The Shadow in the Mirror

"Mirrors can reveal the best in you, and the worst of you. You have to decide what you want to see." -A quote.

"Mirrors can reveal the best in you, and the worst of you. You have to decide what you want to see," Peter read aloud off of the blackboard. The quote was across the top of the board in elegant cursive. It took Peter a few attempts to read the cursive, but was proud of himself when he finally understood every word. He tried his hardest to concentrate, he really did, but worksheets given by subs just don't grab his attention as much as when teachers give the students some worksheets to work on during class. They don't give off the same kind of responsibility and leadership he typically finds in teachers. Especially at his school, the subs don’t do anything. All subs (with a select few exceptions) sit behind the teacher’s desk, play games or read on their electronics, and occasionally hush the students.

"Quiet down," said the sub to the endless chaos known as Juniors. The sub then fixed his head so he can see his game on the phone once again.

"There was his 10 minute check up," whispered Jacob. Peter didn’t pay him any attention as the quote was his focus zone for the moment. It was a very interesting quote Peter thought, and he couldn’t stop staring at it This quote connected with him somehow… he just knew it. He realized that Jacob was staring at him and Peter quickly nodded his head. If someone just nodded their head whenever Jacob talks, he'll be satisfied and go back to whatever he was doing. 

Peter returned his focus onto the quote for another two minutes until something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Peter turned his head around to look at the multitude of mirrors, covering almost all of the walls, and his eyes widened in an instant. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing at first.

It was hard to see in the whole mess of students up and running around, but nevertheless it was there. A single moving shadow running across the blackboard, right under the quote. Almost like it was a second dimensional being.

It wasn't even recognizable in shape, and it was dark. So dark, you couldn’t even tell it was black, if that makes any sense. Peter looked at the shadow's feet to see if someone was making it, but wasn't really surprised that no one was there. The shadow was too dark and the lights too bright to be casted in this room by another student. But what is it then?

Peter tore his eyes from the mirror to look at where the shadow was under the quote, but it wasn't there. Only the daily quote. It only seemed to be in the mirror. He looked back at the mirror to get a better look, but it vanished from the board.

"Dude, did you see that?" Peter asked Jacob after looking around frantically. After a few minutes of silence, Peter lightly punched Jacob and was greeted back with a heavy whisper, "what?"

"The shadow! In the mirror! Did you see it? It was by the blackboard!" Peter exclaimed. Jacob, instead of looking in the mirror, looked by the actual blackboard itself.

"Come on, stop messing around. I don't see anything. You’ve been staring at that quote too long," he said. Peter sighed with defeat. It’s worthless to ask someone who obviously wasn’t paying any attention.

Jacob just shook his head and returned to his Science worksheet. Peter looked around the mirrors to see if he can find it again, when he spotted it back by the labs. He kept his eyes on it as it slithered through the lab area. It passed through all the beakers like they were nothing, but Peter definitely noticed something strange. It seemed to shy away from the burners that were on. The students who were by the burners doing stupid dares didn’t notice anything off when the Shadow was right next to them.

"Does it not like fire?" Peter asked himself under his breath. Eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"Does it not like to be hired?" Asked Jacob, overhearing Peter mumbling to himself. Peter looked over at him in annoyance, temporarily forgetting about the Shadow. Jacob shrugged innocently and returned to his phone in his lap. Peter was going to actually work on the worksheet, but remembered that we was supposed to keep an eye on the shadow in the mirrors. Peter looked at the mirrors in the front of the room, showing the back lab, but it disappeared again.

"Come on," sighed Peter. He looked to his right and left in the mirrors to see if he can find it, but was distracted when he heard a student from the right of him whooping.

"Hey everyone! The sub fell asleep! Now would you look at that," he shouted. The chaos of students got even worse than before. Instead of a few people standing and sulking about, everyone was up and moving around, visiting friends, yelling across the room, throwing paper airplanes that seemingly came out of nowhere, all the stereotypical activities students do when teachers aren't around.

Peter sighed and tried to focus on finding the shadow. It really intrigued him, and he wanted to know what it...

"Oh dear God," Peter said breathlessly. He found the shadow all right, but now the shadow was disappearing into another person's shadow. To be specific, Chad Hartley. The school's most famous jock, and quarterback for Varsity Football. The perfect recipe for the most popular guy in school. The Shadow went behind Chad’s shadow, and it opened Chad’s shadow’s mouth. It slithered into Chad’s shadow’s mouth as soon as it was open wide enough.

