The Other Her

Jenna sighed as she printed out another set of documents. When she was a full-time treating physical therapist, her day was rarely tedious. Every patient she got to treat was different and the fast pace prevented her from being bored in any way. To her manner of thinking, there was nothing better than being able to help transform a head-injured victim back into a more normal reflection of themselves. She adored making them stronger, training better balance, and having them learn to walk again. Together with her team of other disciplines including Occupational Therapy and Speech-Language Pathology there were times when they seemed to work miracles as a group.

She sighed again as she signed off on a purchase requisition. After placing it in the interoffice mail, she moved to work on the payroll for the last two weeks. A strand of dull blonde hair fell forward into her vision field. She pushed it back over her left ear automatically. As she massaged the numbers on the spreadsheet, her thoughts wandered. She thought that perhaps she needed a miracle. Since accepting the promotion to Director, her life felt like a blur with no moments of clarity for herself. She was in the hospital by 07:00 every morning and often didn’t leave until after 18:00. She missed sunshine, especially since the daylight savings time change. She awoke and arrived in the dark and she left to go home in the dark. Her dog was always glad to see her and that brought on new levels of guilt for leaving Bella, her fur-baby, alone for so many hours. She desperately needed some “me” time.

Having finished the paperwork for the day, she completed two more corporate meetings and finally exited the building. In the dark. Alone. Again.

The alarm blared at 05:30 from her cell phone. The upbeat song rang out five times a week. Her hand automatically reached for and pressed the snooze button on the side. She stayed under the warm covers for another ten minutes. When the jangling music began again, she reached for her bedside table and shut it down. She pushed off the warmth of the blankets and stumbled towards a hot shower. Her favorite scent of brown sugar and fig lifted from the steam as she scrubbed up for another day. Her senses began to wake under the hot water, and she felt the fog lifting from her brain. She stretched luxuriously and inhaled deeply as she finished rinsing her hair and skin.

Having dried her body with a huge, fluffy, blue towel, and wrapping her hair in another, she turned to the vanity to brush her teeth and prepare for another day. She primed her toothbrush and as she allowed the sonic vibrations to clean her teeth, she wiped the excess moisture from the mirror. As her left hand moved back and forth across the glass, she caught an unexpected movement in the reflection. She stopped cold and turned to look behind her to see what had disturbed her sight. She saw Bella wagging her large, golden tail as she lay on the tile. That was probably it.

She finished her teeth, followed up with peppermint mouthwash and continued her morning routine. She ran a wide toothed comb through her wet locks and clipped them behind her head as she prepped her face. She reached for her moisturizer and there it was again!

Jenna turned quickly and looked for Bella, but she had moved back into the bedroom. She turned to face the mirror again and before she was fully facing it, she noticed that her reverse image was smiling; she wasn’t!

She stifled a scream with a quick hand over her mouth as her image laughed. There was no sound from the glass. As suddenly as she saw the image, it was gone! She stared at herself for a moment with fear in her eyes and her hand over her mouth. Her brain was stuck in fight or flight mode, and she could feel the adrenaline coursing through her system. Her stomach flipped, her skin covered itself in bumps, and her temperature alternated between hot and cold rapidly. Her feet felt heavy as if she was rooted into the tile. She continued to stare as her hand lowered, her rapid breathing slowed, and she calmed a bit.

She finished her morning ablutions without seeing it again. By lunch that day, she had convinced herself that she was probably still slightly groggy and had imagined it. By the time she left work it was not even a thought in the back of her mind.

As she walked through the front door, Bella greeted her with her usual gusto! Jumping and licking with soft “buff” noises expressing her happiness at their reunion. She dropped her backpack in the seat of the closest chair, kicked off her shoes and had a rousing snuggle with Bella on the sofa. After a brief game of fetch with Bella’s favorite stuffed duck, she meandered into the kitchen and prepped a microwave bowl of macaroni and cheese and fed Bella as she waited for the final beep. She turned on her television and lost herself in a few episodes of Two and a Half Men. After today, she needed easy watching and humor.

At 20:00, she stood and stretched as Bella rose from the floor to join her for a night of warm snuggles. She undressed from her scrubs and headed to the bathroom to wash her face. Jenna placed her dirty clothes in the hamper and moved towards the vanity to undo what she had done in the early hours of the day. She turned on the hot tap and reached for a face cloth. As she turned back, she saw herself move differently again! Rather than moving directly to fear, she was filled with curiosity. She watched, entranced, as her reflection reached to the crown of her head with both hands. As she moved her hands downward, her hair went from a dull blonde to a beautiful combination of platinum with warm flaxen lowlights. It was as if she were seeing herself in a beauty magazine! She was so completely fascinated by the change that she never thought about the other worldly event unfolding before her.

More quickly than a flash of lightning during a spring storm, the image disappeared. Slowly, she returned to herself as the steam from the running hot water lifted from the sink. She wet her face cloth, washed her face, and stepped lightly, almost trance-like, back into the bedroom. As she leaned back into the soft pillows and pulled the blankets up, Bella backed into her like a little spoon and snuggled against her. Bella placed her sweet face onto her right arm and huffed as her warm body relaxed into the arms of her momma. Both drifted into sleep; Bella into wonderful dreams of her momma running with her in warm sunshine and chasing rabbits. Jenna fell into images of herself looking as good as she did in the mirror. Her subconscious began making plans.

