Mirror

When a boy comes to play with his relatives, he has no idea what they have planned, or what lurks within that old mirror.

The boy stood before the door of his Auntie and Uncle’s house with his mother looming close behind.

Within seconds the large door swung open as his tall, skeletal but beaming Auntie greeted them both before beckoning the boy inside. As he entered he saw his cousin’s and their friend huddled on the lowest step of their long, narrow staircase.

The boy liked his cousin’s but he had always had an unnerving feeling when around them, as if they were always planning something but would never let him in on the secret.

“Hello” he said to the small group who all stared at him for a moment with pale faces before throwing each other furtive looks.

“Hello” said his oldest cousin of around twelve years of age as her face suddenly changed to that of happiness at the sight of her relative.

“It is good to see you both” the boy said as he looked at each of them in turn, the youngest of his cousin’s laughing slightly as he acknowledged her small frame which slightly hid behind her sister.

The boy had always found his youngest cousin a little annoying, even though it was expected for her to be irritating as she was only six years of age but given the boy was also twelve, he had found more of a bond with the eldest of the two.

“This is my friend from school” the girl said as she gestured towards the small form of a boy no older than ten who nodded with a pale face and sunken eyes.

It was only then that the boy realised all of the three children before him shared that same look of a pasty face and sunken eyes with greasy hair.

“Shall we go upstairs?” the girl asked to which the boy replied “OK” but as they all turned to venture up the steep steps a sense of dread filled the boy for just a moment, and it was only then that the top of the staircase looked especially dark.

 As they reached the top of the stairs, the boy came face to face with his own reflection. It was a sight that unnerved him greatly as something….lurked within the reflection, something that went unseen but as he gazed into his own eyes, it felt as though something was gazing back.

“Have you always had this mirror?” he asked his cousin who responded with a mixture of a groan and a mutter.

“My mother bought it a few months ago” was all she said as the little group hurried into the girls’ bedroom.

“So what do you want to play?” the boy asked as they all stood within his cousin’s bedroom which he noticed was strangely absent of any toys or decorations which would be common in most twelve year olds bedrooms.

“Do you believe in monsters?” the girl asked as the youngest, along with the silent boy, jumped a little in their place at the words.

“Not really” the boy responded with a shrug.

“Are you afraid of the dark?” she asked quizzically.

“A little I guess but I can manage with a small light” he responded honestly.

“Good, then you will be ok” she said more to herself.

“Let’s play Stares” she said with a smile at the others, none of which returned her happiness at the suggestion.

“What’s Stares?” the boy asked bemused.

“All you have to do is go to the mirror, put you hand on it and stare at yourself with the light off” she said with a slight smirk which was copied by the other two at her side.

“Is that it?” asked the boy in a mocking tone. He was used to the unusual games the group would play as they had done so for as long as he could remember, every time his mother had to go away for work he would spend the night at his Aunties’ which meant playing weird games with his relatives.

“That’s it” his cousin said as her eyes flickered towards the mirror in the hallway.

 

The boy wandered into the hall and as he did so, he wished he hadn’t pretended to be only “slightly” afraid of the dark when in fact the thought of the abyss of night time sent shivers through his entire body.

He walked to the mirror which loomed down on him like a glassy eye, always watching where he was and never letting him out of its sight.

He stood before it for a moment but as he stared at himself and at his surroundings which stretched into the mirrors depths, the lights went out and all that could be heard was the giggling of his cousins from somewhere in the darkness.

“Put your hand on the mirror” the voices said.

He obeyed and after a moment of reaching out before him, he felt the cold touch of the mirrors surface. It didn’t take long for his eyes to adjust to the blackness as the light from downstairs gently illuminated the darkness, enough for the boy to make out his own outline in the mirror before him.

 

All went quiet and the laughing of the children in the other room subsided suddenly. As it did the boy became aware that his hand had grown quite warm, as if heated air was being gently blown on it. As his attention focused on the sensation, he heard a gently scratching, like something sharp was being dragged across glass. His hand trembled slightly upon the glass and his hand became sweaty as he held it against the glass.

“How long do I have to stay here?” he called out but with no response.

He stayed still for a moment and felt his hand tremble even more but after a few seconds he realised it wasn’t his hand that was trembling, it was the mirror.

He looked into the darkness and at his own faint outline and for the briefest of moments he thought he saw something dark looming behind him. His breath froze in his lungs as he tried to call out but couldn’t and when he finally tried to pull his hand from the mirror, he felt something faintly scratch at his open palm.

