10AN: Hi readers! Hope you like my new horror short story, do read and review! :)
Monster in the Mirror
It was night when it happened.
The dark came to get me.
Take me.
Kill me.
I was a vain girl, I admit, but no more. I used to spend hours in front of the mirror, brushing my hair, contorting my face into many different shapes and expressions, inspecting my eyes. I would love the image of myself in the mirror. I wasn't one of those girls who got out of bed, swept their hair back in a messy ponytail and was ready for the day. No, I had to make sure every hair was in place, every strand brushed to perfection.
This changed everything.
It happened when I was doing my usual morning routine, trying out an elaborate braid going around my head.
Then I froze.
There was something behind me.
Clear as day, it was there.
A cloaked figure, a skeletal face just visible underneath its hood. It lifted to meet my eyes, and the scream I was about to let loose was stopped, caught in my throat. I couldn't speak, my eyes glued to the thing behind me in the mirror. It was silent, unmoving, just staring. I turned, slowly, cautiously, and my hands and eyes met empty air. When I looked back, it was still there, and it cocked its head to the side, almost looking amused.
Then it was gone.
I whipped around, yet again, but I still saw nothing behind me. A soft murmured voice entered my ears.
You give me strength, little girl.
My blood turned to ice in my body.
Every time you look, you give me strength.
I placed my hands over my ears childishly, hoping to no avail that the spine chilling voice will be muffled.
Strength to kill you.
My breathing was fast, coming out in small bursts from my mouth.
Every time you look into the mirror…
I was near to hyper ventilation at this point.
Every time you look at your reflection…
I gasped for air, the cold was closing in on my throat, my eyes suddenly glued to the mirror.
Every time you are vain…
I forced my eyes away from the mirror, and the pressure on my throat vanished. The chill rose into warmth, and there was no sign of any damage to me. I wonder what I look like…
I caught myself just as I was about to look into the mirror. A new found fear of it planted itself in my heart, and I grabbed my comb and brush, determinedly not looking at my reflection, and ran out of the bathroom.
I kept this up for a few days, and the looks on my parents' faces made the surprise apparent. For those days, I swept my hair up in a pony tail, not bothering with make-up, and I made sure my eyes strayed from the evil of the mirror.
Then one day, the temptation was too great.
Just one peek…
I glanced up, and there it was. Its hood was a dark gray this time, but the same skeletal face grinned from behind me. My eyes flicked down, and there was no mistaking the sudden chill, again.
"Why do you do this to me?" I whispered, my voice cracking at the edges.
There needs to be someone to take my place, little girl.
There it was, the spine chilling voice. I braced myself for the pressure around my throat, but it never came.
"I- I don't understand."
Let me show you.
Those words echoed all around me, and I looked back into my reflection. If I was who I was a week ago, I would have winced at the sight of me, pale, my eyes too wide for my face, my hair unkempt, eye bags prominent. Now, all I could think of was the menacing figure reflected in the mirror, standing so close to me, if it was a human, I would be able to feel its breath on my neck. We stared at each other, and it raised its cloak and whirled it around my face, and my vision went black.
I was just like you, pretty, young, and incredibly vain. I would never leave the bathroom until I managed to get every hair perfectly into place. I used to live in this house. Yes, you think that the previous owners of this house were a couple with no children, and so were the ones before me, but you are wrong.
All of them had a daughter, or a son, and they were enchanted by this mirror, drawn to its magic turned to vain fools in front of it. It corrupted us, those too weak, too insecure to fight its power.
I was like you.
I loved my life, I was doing well, liked by all, immensely popular, yet the power of this mirror made me mean. Made me think of no one else but myself. The mirror's power made me want to look at it more and more. So much so that I would spend hours and hours looking into it. The one day, I saw a skeletal figure inside it. Looking straight at me.
I took me, tried to kill me, but I resisted. Then, I asked it why it wanted to kill me.
What made me so special?
I took me, and told me its story.
It story so similar to mine, I was chilled. Then, it dropped the bomb.
We were all part of a cycle, where we have the kill the next one who is entrapped by its power, to make them take the place of us, trapped, ugly, evil. That way, we would be free from its power. When we died, our existence died with us. We were no longer part of the human world. The curse we had to endure would be lifted, our place in the cycle ending.
Now, the cycle turns to you, little girl. I've waited too long.
A horrible, grinding sound filled my ears, and suddenly, I couldn't feel, couldn't hear, couldn't see anymore.
I was one of them.
Over the next few years, I was trapped in the blackness, and I slowly, slowly, I grew stronger. A light began to appear at the end of the darkness, that morphed into a tunnel. I was now restless, desperate to be free, so desperate, I would do anything. I moved through the darkness, the light growing as I got closer, but it was difficult. When I got there, I found myself staring into the terrified face of a young boy, a comb in his hand, his brown eyes wide open. I knew how I had to be free from this curse, and I would do anything, anything, to be free.
I saw myself reflected in his eyes, a hooded, skeletal figure, horrendous, a monster.
But I couldn't think of that anymore.
I looked back at the boy, and I laughed, my voice a raspy snarl.
You give me strength, little boy.
Strength to kill you.