This made Chad go into a coughing fit that was barely audible above the noise of the Juniors. The girls around him were comforting him, but he couldn’t stop coughing. Peter watched as the shadow kept pouring into Chad’s shadow’s mouth, slithering in until the Shadow was gone. As soon as the shadow was absorbed into him, Chad's appearance started to change noticeably. His eyes turned a darker shade of blue, his skin color went paler than it already was, and instead of a smirk saying, “I’m better than you,” a sneer took its place now saying, "Why so serious?" Chad’s hair turned a dark gray, and the girls still running their hands through his hair immediately took their hands away in disgust.

Chad, or Shadow Chad, was looking around at everything. He blinked several times before moving his arms around. He spun his arms around as if they were something he never knew he could do. Chad suddenly got up from his seat, surprising the girls, and tested his legs. Bending them, walking a few steps, and even feeling his legs with his hands. Chad then glanced up to Peter who was staring at him quickly. Peter hurriedly averted his eyes to the board once again, and saw Chad eye him warily in his peripheral vision.

Chad looked from Peter, to the board and smiled. He started moving towards the teacher’s desk.

“Weird. Chad always make noise with his boots…” Peter whispered to himself. Even though the noise of the class should’ve drowned out the noise of Chad’s boots, Chad always still made noise with it no matter what somehow.

Chad found himself by the scissors drawer and started picking out scissors. Peter didn’t know what he was planning, but he knew it wasn’t good. Distraction was necessary.

"Peter, isn't this awesome! The teacher is passed out, and now we can do anything we want!" Jacob yelled with excitement in his voice. This is the one time Peter actually paid attention to Jacob. That comment seemed to flick something on in Peter’s head. A brilliant idea to distract Chad, and even to get people out of his way. It would mean confrontation one to one with Chad, but Peter didn’t see any other way.

"Of course," Peter said after a few moments of silence. The idea solidified in his brain, and he knew exactly what to do. He got up and walked to where the sub was sleeping. He got really close to the sub and cleared his voice to get the attention of the chaos. When that didn't work, he spoke in a calm voice, "if you don't want the sub to wake up. You better listen now, and sit down." That only got one person’s attention, but because of the warning that kid started hushing everyone and telling them what was happening. Even Chad, who went to go sit down after Peter got near him, didn’t want the sub waking up. He sneered at Peter, and in response, Peter simply ignored him.

"We're going to play a game, and if you don't participate. I will wake up this sub," Peter explained. It was deathly quiet. Apparently, threatening to wake up the sub was the worst thing ever. "Here are the rules. I’m going to get the roster out and choose students at random. I’m going to send those chosen students out into the hallway. Last person in this room gets a-” Peter stopped. He didn’t know what everyone would like. He looked around, and then remembered the teacher had candy in her drawers. “A piece of candy."

"What kind of candy?" A random student asked from the back. That got a few giggles, but all it took from Peter was one finger over the sub, and the giggle subsided.

"Whatever candy I will assign you," he explained calmly. He glanced towards Chad as he made his way to the roster, and Chad was looking at him with those almost black eyes with curiosity and amusement. Peter looked towards Jacob’s direction, and found Jacob who was giving Peter a look that said, “What in God’s hell are you doing?” Peter subtly nodded to Chad, mouthing the words, “I got this.” Jacob noticed Chad, and his eyes widened. 

Finally reaching the roster and reading it, he looked at everyone in the room. Eyes full of curiosity and anxiety looked back at him. Anxious about the candy bar much. With that, Peter started calling out names at “random”.

"Whitney White," Peter said. A blonde girl of about seventeen walked out of the classroom. 

"Jacob George," Peter said next. He made his way out to the hallway as well, whispering a good luck to Peter as he passed him. 

“Tommy Williams,” Peter called out. A dark skinned boy of eighteen walked out, eating on what Peter assumed a peppermint.

Peter kept kept calling names, and more students went out into the hallway. Peter didn't show it, but he was anxious and scared to see what would happen when they were alone together.

He finally made it to the last person.

"Caleb Hardy." Caleb walked out of the classroom mumbling about not getting any candy as he passed him. Peter closed the roster book and went to close the door to the classroom.