 

“TURN THE LIGHT ON NOW!” He cried and instantly the light flicked on. The boy pulled his hand away from the mirror and wheeled on his two cousins and their small, whimpering friend who were all staring at him, the eldest of the three with an impressed expression.

“Well done, it likes you” she said before heading downstairs.

 

 “What likes me?” asked the boy once the group had finished their dinner and were once again within the sparse bedroom of the girl.

“The thing behind the mirror” she said coolly.

The boy stared before laughing to himself.

“The thing behind the mirror?” he asked as he looked around in an attempt to trigger the punch line of the joke, but the faces looking back at him were stern and impassive.

“It doesn’t like everyone” said the youngest girl as she kicked her foot at the worn carpet.

“It especially doesn’t like you, does it?” the little girl said as she looked up at the friend of the cousins’ who had drained the little colour he had left in his face as he looked down at the ground and shook his head.

“I don’t really get this game, what am I supposed to do now?” the boy asked as he looked back at his cousin who was staring with wide eyes at him.

“It isn’t a game, it is real. The monster came with the mirror and won’t leave, it stays silent in the day time but when it gets dark, it wakes up or something” she said as she looked past the boy in the direction of the mirror.

“And why doesn’t it like you?” the boy asked the pale faced boy who was stood in the corner.

“It just doesn’t, we tried playing the game with him and the monster got mad, we don’t know why but it likes you so maybe you can play with it and tell it to leave” said the girl with a gleeful and hopeful smile.

 

“This is crazy, I don’t like this game and we have to go to sleep now” said the boy as he rolled out his sleeping bag and crawled inside it.

“OK, maybe tomorrow we can play with the mirror” said the girl as she and her sister both climbed into her bed, their friend silently slipping into his own sleeping bag.

 

“What do we do now?” asked the youngest girl once the boy had fallen asleep.

“I don’t know” said her sister.

“Won’t the monster be mad?” the little girl whispered.

“Be quiet and go to sleep” her sister responded in a forceful whisper and within moments the pair had fallen asleep.

 

The boy tried to stay awake as he stared through the crack in the bedroom door and on to the gleam of the mirror which stood motionless in the hallway.

Each blink became longer and longer as sleep crept silently over the boy but just as he was about to drift off, a noise aroused him from his immediate slumber.

A scratching could be heard from somewhere near the boy and as his eyes widened with awareness he tried to locate the source of the sound. Without moving he looked to each of the dark corners of the room but found nothing lurking there. The room had become deathly quiet and not even the sound of the other sleeping forms in the room could be heard.

 

He peered all around the room but the sound of something scratching was still creeping its way around the room but as the boy listened, he realised that the sound was coming from outside of the room.

The boy’s eyes darted for the crack in the door and through it, within the darkness beyond, he found the source of the scratching sound and it was staring right back at him with gleaming white, orb-like eyes.

The boy froze, his eyes staring at the shadowy form which was beaming, its mouth creased to reveal jagged white teeth as it beckoned with one long pointed finger, its other hand scratching on the mirror and it was only then that the boy realised the thing was…within the mirror.

 

The boy tore his gaze away from the thing and looked around the room in an attempt to silently awaken the other occupants but to no avail.

He looked back through the gap in the door but the mirror looked normal once again, the reflection in it dark and obscured within the gloom.

He rummaged in his bag which lay at his side and grabbed the glow stick which he had stowed in there before leaving his own bedroom, it was something he felt safe in having in his possession as it was his own weapon against the darkness.

He stood as quietly as possible even though something deep within him hoped his cousin or even the strange, pale faced boy would awaken at his movement and come with him, better yet he hoped he would awaken himself from some strange dream.

 

He walked quietly into the cool hallway, the shadows which lurked in every corner seemed to watch him but quickly scuttled away as he cracked the glow stick and watched as the soothing green light spilled into the darkness about him.

He approached the mirror slowly until he stood face to face with the mirror, its tall frame glowing green in the light of the glow stick.

He stood looking into the glare of the light in the reflection until his eyes burnt, a few moments later and the glowing orb of the glow sticks reflection bobbed as if independent of what the boy was holding.

The light moved within the mirror even though what was gripped in the boys hand remained still. He approached until he stood inches from the smooth surface and as he stood silently, he could hear the faint scratching coming from somewhere in the distance but which gradually grew louder until the very glass of the mirror seemed to creak and vibrate.

The boy stared at the reflecting light and as he did, a black hand wrapped itself around the glowing reflection with long, spider-like fingers. The hand held the light for a moment and in a blink of the eye, the thing held the glow stick within the mirror and the boy realised he was no longer holding it, it had been pulled into the very mirror before him.

