Reflection

Today has to be the most boring day of my life. My parents are both obsessed with vintage furniture and art. They decided to drag me to an auction and so far they are both unsatisfied with the items. They haven’t bid on anything yet so I’m hoping we could leave soon. It turns out I’m wrong, the minute my mother sees it she almost jumps out of her chair. The item is a vintage mirror. It is about the size of a door and the border around the glass is worn but it makes it look pretty cool. The border is some sort of carving even though it is metal. The carvings look like angels or people. It kind of creeps me out. I thought this one would just be avoided like the rest but my parents immediately start bidding on it. When no one else bids and my parents’ number is called they start cheering. I just sit there staring at them like both of them have two heads.

About two days later, the mirror was delivered to our house. Our house isn’t that big and since my parents have an obsession with vintage furniture and art it has a strange style. My parents told me that the mirror was a gift for my birthday. I pretended to be excited or happy but to be honest I didn’t want the mirror. It was kind of scary because it looked so old. My parents brought it upstairs into my room and set it down next to my closet. The mirror was pretty big for my tiny room. The first night I couldn’t sleep. I lay in my bed starring at my reflection in the mirror. It was kind of disturbing so I decided to cover it up. I went down the hall to the linen closet and got a big bed sheet. I then walked back to my room and draped it over the mirror. I had to jump to get it on the top edge because the thing is so tall. I then crawled back into bed and began to drift off to sleep.

The next day I woke up and saw that the bed sheet had fallen to the floor. I decided to leave it there since the mirror only seemed to bother me when I was trying to fall asleep. I went into my closet and got my clothing for the day. After I changed I looked at myself in the mirror. The mirror made me look like I had bags under my eyes and my hair was all gross looking. I thought it was just the lighting. I then went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror and I looked fine. I then went down stairs, ate breakfast, and walked out to the bus that would take me to school.

After I got home from school, I went up to my room to work on my homework. I walked past my mirror to go to my desk when something in my peripheral vision caught my eye. I walked back a few steps and I saw that it was the reflection in the mirror. The image I saw didn’t look like me. It reminded me of a scarier version of myself. The creature I saw had torn clothes, dirty thin hair, and dark holes in its head where the eyes would be. It seemed to move the same movements as I did. I blinked and rubbed my eyes to see if my mind was deceiving me. When I looked up, I saw my normal self. That was a bit strange but I have been working pretty late with my homework and all so I just decided that I needed to get more sleep.
After I finished my homework, ate dinner, and got ready for bed, I remembered to cover up the mirror with the bed sheet. I had fallen asleep fairly quickly but something made me stir from my sleep. It was 2 in the morning and I thought I heard a sound of some sort. It sounded like a child wining. I got up and walked around. It seemed to be coming from somewhere else in the house. I got up and walked around trying to follow the noise but it led me nowhere. At one point I was standing in the entryway of the house which is right next to the stairs. I heard the whining and it came from up stairs. I thought I was wrong because before I heard it down stairs. As I walked up the stairs the whining got louder and louder. The sound seemed to be moving through the house. As I neared my room the whining was more like screams and crying. I got near the mirror and the screaming was so loud my ears started to ring. I thought to myself, “how could this not wake my parents”? I was now standing right in front of the mirror and I reached for the bed sheet. I didn’t know why I did; it felt like I wasn’t doing it, like I had no control over what my body was doing. I felt possessed. I reached for the bed sheet and the second I pulled the sheet off of the mirror, the screaming stopped. I didn’t see my reflection, I started to scream because all I saw in the reflection was a creature with white flesh that was peeling off and there was blood dripping down its arms and legs. It had deep black pits where its eyes would be and its mouth was black. What really scared me was that the creature looked like a girl, it looked like me. I suddenly woke up. I was sitting up straight in my bed screaming at the top of my lungs. My parents came in with worried faces and asked what was wrong. I couldn’t answer I just sat there staring straight ahead, straight at my reflection in the mirror. After a while, I calmed down and my parents comforted me, then they went back to their bed. Right as I was closing my eyes, I remembered something. Before I went to bed I put the bed sheet over the mirror. I opened my eyes and saw that the sheet was gone. All I saw was the scary girl that looked a little like me, lying in her dirty beat up bed the same way I was lying in mine, starring back at me with the dark black pits in her head. I turned my back to the mirror and just lay there all night. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to sleep the rest of the night.

I lay there for hours, not thinking, just breathing. As the moon goes down and the sun comes up I’m still wide-awake. I feel like a dead person, my body is so tired from the lack of sleep, but I’m so fearful to close my eyes that I refuse. My alarm goes off signaling for me to get up. As I sit up in bed, I try to resist looking at the mirror but something causes me to turn my head. I’m now staring at the same dead looking girl who resembles me. Everything in the reflection looks like my room but it looks older and grosser, or more beat up.

