Do Not Look

Chapter 12

The sound was from inside the mirror! It had well carved and ornately decorated frame. The mirror looked old and was cracked a little at the bottom left, probably when it was placed here roughly or something. Sandra covered her nose with the left hand and wiped the dust off the mirror with her right.

In there, looking back at her was not her reflection, but the little girl. She looked happy and fresh. There was no black eye, she looked like a normal young girl gushing out sweet innocence like all others of her age. She was trying to tie her hair into a pony but it would not reach.
Sandra smiled. She gazed at the room, she could see a bed, a table with cushioned chairs, some toys strewn on the floor. She shot a sideways glance and immediately recognized that some of the furniture kept here in the basement was from this room.

"So this place is here?! In this inn?"

The girl was still having a hard time doing it by herself. Sandra looked closely and spotted a calendar hung on the door of one of the cupboards. The date was approximately 2 months back from now. And there was a window with white curtains facing outside, it looked like night time.

Wait! This room! It was where I stayed, the one in the first floor!

Before she could absorb the thought, the door opened slowly and in rushed a woman, most likely in her early 30s. Her hands were stained red.

"She must be the mother," Sandra mused when she saw the girl run to her. But the woman, she looked scared to death, she was crying. She locked the door behind her carefully, as if she didn't want to make any sound. She hugged her daughter tight and was telling her something. The little girl immediately crouched below the bed and hid there. The mother then seemed to place a chair in the centre of the room, stand on it and was reaching up to something in the ceiling. In a few moments, everything went dark!

" She must have removed the bulb," Sandra thought. She was tensed, she could feel sweat dribbling down her temples. It was pitch black, there wasn't  even moonlight. Maybe it was the new moon. She was worried for the mother and her child, though she did know that they couldn't have had a happy ending.

Amidst all her deliberations, the door was flung open, she could see someone's shadow enter the darkness and close the door behind him.

Dark again...
A matchstick was lit and she saw the man's face.. Michael!! But not the same. He had bloodshot eyes overflowing with hatred.  He looked mechanical, like following someone else's commands. He was carrying something in his other hand but it was still too dark to see. He moved out of view of the mirror.
Darkness again as his matchstick ran out.
Then there was light in the room, Michael returned in view with a candle. It was a horrendous sight! There was blood all over his shirt, and face. His eyes were hungry and spitting evil! And she saw what he held in his other hand, an axe! Dripping some poor soul's blood.

".........My father passed away 2 months ago......"

"So he killed him, he killed his own father!"
Sandra let out a silent prayer for the two frightened bodies clinging to their life under that bed. She could never imagine what state they must have been then. And it happened, the saddest thing ever, Michael looked under the bed! He started slashing with his axe, but someone pulled it away from his hand, the mother. He then reached in and pulled the little girl out. Sandra watched in terror as he threw the struggling little girl, his own daughter out of the window, not a hint of guilt in his eyes.

"Noooo!!!", Sandra screamed.

She could see the mother crawl out from beneath the bed, she had slash marks allover her back and one of her limbs was almost cut at the thigh and she was bleeding profusely. Weak but furious, scared but devastated she aimed at Michael with the axe held in her one hand. She swung with whatever little strength she had in her. But Michael turned just in time to see and dodged her blow. The candle slipped of his hand and fell to the floor, dimming the light.

" Oh God!", Sandra gasped as she gripped the sides of the mirror, "Why Michael? Why?!!!"

There was a pause, which seemed like eternity before Michael lifted up the candle again. Sandra cried loudly, streams of tears flowed uncontrollably down her cheeks. He turned around towards the door.

And in that fling of the candle around, it shed some meagre light to the far corner of the room close to the door, which was previously pitch dark to see. There, squatting on its legs, hands folded, was a shadow with red blazing eyes! Something was growing out of the two sides of its head.... horns?! It was looking directly at her, piercing through the glass as if it could see her watching through the mirror!

"S-a-t-a..!!!", Sandra couldn't complete her words. The mirror started to crack spreading from the previous small one. As it destroyed the mirror further, Sandra moved back in shock, but caught sight of the Devil himself grinning at her from the other side!