happened to her."
The next day, after school was over, Kimberly was at her usual spot, a balcony in the school's theater, mourning the loss of her best friend, when Alyssa sat next to her.
"It's sad what happened to Camie, isn't it? I know she was your best friend. It's hard to lose someone you love."
"Since when do you care about Camie? She's always been so mean to you."
"Yeah, she has, but she's still a person. People make mistakes. And people learn from them. If it makes you feel better, I know who killed Camie." Kimberly stands up in shock.
"You--You know who killed her?"
"Yeah. The same person who's gonna kill you."
Alyssa then takes a bottle of acid she carried with her and splashes it in her face. Kimberly felt her face burning. Pieces of flesh begin falling off. She lets out a blood curdling scream "My eyes! What did you do?" She was blind and as she was walking back, she fell over the balcony and died. "Go jump off a bridge, Freak." Alyssa then puts on her hoodie and again, calmly walks down the stairs and goes back home.
Once she got home, she grabbed a snack and went up to her room. She goes to the bathroom and looks in the mirror where she sees Riley, who's still trying to get out.
"Where have you been? What were you doing?"
"I was doing what I said I would do."
"What does that mean?"
"I kept my promise. I helped you. I got rid of them for you. All those people who hurt you, tried to change you, are all gone. Well, almost all gone. There's still that snake, Melissa. She always tried to change you. She couldn't accept you the way you were. So, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to kill her too."
"No. You can't kill her. This isn't what I wanted."
Alyssa said angrily " I did it for you. I killed them for you. You weren't brave enough to do it, so I did. Someone had to, Riley!"
"You can't kill her. I won't let you kill her." And just like that, Riley, who was determined to keep her mother alive, got the strength to jump out of the mirror. She looked around and realized she was out. But she also saw Alyssa, holding a pocket knife in her hand. "I'm so sorry it has to end like this, Riley." She then threw the knife at her, aiming for her neck, but she quickly turned around and ran towards the door, but not fast enough to avoid getting hit by the knife. She then felt a sharp pain in her back, and saw a stream of blood dripping down her back. She fell down, and within a matter of seconds, she died. However, because she killed Riley, Alyssa would also die, since one could not live without the other.
Melissa came home from work and called for Riley. "Riley, you there?" There was no response. She called again. "Riley? Hello?" Still, there was no answer. She went into the bathroom and found Riley dead on the floor, bleeding. She called the police, but was too busy mourning her daughter to notice her own reflection smiling at her too.