"Hey! What about us?" Asked that same random kid, who turned out to be Caleb.

"I'll come back in a while, I promise," Peter… lied? It isn’t lying if Peter didn’t know what was going to happen. He closed the door then locked it. Peter turned the lock, and locked everyone outside of the classroom. He then looked up to the mass of students, and saw them all look at Chad with a warning look. Then they started freaking out as soon as a hand grabbed Peter and threw him into the back wall. Peter landed against the wall with a heavy grunt and collapsed on the floor. The students outside the door watching this were going berserk. Chad must’ve sneaked up on Peter while he was at the door, but Peter didn’t hear anything behind him. He was silent, contrary to his loud boots.

"You're really an idiot. Either that, or that was a game of pure chance. But it couldn’t be, because you were watching me the whole time in the mirrors. Weren't you?" Chad chided. Peter winced when he heard Chad’s voice. It was very sharp in tone, yet deep and gruff. How can that be even possible? It was unimaginable.

Peter looked up from where he was and saw Chad leisurely walking toward him. Peter tried getting up, but all of his back and spine burned with pain. He decided to focus on other things around him to distract the pain and the panic building up inside of him, but Chad’s voice didn’t help. "I don’t know what your endgame is Peter Johnson, but you’ll never reach it. I’m going to go ahead and assume you want to stop me, defeat me, destroy me, something. Right?” Chad asked. Peter stared at him, not saying a word.

“You think because you’re a puny human, that means you can discard me? THINK AGAIN!”

He bellowed the last words and with a snort the sub woke up and automatically said, "Quiet down everybody." It took awhile, but with a few blinks of his eyes he saw the situation he was in. He looked from the hole in the wall behind me, to actual me on the floor, then to Chad standing over me. "What's going on here?" The sub asked.

"God I hate subs," said Chad, but his voice sounded more normal than the shadow him sounded. But he dismissed this comment with a shake of his head and the shadow's sharp, slightly deeper voice came back, and said, while pointing to me, "You know what, you're not going anywhere. I'm going to take care of this guy." He walked toward the sub with a crazy grin on his face. The sub quickly got up and fear overtook him. He got a pair of scissors, and with lucky aim, threw them at Chad. There was a schlick as the pointed part entered Chad’s chest. He backed up a few steps from the force of the throw. Chad looked down at the scissors, then back up at the sub with a curious look. He then slowly pulled the pair of scissors out of his body, black ooze flowed out of Chad, threw them down, and charged toward the sub. 

Peter couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The sub was actually successful at fighting back, ducking, parrying, blocking, and kicking. However Chad seemed to have a lot more stamina than a mid-aged fat substitute teacher did. 

While they were struggling, Peter tried to find a plan B just in case fighting Chad off physically wasn’t going to cut it. He looked around desperately and found a few burners burning on the counter. Peter was instantly reminded of the shadow being shy around the burners that were on. Peter looked from Chad and the sub, to the lab area of the classroom, and started military crawling to the lab. Pain shot through him whenever his right leg bumped against desks or backpacks.

There was a thud behind Peter as he made his way to the lab slowly, and he stopped. Refusing to look behind him, Peter looked around and found a lab table that could actually hide his whole body nearby. 

He hid behind that desk quickly as soon as he heard footsteps resonating from the front of the room. The kids outside of the door were freaking out, and there were even some older male voices shouting.

“Where are ya sonny?” Asked the Shadow. Peter looked to his left and saw a burning burner on the table across the room. If he just made a run for it…

“Oh come on, where ya you little bugger! You can’t hide from me!” The Shadow screeched. Peter shut his ears, but still focused on the burner. Peter opened his ears after a second or two to hear where the footsteps were coming from. He could hear the footsteps coming from the right, and the burner was on his left. Perfect.

With all of his might, Peter shot from under the desk, pain flooding his right leg, and ran towards the burner. Not even halfway there, he was stopped midway. A hand appeared and hit Peter’s face mid-run, knocking him to the ground. Peter looked up and saw Chad’s pale face looking down on him, his breath misty and cold.

“What did I tell you? You really can’t hide from me,” The Shadow breathed. Peter was confused, he heard footsteps to his right. It had to be him. Peter then saw Chad’s hand up and pointing at something, Peter followed the extended finger and saw the sub at the end of it. It was like Chad was controlling the sub.

