Never anger a witch

Who is the Fairest?

Superstition warns us that if all the mirrors in the house of a recently deceased person are not covered, then the spirit would be trapped in the mirrors forever.

We all know that this isn't the truth.

After all, it is only a superstition...

Cody hated garage sales. Everything in the yard would be battered and torn. Piles of rubbish which no body wanted stacked haphazardly all over tables and boxes.

People would run around, grabbing, grabbing, grabbing. Just the thought of it made him want to hide in his room. He could see himself now- hiding in a corner and waiting for the voices to fade away.

People think too loud. Echoey, noisy, hurting. Hurt his head. Made him cry.

Mama always told Cody to keep quiet about the voices. She said mean people with sharp thoughts would come and take him away. She said they would cut him up to see how he ticked.

Cody liked that word. Ticked. He told Mama that he didn't tick and that the mean people would have to be pretty stupid to think that he did. He still kept quiet.

Mama loved garage sales and because Cody's father had left them a long time ago Cody was forced to go with Mama to the garage sale.

Instead of the loud roar of thoughts like he had been dreading, instead there was a quiet hum which drowned out the other voices. For the first time in his life, Cody couldn't hear anyone's thoughts. He thought that maybe he had died and gone to the happy place that Mama always talked about.

He looked in the direction of the hum. An old ornate mirror was leaning against a table leg. The face of a girl his age was staring out at him. One of her hands rested on the glass, it looked to Cody as if she were some how inside the mirror.

Cody walked over to her. He smiled and asked, "Are you the one making the voices go away?"

The girl looked at him in wonder.

"You can see me?"

Cody shyly smiled at her and nodded. A radiant smile spread across her face and she pressed up against the mirror.

"No one has ever seen me before. I've been stuck in here for so long. Can you take me with you?"

Cody smiled and nodded. He ran over to Mama and tugged on her dress. She looked at him. Cody dragged her over to the mirror and begged until she gave in.

The little girl in the mirror laughed with joy and Cody danced. When they got home Cody remembered his manners and introduced himself. The little girl said that her name was Ella.

"How old are you?"

She asked.

"I'm nearly eight." He replied. "Can we be friends? I've never had a friend before."

Ella smiled at him.

"forever and always."

Over the many years since Cody had first found Ella in the garage sale, Cody had been searching for a way to get Ella out of the mirror. They discovered that Ella could force herself into almost any reflective surface. As Cody aged, so did Ella. When Cody was twenty he finally found the solution.

A thick book filled with incantations involving mirrors told of a spirit that had been released back into the real world. Cody copied the ritual.

He chanted in Latin and drew a pentacle around the mirror.

As soon as he had finished a great wind roared through the room. The surface of the mirror rippled and Ella stepped through.

The gentle hum which had protected him from the thoughts of others for thirteen years had abruptly stopped. He screamed as the voices returned a thousand times louder than before.

Ella smiled coldly.

Cody was writhing on the floor in agony as Ella stepped out of the pentacle. She began to laugh at him. Her voice was high and cold as she crowed in triumph.

"Do you know why I was trapped in that godforsaken mirror? A man killed me after he came home one night to find that I had tortured his entire family to death. You never asked. Not once."

She kicked Cody in the stomach. He managed to flop on to his stomach but his arms were shaking too much for him to get up. Ella sneered.

"You're so weak. Look at you. Pathetic."

She pulled a long and slender knife out of a pocket in the old fashioned apron that she always wore.

"Remember how we used to play as children?"

She pinned him down. Cody was too weak to struggle. Ella leaned forward until her long blonde hair brushed against his face. She whispered lovingly in his ear.

"Told you we'd be together forever."

The knife brushed against his cheek, drawing a red line down his face. Cody cried out in pain. He struggled but Ella was too strong. She rolled him over so that he could see her cold grey eyes.

"Let's leave a lovely surprise for your dear old mommy. After all, she is the only person who will care."

Cody withdrew into himself, trying to hide from the agony. The further in he went, the more he felt the strange hum. Desperately he reached out to it.

The hum grew in volume until he could feel his whole body vibrating with the powerful note. It cut out the voices and Cody found that his strength had returned.

Ella pulled back from him, stumbling as she did so.

"What are you doing?"

She cried. The hum roared in his ears and he found himself standing and moving towards the mirror. Cody punched the mirror. Ella screamed as cracks spread over her body. The mirror leaked blood. Cody punched it again. This time the mirror shattered. Ella gave a horrific howl and burst into tiny shards which melted away into shadow.

Cody looked at his hands. They glowed with a faint golden light. As he watched the glow settled down until he could barely see it. Inside his mind the hum settled down until he couldn't hear it.

He smiled.