Scary Stories to Chill Your Bones

Turn Around

"Come on, Andreas, you have a haircut." A fourteen-year-old boy named Andreas's mom said to him on a Saturday morning in the middle of March. Andreas was bored, so he gladly agreed to an opportunity to get out of the house. Usually, his mom had to argue with him for several minutes before getting him to his haircut appointments, so she was surprised when he said, "Okay," and got right up from the chair he was lounging on. Trying not to show her surprise, his mom said, "Well then. Thanks for coming without a fight."

Twenty minutes later, Andreas and his mom walked back into their house after Andreas's haircut. Andreas went straight up to his room so that he could see his haircut. The second after he walked into his room, he felt a chill run up his spine. His room was definitely colder than the rest of the house, but Andreas shrugged it off and told himself it was his air conditioning that was making his room so cold. If Andreas had known what would happen to him if he stayed in his room, have hightailed it out of the room the second he noticed the difference in temperature. But he didn't know, so he walked up to his mirror, and all thoughts of the chill in the room were lost.

Ice blue eyes framed by curly, white-blond hair stared back at Andreas. He patted down a small section of hair that was sticking up a little bit. Once every hair was in place, Andreas flashed a smile at his reflection. Bright white teeth glinted in the light of his room. Andreas could have spent hours staring at his reflection if it weren't for the eerie voice that had started to fill his room. "Andreas," it crooned. The combination of the creepy voice and the cold of the room made Andreas shiver. "Andreas," the voice repeated. If he didn't know better, Andreas would have sworn that the voice sounded familiar, except distorted slightly. "Can you see me, Andreas?" the voice asked Andreas in a sickly sweet voice. The only thing in front of Andreas was the mirror that sat in the corner of his room. He knew that the source of the voice wasn't in front of him, and he figured that if something was behind him he'd see its reflection in the mirror. But he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, just his normal, messy room reflected in the mirror.

"You don't see me?" the voice asked, with a tiny bit of hurt mixed with its overly sweet tone. "Then turn around." So Andreas turned 180 degrees, and immediately thereafter felt a piercing pain in his back. He cried out, and touched the small of his back tenderly. His fingers came back with blood dripping from them. "Oops, sorry," the voice said with a little giggle. "But if you still don't see me, I think it will beneficial for you to turn around." Another turn. Another stab of pain. Another pained cry. More blood.

The next time the voice told him to turn around, Andreas didn't. He wasn't stupid. He didn't want to feel that horrible burst of pain again. So he stared indignantly at his reflection in the mirror, and kept his feet firmly planted. "Andreas," the voice said very sweetly. If Andreas didn't know about the pain the voice could inflict, he would have been positive the source of the voice was a truly sweet person. But he did know about the pain it could inflict, having felt it himself, and didn't trust it for a second. "Turn around, and you'll see me," the voice urged. But Andreas refused to turn around, crossing his arms to show his defiance. "Have it your way then," the voice said, except it wasn't as sweet this time . . .

Andreas screamed at the top of his lungs as pain stabbed every part of his body. He gasped when he saw his reflection in the mirror. He had blood all over him. He heard an eerie little giggle as the room returned to its normal temperature, and the blood that covered his body disappeared, though the piercing pain did not. He decided he'd tell his mom about what had happened, and opened the door of his room, only to find his sister Leila waiting outside the room for him.

Leila. That's who the voice had reminded him of. An eerily distorted version of Leila's voice. But Leila couldn't be the voice. She was a sweet little thing. But then again, the voice had come off as sweet at first, too.

Leila's face spread into a wide grin. "I love your haircut, Andreas!" she said, and before Andreas could respond, she said, "But I want to see what the back looks like. Turn around."

A/N: Sorry that this one sort of ended on a cliff hanger. And I know it wasn't very scary, so sorry about that, too. I hoped you liked it anyway!