After I get dressed, eat breakfast, and get my schoolbooks together, I walk out of my room. Right as I put one foot outside of my doorway I hear something. It’s like a whisper saying, “wait”. I kept walking, but then I heard it again. It was the same volume as before and it sounded like it was right behind me. I just ignored it and kept walking, but when I reached the bottom of the stairs, I heard it again, “wait”, and it sounded like someone was whispering it in my ear. I quickly whip my head around only to see no one there. I was about to walk out of the house when I heard it again, “wait,” but this time it felt like I said it myself. I just push it out of my mind thinking that my brain is just playing tricks on me because I didn’t sleep. I then walk out of the house and run to the bus.
After school, I felt really run down so I went straight to my room with the intention of going to bed. I didn’t feel like myself. The whole day I felt like I was doing everything absent-mindedly as if I wasn’t doing any of it and someone was doing it for me. I opened my bedroom door and I heard someone say, “come”. I’m confused at first but then I see my reflection in the mirror and the girl who resembles me is talking. As she says, “come”, again I see the flesh on her face shredding and falling away like she is deteriorating. Every second I stand there starring at her it makes me want to go and touch her, just to see if she is real.

I slowly take a step forward. I think I see her smile just a little. She then says, “that’s right, come”. She slowly backs away and it seems like the room I’m in is now invisible. I don’t see anything around me, I don’t hear anything, and I don’t feel anything other than the floor under my feet. I take two more steps but then I can’t move. I feel my surroundings disappearing and then I feel like someone is shaking me. I didn’t realize my eyes were closed until I open them. I see my dad shaking me awake and my mom staring at me with a worried expression. My dad explains to me that he heard a loud thud and that he called my name. When I didn’t answer, he ran up to my room with my mom following him to check on me. He then saw me on the floor, spazzing out. He told me that he heard me murmuring something but told me that he couldn’t make it out.

I then got up off of the ground and stood in front of the mirror. My mom and dad stood behind me, but all I could see in the reflection was the dead looking girl who resembled me. My parents didn’t seem to see anything weird so after they told me to get some sleep, they left. I slept for half of the night but I woke up screaming again and my parents woke up. After they comforted me they left and went back to bed. I had a feeling that I was going to have trouble sleeping for a while.
A month of sleepless nights filled with screaming had past and I was starting to get thinner and more exhausted. I was depressed and I didn’t pay attention in school. All I wanted to do was stay in my room. Every time I would look in the mirror I would see the same girl starring back at me. But she isn’t just staring back at me anymore. She now talks to me. I don’t answer and I try to ignore her. Everywhere I go I hear her voice in my head. Her voice sounds like a child with a hoarse voice. When she screams it sounds like someone is scraping his or her finger nails on a chalkboard. It is the most horrible noise you will ever hear.

One day I came home from school and I walked up to my bedroom. I opened the door and I saw the mirror floating 2 inches off of the floor. It is right in the middle of the room facing me. I look at the girl in the reflection and it seems as if she is crying. I walk over to the mirror and my face is now 3 inches from the glass. I put my hand up and she does the same. I start to move my hand closer and closer to the glass. My hand is now so close to the mirror I can almost feel it. I feel how cold it is. It feels like ice or even colder even though it is eighty degrees outside. I touch the glass and the girl immediately pulls me through the mirror. I start screaming and I throw my arms around trying to get out of her grasp. I start kicking her but she is too strong. I squeeze my eyes shut and then everything is calm. I’m no longer in a dark place; I’m no longer in the girl’s grasp. I’m no longer feeling depressed, I no longer feel lonely. I don’t hear the girl talking.

I open my eyes and see that I am sitting on the ground in front of the mirror. The girl is no longer scary looking with her dirty thin hair, peeling flesh, and shredded clothes. I see myself smiling in the reflection. I stand up and turn to walk away. Right as I am about to step out of my room I hear a voice similar to mine, not the creepy voice I heard before. It says, “Thank you, you have set me free”. I turn around and look at my reflection in the mirror. I realize that it isn’t my reflection. The girl I see in the mirror is happy but she isn’t me. She doesn’t move at first but then she nods, she turns around and walks away, she then vanishes. Then the reflection in the mirror is me, me and only me, not someone else.

The next day everything returns back to normal. I’m sleeping fine and I no longer hear the girl. I don’t see her either. Even though she is gone, I will always remember her as the forgotten spirit.