Doppelganger in the mirror

My name is Milla. Milla Stuart. Today, I went to my friend's house to hang out with them. But when I got there, no one answered the door, and all the lights were off. I left after five minutes because no one was answering, and I only heard the two dogs barking that they have. When I got back to my house, my friends called and told me that they finally got home from grocery shopping and if I still wanted to come over, I could. I refused. I had already gone over there, five minutes late, and they got home after the time they said that they could be ready for everyone to come over. To be honest, my feelings were a little bit hurt. 

But that was okay. I could spend the rest of the day cleaning my house, which really needed a good cleaning. I hadn’t deep cleaned the house in a while. I put on music, and started the kitchen, which surprisingly, was the cleanest part of my house. When I finished the kitchen, I went to the living room. I kept going through the house cleaning it, until I got to my room, which was the worst part of the house, and was probably the worst I had ever seen. As I was cleaning my mirror that I had gotten from my grandmother when she died, I thought I heard someone say my name, but there was no one in the house with me, and nobody but my parents and myself had the key. Besides, the voice didn’t sound like my parents. After a little search of the house to make sure that I REALLY DIDN’T hear the voice, I went back to my room to continue cleaning it. 

As I had said, the mirror was given to me by my grandmother who had died. In her will, she left my parents her house and she left me the mirror and a few thousand dollars. To all of my aunts and uncles, she left some money and some of the things in her house. As far as I know, she had only cleaned it once, and when she did, she was never the same. I would say that something had happened when she cleaned the mirror and she was never the same. She also didn’t look exactly like herself either. Like she had a doppelganger. After a few years, she recovered from whatever it was and was finally acting like herself. I never saw the mirror again until her will was read and I had inherited it. 

I cleaned everything but the mirror, and when I started cleaning it again, I heard the voice again. In a panic, I started to rub the mirror harder, but the voice just got louder. Now I could hear what the voice was saying - actually, it was two voices! One was saying, “Keep cleaning the mirror!”. The other was saying, “My child, don’t clean the mirror!” but was a lot quieter than the other one. I was torn! I needed to clean the mirror, but I didn’t want to keep hearing the voices. 

So I decided to stop cleaning the mirror for a while, and make lunch. I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich with ham inside, with a side of salad consisting of lettuce, cheese, tomatoes from my garden that I have, and a little bit of italian dressing. Afterwards, I watched a movie and then decided to get back to work on the mirror. I started cleaning it again, and the voices came back. 

This time though, I ignored them. The instant I finished cleaning the mirror, it started to glow a brilliant white. When it finally stopped glowing, I gasped in surprise - it seemed that I was looking into the face of a perfect twin that I somehow had and never had. Then I realized that I wasn’t looking into the face of a perfect twin - it was a doppelganger!

We stared at each other for a few minutes, but it felt like a few hours. She kinda shined. When my doppelganger finally spoke, I jumped a little because she sounded just like me, but a little bit changed, like if I was a little bit sick. Then something inside of me finally realized something - my grandmother never cleaned the mirror because if she cleaned it, then her doppelganger would come and it was difficult to put it back into the mirror!

“I am here to replace you,” she said, as she started toward me. I shook my head, still in shock at the fact that I was looking at my doppelganger that wanted to replace me. As I shook my head, she dimmed a little and it seemed that she got a little weaker. ‘Interesting’, I thought. ‘Maybe if I just deny her, then she could go back into the mirror.’ 

“No. You are not going to replace me.” I told her. She dimmed a little bit more. But she laughed all the same, as if she knew what I was thinking. 

“You can’t just defeat me like that. I knew your grandmother. Actually, I WAS her for a few years. She did the same thing - just denied me. It took her YEARS to get me back into the mirror.” my doppelganger replied to me. 

Something inside me told me that what my doppelganger told me was not the case. One of the voices came back to me, saying “Keep denying her child. I will help you get her back into the mirror.” With that encouragement, I just kept saying ‘No, you are not going to replace me.’

After a few hours of my doppelganger and I going back and forth, and she getting weaker, I said the last ‘No, you are not going to replace me,’ and with a brilliant flash of light, she went back into the mirror. I sank down on the floor with a sigh of relief. I looked at the clock, and to my surprise, it was almost ten o’clock! I was exhausted, so I just skipped dinner and went straight to bed. 

The next morning, I woke up at nine-thirty STARVING, and my phone ringing. It was one of my friends who also stayed home the day before. We chatted all morning, and we decided that she would come over to my house to get rid of the mirror for me. After that day, I never saw the mirror again, but I would hear stories about people having a doppelganger from a mirror that sounded, and sometimes looked like the one that my friend got rid of for me. I would get a job at a grocery store and pay off the rest of the money that I owed on my house. I was very glad I never saw the mirror again. I thought that it was kinda ugly anyway.