“You are sick,” Peter said, moving his face to Chad’s, spitting up towards it. The spit landed right above Chad’s left eye. With a look of annoyance, Chad wiped the spit off, and picked up Peter by the shirt with one hand. Peter rose in the air even above Chad’s head, forcing Peter to look down to see Chad’s eyes.

“I don’t think I am. I feel too free to feel... anything. You see here’s the thing, I sense emotions in you. I sense… feelings, right or wrong, reason, justice, loyalty, trust, love, your very soul in you. All of that, it is restricting you!”

“You know what else I sense? Your thoughts. The deep, dark thoughts living in the back of your brain. You can ignore them all you want, but they’re there. The voices back there, that’s what you truly want to do, and they won’t. Stop. Yapping. Won’t they?”

Chad inhaled the air around Peter’s head like he smelled something delicious, and he couldn't get enough of it.

“Your thoughts… are dark! Listen to them. Listen to the voices telling you to… shoot up a mall, or even killing your family in there sleep,” Chad said, hissing almost now. Peter can feel Chad’s words wrap around his brain, seeping in. Peter couldn’t help succumb a little to what Chad was feeding him. But something fought back.

“But… But it’s wrong,” Peter said, straining from what seemed to be a battle in his head. Chad’s right eyebrow raised a little.

“That’s your subconscious fighting back, telling you it is ‘wrong’. I can help you. Let me take your soul away. You’re lucky I’m asking you instead of taking. I took this gentleman’s soul by force because I just had to have it. He’s not dead though, unless I harm his meat suit when I’m in it. Like this.”

Peter watched in horror as Chad grabbed a pair of scissors from earlier, and stabbed himself in the heart. Twice. 

“Why don’t you just take it from me?” Peter asked.

“Because it tastes better that way. It gives me satisfaction like you humans would have satisfaction with a good Thanksgiving dinner. Anyway, enough small talk. About me taking your soul. You won’t die by the way, you’ll just live on. Free at last to your darkest thoughts. No more feeling guilty. No more feeling compassionate. You can do whatever. You. Want.” The Shadow bargained, sounding out every syllable and word individually. 

A genuine look of uncertainty flashed through Peter’s face. After a few seconds, Peter’s face turned to stone. Showing he made a decision. Chad’s face glowed, or at least got a lighter shade of pale, and grinned, thinking he won Peter over. 

Peter looked down at Chad’s pale face as he held Peter up by one hand. Peter quickly glanced to his left and saw a burning burner. If he grabbed it, his hands would burn to high heaven, but he had to try.

“Thanks. But I want to keep my soul,” Peter said, he then kicked Chad in his loins, surprising Chad, but not hurting him, and Peter grabbed the burner and pain seized his hands. It felt like he was touching the stove at four hundred and fifty degrees. He then thrusted the burner in Chad’s face, and Chad screamed. The hand holding up Peter dropped to his side, and Peter fell. Fire filled Chad’s eyes, quite literally, as Peter held up the open fire to Chad’s skin and clothes.

“AWAY! GET THAT AWAY!” Chad screeched, but Peter kept the burner in place. Chad’s veins all around his body turned to fire as the burner was held to his skin longer and longer. The door to the classroom suddenly crashed down, and firefighter’s came in and saw, with horror, what was happening. Peter ignored them, but something else caught his eye. In the mirror, he saw himself holding a burner towards Chad, but the Shadow was also with him. Except the shadow was on fire too, but the fire wasn’t normal. A mixture of the black, goo-like substance that seemed to form the shadow and dark fire blurred the mirrors everywhere. Peter had to look at the actual burner in his hands, then back to the mirror.

The fire in the mirror turned from yellow-orange-red, to white-gray-black. Starting from the feet, the dark-colored fire spread its way to the head. The firefighters were mesmerized at what was happening right in front of them, and what was happening in the mirrors.

Peter didn’t know how long he could hold this burner with his hand. He could see the raw red flesh of his skin, some areas black or brown from the burns, and even some white. Waves of pain washed from his hand to his arm the longer he kept the burner. The firefighter’s didn’t know what to do, they couldn’t decide whether or not Peter was murdering somebody until one of them pointed to the mirrors and started talking.

Peter couldn’t hear them, but he hoped they were talking about something that was going to help Peter. Then he realized that Chad was screaming so loud, he couldn't hear anything but the screaming.

