Human Spines

Reflection-II

Emmeline

Eight years ago

        There's a Demon stuck in this mirror. I would say it's a girl Demon, but I don't think Demons have genders. This one's got a silver mullet and orange eyes the size of my fist. Its face is almost human but almost fish, with scrunched-up lips and a thin nose. Its skin is like a green pearl. It's watching Maddy.

        I think it's sad though. I think that it wants to be on the other side of this mirror, getting its hair cut just like my sister is. To be sitting with a purple cape on, in a chair where your feet don't touch the ground. I think it wants to be able to brush its hair, but it can't because its hands are made out of knotted fishing wires and its fingers are barbed hooks. I think it's tried so many times to escape that someone put it in a straitjacket made of fishing net and broke all the bones in its legs, letting them mend twisted and crooked.

        I think that it just wants to stop having to stare at its reflection all day.

        But that's just me. It could be in the straitjacket because it killed someone last week. And it could be that its hands are normally just a thousand loose fishing wires, but it tried to use them to slice someone's neck yesterday, so the Demon police came and tied up its hands and put hooks on the ends to warn everyone else that it's dangerous. Or it could just be a fashion statement.

        "No, Emmeline's too scared of scissors to get her hair cut. Last week she screamed when I used a pair to cut the tag off her shirt," Maddy tells the lady that's combing her hair. Maddy always tells everyone everything about me. I don't like it. It's not even true. I screamed because a Demon, much scarier than the one in the mirror, was on our ceiling. I specifically remember just how scary it was because, for me, it happened about ten minutes ago. I woke up from its possession on the car ride here.

        I am afraid of scissors though. They hurt.

        "Why don't you come sit with me and ______, Buttercup?" Dad calls and I skip toward the row of blue chairs he's sitting on. I climb on top of the seat next to him and pull him down so I can whisper in his ear, careful not to disturb the toddler, whose name I have never been able to hear, on his lap.

        "But I'm Bubbles, the nice one. Maddy is Buttercup."

        "But you look like Buttercup." He whispers back.

        "And you look like Bubbles, but you're Blossom, and Mom is the professor." I explain, my face serious.

        "So who is ______?" He asks, glancing at the creature he holds. My baby sister.

        "The mayor," I answer.

        "Wow." His eyes are wide. "You put a lot of thought into this, didn't you?"

        I nod until I think he understands how much I've thought about this. Powerpuff Girls are important.

        We settle in and watch Mom tell the lady how she wants Maddy's hair. Maddy wants it cut like a boy's. Mom says she can't take care of it like that yet. Maybe next year. I like my hair the way it is. Long, just like Mom's, flowing down my back.

        The lady cuts and Maddy talks and Mom worries and the toddler sleeps and Dad smiles and I breathe, but the Demon is starting to cry. It's watching Maddy laugh but it's shedding marble sized tears as pearlescent as its skin. It's letting them dribble over its cheeks, not stopping them from entering its gaping mouth. It's silent as snot slips from its nose and its entire body shakes.