He looked back at his reflection but staring back at him, inches from his own face was the grinning and charred face of the monster with its white orb eyes and jagged teeth, its skin cracked like burnt wood and as it tilted its head in almost curiosity it sounded as though many branches were being twisted and broken.

“It is mine now” said the thing in a voice like a thousand tortured whispers, its breath fogging the glass.

“Just like you will be!” it said before letting out an ear splitting laugh that was more like a bark of a beast.

 

The boy woke up suddenly.

He was lying on his back, covered in sweat but back in the bare bedroom, the occupant of which was staring down at him with an expression of concern which masked a look that the boy was sure was happiness.

 

They all ate breakfast in silence but what the boy found strange was the way his Auntie was almost ignoring him, all the while casting her daughters and their friend furtive looks that looked almost angry in nature.

The boy thought the reason must be that he had called out during his nightmare of the monster and had awoken his Auntie in the middle of the night, because that was all it was, a nightmare.

The little group of children sat within the eldest girls room in silence, the boy looked at each of the occupants in turn, watching as their eyes looked back and forth at one another.

“What do you want to do now?” the boy asked calmly.

“Play a game?” the eldest girl suggested as her young sister grinned wildly at the thought of banishing the boredom.

“OK, what do you want to play? But I am going home soon…” he reminded the group.

“Hide and seek?” suggested the youngest girl with a nod.

“OK” he said.

“You all hide and I will count to a hundred” he said with a sigh.

 The other three immediately headed from the room as the boy started counting.

“1….2….3….4” he began.

Footsteps thumped throughout the upstairs of the house, quickly growing distant.

 

“23….24….25….26” he continued as he peered through his finger tips.

“The next bedroom…” he whispered to himself.

“The bathroom….behind the shower curtain….the closest….the wardrobe in the parents room” he ticked off the hiding places in his mind.

“60….61….62…63”

The floorboards creaked just outside the door and then something hurried away.

“That one will be the easiest, probably the youngest” he thought to himself.

“97…98…99….100!”

“READY OR NOT, HERE I COME” he shouted half heartedly before glancing around the room.

 

Nothing.

 

He opened the door and found the hallway surprisingly dark as he made his way from door to door.

 

Nothing.

 

He glanced under the beds as he made his way through the rooms. He looked in the cupboards and behind curtains but there was nothing.

“Better than I thought” he murmured to himself before heading from the last bedroom and back across the hall.

 

Then he heard it.

 

 The scratching and creaking of floorboards echoed in the silence.

He turned and realized the sound was coming from behind the mirror.

“Got you.” He thought as he crept slowly towards the tall, framed mirror.

 

He approached slowly until he saw his own reflection advancing on itself, its face grinning widely with the anticipation, its eyes wide but dark with the thought of catching its prey, its clawed hands extended as he drew within a few inches of the glass.

 

“Wait…” he thought as he stared at his own reflection which grinned back at him with one hand slowly rising towards its own throat with blackened fingers.

The boy panicked and looked down but his hands were at his side, as he looked up the figure had changed to the charred but grinning monster and when their eyes met the hand of the monster burst from the mirror and gripped the boy by the shirt, its clawed hands cold and rough as the boy gave in to his terror and with one almighty pull the thing wrenched the boy forcefully forward and into the mirror.

 

Everything fell silent, the house was still and the mirror returned to normal within an instant.

The three forms of the children crept out from behind the tall mirror, their faces stern as they looked at one another before heading towards the stairs, not one of their gazes looking back at the gleaming and reformed glass.

 

They slowly headed down the stairs and waiting for them at the bottom was the two girl’s mother.

“Well?” she asked as she held her hands to her chest.

“Did it work?”

The three children looked at one another before all nodding in agreement.

“It took him” they said.

The mother sighed as she smiled before beckoning her children, along with their pale face friend to her before gripping them in a tight embrace.

“Was he a bad boy?” the small pale friend asked in a timid voice.

“Yes… yes he was sweetheart, he was very bad and it was making his mum and dad sad” she said as she knelt and met the boy’s dark gaze.

“But now they can be happy, now that he has gone they can finally be happy again like they were before that naughty boy came along” she said with a smile as she stroked his cheek.

“You’re such a good boy, you are all such good children” she said as she looked at each of them in turn before standing.

“Come on, let’s go and tell your Auntie the good news and then we can have ice cream what do you say? She asked happily.

 “YAY!” The children cheered before they all hurried into the kitchen, leaving the tall mirror standing alone at the top of the stairs, a mirror with a small hand print upon its gleaming glass, a handprint that no matter how much it was cleaned, could never be removed.