“I WILL GET YOOOOOOOUUUU,” the Shadow yelled, cracking the mirrors into a million pieces, creating web cracks on every single mirror. Peter saw in the distorted mirrors the Shadow finally dissolving into fractions of its size. The fire creating a sort of dark mirage or dark illusion in the cracked mirrors. The white mixed with the black, and the black mixed with the gray to create one dark gray color.

As soon as the dark gray color seemed to explode in blue fire, the screaming stopped. The explosion made Peter go flying backwards onto the floor about two feet away. Chad’s body fell lifeless to the ground, and Peter let go of the burner as he landed on the floor. It clattered to the floor at the same time Peter started screaming from the pain from his hand. He grabbed his hand, which was waxy and white on the outside of the burn, and didn’t feel a thing. The pain was only around the burn, and not the actual burn itself. However, the pain around the burn hurt like Hell for Peter.

The firefighters came in, and picked up peter from the ground. Peter didn’t fight it, he only shook from controlling his sobs and sudden anger. He was gripping his burned hand with his normal hand, and pain kept coming into him in waves whenever there was a bump. As they left the classroom, Peter got one last look at Chad’s body and saw it was back to normal. As normal as it can be after being possessed. His hair, for example, was stark-white now, and he wasn’t moving. It didn’t even seem like he was breathing.

The firefighters yelled for the students in the hallway to back off, and everyone obeyed without question. Peter caught Jacob’s eye, and saw fear in them.

Peter smiled weakly through the pain, and then passed out.

Voices filled Peter’s ears as he woke up slowly.

“Yeah, it was insane. I don’t know what I saw to be honest…”

“It was like the kid was… possessed or something. Yes Maw, I know that sounds like the Devil…”

“Yeah, I was the one that carried him out. Pretty impressive, huh? What’s your number girl?”

“Your son will be alright. He has third degree burn… Maybe even worse, the bone is showing-”

“Peter! You’re awake!”

Peter snapped awake at the mention of his name, and saw his mom running to him, pushing the doctor to the side. She got to him and hugged Peter tightly. Peter was surprised at first, but embraced it. After letting go, Peter looked around to see a few doctors by him looking at him cautiously, and firefighters in the background, talking to some girl nurses. One was on his phone trying to calm down a yelling voice from the receiving side.

A doctor walking by winked at Peter. He looked old, had gray, but good-looking, hair, and even had sunglasses in his pocket like a youngster would. His eyes spoke of infinite wisdom and knowledge, like he knew everything in the universe and beyond that. His eyes were dazzling and deep. He took the sunglasses out, opened them up, put them on, covering his mysterious eyes, and tapped the side twice.

The machine that Peter’s hand was in, which Peter had no idea was there until now, started making a whirring noise that sounded like it was speeding up. Peter quickly panicked, but calmed down when he felt the sensation of the machine. Other doctors nearby ran to the machine and tried to turn it off in a panic. Unplugging it didn’t seem to stop it from running.

“What is happening to this machine? It never does this,” one doctor said frantically. Peter felt his hand being healed by this machine twice the speed than it was before. Peter looked back to where the doctor with the glasses was, but he disappeared. Vanished into thin air.

The machine stopped and Peter took out his hand to look at it, against the doctors’ frantic orders. Everyone watching gasped at the sudden miracle, but Peter just smiled. His hand was fully healed. No burn marks whatsoever.

Peter looked at his mom, smiling with pure bliss. He looked slightly behind her to see what was going on with the firefighters, and the smile was gone from his face in an instant. It was replaced with a look of horror. There was a row of mirrors along the wall opposite of him, and he was staring right at himself.

He looked himself in the eyes, and saw darkness there. Pure, black darkness. His body was pale and his eyes were a darker shade than what they already were, a deep swamp green. His hair seemed a dark gray and brown mixture. Then a voice appeared. It rasped and gasped through the air, but only Peter heard the voice.

“Are you okay hun?” Peter’s mother asked. Peter didn’t hear her.

Peter blinked once, and it was all gone. Probably the drugs he was hooked up on. He looked at his mom, and smiled. Reassuring everything was okay, then stared back at the mirrors to find a bright green eyed, brown haired boy staring back.

“It’s okay,” Peter said, almost mumbling to himself.

Because how could he be like that when it was gone, and that voice he heard. Definitely imaginary.

The voice that rasped through the air, “Got you.”