Chapter One
The earliest event from my childhood that I can remember is when I woke up one night crying. Every kid has nightmares and wakes up crying out for their mother, but this was different. It had felt so real. I woke up in a cold sweat and couldn't stop shaking. Sobs wracked my body with a penetrating force that I couldn't seem to stop. My mother found me curled up in a ball, tightly wound in my covers. She picked me up with such delicacy, I was like an infant and she was afraid that she would hurt me. She took me over to the white rocking chair in the corner of my room and rocked me back and forth, telling me that all it was just a harmless dream.
I had reached out towards the mirror near my closet, trying to convery the message that I couldn't seem to form with my tongue. However, my mother ignored my protests and reached out her hand, stealing away my attention as she unclasped a long chain from her neck. The chain was silver and simple, but the pendent dangling from it held a hypnotizing beauty that seemed to make me feel more like myself. It was a rectangular amethyst with rounded edges, and engraved on the back of it had my mother’s full name and underneath, a couple of markings that I couldn’t decipher. She helped me put the necklace on then walked me to my bed.
She whispered to me that the necklace would protect me at night. It had hidden powers that she drew from the atmosphere, and the jewel had those powers captured inside of it. I had asked what she meant by powers, but she seemed distracted and didn’t answer my question. After several silent minutes she finally looked down at me, as if she just realized that I was still with her, and smiled sadly. Before she left she whispered something into my ear,
“Protection for thee from the highest, from the heart, from a father's love, from all above, so shall it be.”
Then she kissed my forehead and walked out of the room.
I had lay still in bed, enjoying the warmth of my blankets. I peeked at the mirror out of the corner of my eye. Immediately, I shut them and chanted in my head that it had been a nightmare, yet I couldn’t trick myself and I knew what I saw was real. Slowly, I opened my eyes and this time what I saw made my heart stop. The man in the mirror was back.
His small beady eyes violated my big, innocent ones and he grinned from ear to ear. He had reached his hand out and beckoned me to come closer. Although terrified, my curiosity got the best of me, and soon I had found myself sitting directly in front of the mirror. I heard a low, insidious laugh, but his mouth had stayed in the same sinister grin.
All of a sudden, his skin started to smoke and sizzle. A bright, orange flame broke out on his right arm that traveled down his body and back up, finally reaching his face. For the first time that night, he seemed scared. He tried banging on the mirror, but I heard nothing. A man burned alive in front of my very eyes that night. However, his silent screams meant nothing to me; I felt a deranged fascination in seeing his death, something I probably got from my troubled mother. His flesh bubbled and popped till it finally melted away, leaving behind a skull and bones. Even then, the flames didn’t die away till all that was left of the mystery man was a pile of ashes. I clutched at my jewel and willed myself to not scream.
That was the last night I ever saw my mother. My father told me she was sick and delusional, that she had escaped to a place where people could help her, yet I could see the lie hidden behind my young father’s eyes. I feared my mother was dead, but some small part of me made myself believe what my father said was true.
From that point on I have always stayed away from mirrors at night, but when I do happen to come near one I get to see a new person’s death flash before my eyes. And as sick and twisted as it is to watch, I can’t help watching the mirrors; the dying people intrigue me. I get a thrilling high after watching them. Sometimes I find myself wondering if maybe I’m sick and delusional like my mother. I have come to the realization that both she and my father have been hiding something from me when I saw my mother in my bedroom mirror a couple nights ago.
