In the Mirror
I was on my bed, playing a Wii game, only half-listening to the sounds of my mother trying to navigate our old computer and my grandmother flipping through game shows and soap operas. Suddenly, the lights started to flicker. I sighed and rolled over, opening my mouth to shout something nasty at the lights, when my grandmother cut over me.
"Samantha! Come downstairs, please!"
I snapped my mouth shut at her tone. Saving my game, I scrambled down the stairs and into the living room. The moment my foot passed over the threshold, the lights went out. I heard my grandmother stand up and walk to the bathroom, the movement of her passing blowing my loose hairs slightly. I frowned. It was too dark to see anything; how was she walking around so easily?
My grandmother screamed. "No! Don't come out of the mirror! Not yet!"
I felt my mom's hand grab my arm in the dark, and she dragged me into the bathroom. We stepped through the doorway and the lights flicked back on, revealing my grandmother on the verge of tears, curled up on the floor.
I looked at the mirror and thought I saw a face glaring down at my grandmother, but when I blinked, there was no sign of anything strange.
I stayed downstairs, too uneasy to head back upstairs. My grandmother was absently playing with the remote, her eyes darting to the bathroom; I watched over the edge of my book. Finally, she stood up.
"I'm...going to wash my hands," she said.
As soon as her back was turned, I shot my mom a glance across the room and padded softly after her.
I heard her words, a sing-song chant, before I could turn the corner. "You can come out tonight. Then we'll all be happy!" she was saying.
I heard her wrench the mirror of the wall and came around the doorway in time to see her smash it against the floor. The lights went out again, and she screamed, and I dove for her, my feet crunching painfully on the broken glass.
A few seconds later, we could see again. What I was holding made me drop my grandmother and shrink away.
Instead of her gentle blue eyes, black orbs filled her sockets. She stared at me and chills ran down my spine. Her finger lifted and pointed to the mirror on the opposite wall.
"It's coming," she whispered. "Don't look into the mirror. It's...in the...mirror..."
And she toppled over, dead.
