The Monster In The Mirror

Submitted into Contest #99 in response to: End your story with somebody stepping out into the sunshine.... view prompt

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Horror Thriller Suspense

I no longer fear monsters because I am one. I don’t need a bed to hide under, or even a closet. I do however stalk from the shadows. Just one look into my seductive eyes and you will do anything I say or give me anything I want. Just a sip of your blood, or maybe your life. And you would be foolish enough to hand it over, just to please me because I can not be resisted. Whatever it takes to satisfy my hunger. What a vile creature I have become. 

Unfamiliar angry red eyes stared back at me from the mirror. They were not the clear blue ones that I was used to seeing. It was my reflection that looked back at me, but at the same time it wasn’t. I hated what I saw. This is not what I had wanted for myself. With an inhuman growl I punched the infernal mirror. Blood seeped from the jagged cuts in my knuckles until my skin magically knit itself back together before my eyes as if the act of aggression never took place.

Only the sun can destroy me now, this revolting thing that I am. I would spontaneously burst into flame with the slightest ray of sunlight. Burn me to a crisp until everything that I am turned to ash. I would blow away in the wind as if I never existed at all. And that is what I deserve for the things I have done.

It all started on the night that I died. At the age of 23 I had my whole life ahead of me, until I didnt. Late one night I was walking home from a party at a friend's house, my cheeks still warm with alcohol. I crossed the street and was struck violently by a car, probably coming from the same party that I was. There I layed on the pavement, bleeding, as the car sped away from the crime. It could have been minutes or even hours that I spent laying there, delirious from pain. I couldn’t move my legs, or my arms for that matter. I came to the realization that even if someone came to help me, I was done for. If only this blinding pain would end. 

A man with long black sleek hair appeared in my line of vision over me. He had very attractive features and icy blue eyes. 

“Help me” I struggled to say. 

“Do you want to live?” he said, studying me curiously. 

Wanting nothing but to be out of this terrible pain I nodded my head not knowing that my life was already over. 

“Drink” he said, pressing something warm and wet to my lips which I drank greedily and then I knew darkness. 

I came back to awareness knowing nothing but hunger. 

“Welcome to the afterlife.” my saviour said when I opened my eyes. He wore a devilish grin on his face. 

“Water.” I said, clutching my throat. It burned and I needed to make it stop. My eyes scanned the room for something to drink. Spotting a sink I stuck my head under the tap and I drank and drank the water that flowed from it. No matter how much I drank, the burning continued and I began to panic. 

“You’ll find that is not going to help you dear. But this will.” the strange yet beautiful man said suddenly beside me, handing me a drink. 

I grabbed it from him and drank eagerly. I soothed the fire within me instantly. He stroked my hair gently and watched me drink intently. The drink was dark and thick and I had no idea what it was, not that I cared at that moment. I would have drank gasoline if it meant feeling this satisfied. 

Now that I could think clearly without the terrible thirst I started to remember the things that had taken place prior to me being here. The blinding headlights. The sound of a car honking. The cold hard unforgiving pavement. The pain. The terror. 

How was I even alive right now, standing and feeling perfectly fine? Better than fine in fact. I looked around the room that I was in and it was unfamiliar to me. It was a small open concept apartment. It was dim and cold. How have I gotten here? 

“This is my home, it is your home now too.” He spoke, answering my questioning eyes.

“And you just drank, is your new source of life.” he went on. 

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He turned me around to face the sofa that was behind us. On it a woman laid on her back. Her eyes were frozen in shock and her throat was covered in blood. She wasn’t breathing. 

Fear gripped me and a scream ripped through my mouth. 

“Now, now.” the man said gently as if he was talking to a child. “You will get used to it, in time”

I tore myself out of the apartment and down the hall as fast as I could in utter horror.

“When you come to your senses you’ll know where to find me.” I heard whispered in my ear as I ran. 

I ran and I ran as fast as I could. Faster than humanly possible. I soon came to know what I truly was now. A monster. A killer. A murderer. 

I tried to survive on my own in the shadows. I quickly discovered that my body would kill for blood even if I did not want to. I learned to hate myself. No one deserved to die for me. I was a wretched thing. 

I live every day with a pain deeper than my bones. Something has to be done, I can not go on this way. 

But soon the sun will rise. And burn away my pain. And everything that I am. Until I am nothing but dust. For I truly died on that road that night. 

As the sunlight began to hit my skin, I exhaled. I will right the wrong I created by becoming this thing, as I stood in the sunlight for the very last time. 

June 25, 2021 01:26

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