She awoke with a very different mindset. As she faced the mirror today, she actively looked forward to what it would show her. This morning, Johnna (she named the alter-her) showed her how to apply her normally sparse makeup. When she finished, she looked like a model! With dull, dirty, sallow hair.

She called her boss and opted to take a half-day off. She then called one of the more upscale salons in her little town and was lucky enough to get an almost immediate appointment. When Jenna walked out, she was simply amazed! She looked, and felt, like a totally different person. As she walked into the hospital, she caught the eye of everyone she passed. She felt noticed for the first time in a very long time. She decided to cruise through the therapy gym on her way to her office. All but two of the other team members were there. They all “oohed” and “ahhed” as she bashfully fawned in the attention. While it felt good, she certainly wasn’t accustomed to it.

The rest of the day went amazingly well for a change. She almost felt reborn.

Over the next several weeks, Johnna showed her the colors that looked best on her, which clothes to wear when not in scrubs, convinced her to go for a massage and many other things. She had completely dismissed her fear of Johnna and no longer found it odd to see her.

Until this morning.

She awoke anxious to see what she would learn this morning! Following her shower and usual morning routine, she wiped the moisture from the mirror and saw Johnna stumble in her reflection. There was blood all over her! Jenna's fear response resurfaced, and she once again stifled a scream. Johnna was smiling. Behind Johnna, in the mirror was a body. Jenna didn’t immediately recognize it because the face was turned away. The blood, though!! There were huge pools of blood coming from its head, torso, legs, literally everywhere! She continued to watch in horrified fascination as Johnna moved slowly backwards. She moved in an unnerving manner; almost as if the mirrored world was glitching. Johnna's body shuddered and shook as she inched closer and closer to the dead body behind her. Then, she jerkily produced a knife from behind her and grinned. The kind of grin that never reaches your eyes. Almost as if she were growling through clenched teeth. In fact, Jenna could see spittle flying from her teeth and saliva dripping from her bottom lip. She herself took a horrified step backwards. Johnna stepped backwards over the body and grabbed it by the hair and slowly turned the limp head towards her.

Jenna turned deathly white and passed out.

She awoke to a very wet and very rough facial being given by Bella. The dog whimpered and whined. In all the years she had been with her momma, Bella had never seen her fall or sleep in the bathroom. Jenna sat up slowly and began to pet Bella so she would quiet. She was terrified to look back into her mirror. She sat there on the tile until she had worked up the courage to do so.

Standing slowly, Jenna saw the scene was still there. Johnna holding the head of her boss. Once again, she froze as she saw his face. Then something new occurred she had never experienced before. Johnna spoke.

“Bring me. His head. Sacrifice him. To me. Or. This all. Goes away.”

Jenna shook her head mightily back and forth as she took it all in. Johnna’s voice was deep and gravely. It sounded as though she had swallowed mud and none of it came back up. She heard a cacophony of sound as if 100s of deep voices had been stirred together and then regurgitated from the bowels of the earth. They resonated in the air, off the glass, bouncing around the room and through her mind.

Jenna gathered her wits about her. She stood on her naked feet and ran to the bedroom. She slipped on her tennis shoes, grabbed her keys, quickly leashed Bella, and took her outside. She opened her car and got Bella situated. On her way back into the house, she entered through the garage door, and grabbed her favorite softball bat from high school. Running as fast as she could through the maze of her home, Jenna entered the bathroom, saw the sneer, and twisted smile on Johnna’s face and squared up. As Johnna started to snarl in that awful, terrible, demonic voice, Jenna swung for the fences!

The mirror shattered into thousands of pieces! Glass shards flew all over the room as if a small bomb had gone off. Jenna turned and shielded her eyes as particles of Johnna rained down on the tile and bounced from every surface. When she finally heard the last pieces fall, she looked up. She was gone. No sign that Johnna had ever existed.

Nevertheless, she rushed from the house and jumped in her waiting vehicle. Bella welcomed her with woofs and wags, and she zoomed out of the driveway! She had never been very religious, but she sped towards town and the first Catholic church she could find!

Her breathing calmed. Her heart slowed. Her eyes cleared. Her thoughts began to unclench inside her mind. Her right hand stroked Bella in the passenger seat as scenery flew by both sides of the SUV. She finally made it to the on-ramp of the interstate headed into town. As she checked her left side mirror to safely merge, she saw dead-looking eyes rise from the bottom of the glass!

She screamed for what seemed an eternity as her left hand jerked the wheel into oncoming traffic! The semi-truck swerved hard right to avoid the collision, but it was too late. Moving at over 70 miles per hour, the truck smashed into the SUV, and it practically disintegrated on impact.

The screaming stopped.

As the Coroner took Jenna’s body and Animal Control collected the remains of Bella, a paramedic firefighter walked past the vehicle. He wasn’t sure if it was the metal on the asphalt, but he heard something akin to laughter. Deep, dark laughter.