The Intruder of my Reflection

All she could do was stare into that mirror. That damn mirror.

It haunted her, she didn’t even want it and yet she was stuck with it. Everytime she tried to get rid of it, it showed up once again. Breaking it was a waste, it might as well have been made of diamonds because it would not break no matter how hard she tried.

She couldn’t even remember where she had bought it. In fact she was sure that she never did, but it just appeared. It was ugly anyways, something she would not waste her money on. It was a normal sized mirror, hung on the wall of her bedroom, taunting her. It’s black frame designed with symbols she had never seen before.

“Just throw it away if you hate it so much.” Her friend laid on the bed, head hanging off as she popped her bubble gum.

“Don’t you think I tried? It just comes back. I don’t know if someone is bringing it back in here but I hate it.” She threw her heel to the glass, but it didn’t even leave a mark.

“Why do you even hate it? It’s just a mirror. A little ugly but you never had the best taste in home decor.” Her friend chuckled before sitting up and making her way off the bed. She walked towards the mirror, taking her gum out and rubbing it on the glass. 

It wasn’t just the mirror, it was what she saw. 

When she had first found the mirror in her room she thought nothing of it. A bit strange it had just shown up but she figured her roommates or friends had left it there as a gift, or as trash they didn’t want. She didn’t want to offend anyone, so she kept it, hanging it up in her room. It wasn’t until later that she found out it belonged to no one, but by then it had already chosen its place.

She tried to accept anyways, after finding it was a gift from no one, but she came to regret this. 

Every time she looked in that mirror, she saw a man. Not an old man, but a young adult, around her age perhaps. He carried a bouquet of flowers and only showed up for her. She couldn’t tell anyone, when she tried they marked it up to sleep deprived hallucinations.

“College student brain, don’t make me put you in a pillow room weirdo.” Her bubble gum popping friend had no belief in her. She cracked a few more jokes before blowing it off, even with her in tears.

Some days, he would write to her, in a different mood depending on her actions. If she had tried to throw it away he would just write ‘why’. When she would try to break it he wouldn’t show up, but rather leave a dead flower in the reflection. She could never figure out what it meant but she tried almost every day. Sitting in a library, going through books of the supernatural, about mirrors, alternate universes, anything relating to the strange happenings occurring in her room. Some nights she would spend her time analyzing each symbol and marking she could find on the frame, avoiding her reflection or any eye contact with the glass by taping newspapers all over.

After weeks of what felt like her going crazy, she felt like giving up. She could try to keep living with the mirror, keeping it covered on her wall. Eventually she could save up to move, leaving it to be a problem of the next poor soul who has to deal with it. This, however, isn’t as easy as it sounded. She couldn’t stand being in the same room as it, feeling the weird and negative energy radiating from its spot. Her heart would race when she had to walk by it, sleep was hard when it felt like you weren’t alone. Some nights, she thought she would hear talking from behind, although it sounded soft and muffled under the papers.

“I can’t stand it. It feels like I am in the same room as some intruder, except there is a thin barrier of paper between us that can be torn down any minute.” She tried to explain to her friend, laying on the couch as she couldn’t sleep the night before.

“Maybe it is all in your head? I have never heard anything from your room and I have looked in that mirror before.” Her friend sighed, sitting on the couch to keep her company. “You said you heard it? Talk back, get some information, if you really have such a problem with it.

Perhaps she was right, maybe she needed to communicate with it, get some information on what it wanted so she could get it to leave her alone. The next few days she spent sitting in the library, looking at every book she could on how to safely handle this. She knew what she was doing was dangerous and that one wrong move could worsen her situation, but she was desperate for help. Her nights would be spent sitting in her living room and googling every article she could about spirits, figuring out what to expect when talking to them, although it was hard to research a topic not a lot of people believed.

Finally, she felt it was time.

She left to her room, her roommates all tucked away in their beds and sleeping peacefully. Her heart was racing, she felt like backing out and just continuing to spend the rest of her time sleeping anywhere but her bed. However, she continued on, pushing through with her plans. With a small exact-o knife she cut a tiny hole into the paper, hoping she could hear the muffled voice better with a small passageway. 

Terrified, she began to talk to it. 

“Hello?” Silence. She didn’t know if she actually wanted it to talk back or if she wanted to be left in a one-sided conversation. “Are you in there? I’m just looking to talk, get some answers from you?” 

After a long moment of silence, she decided to give up, maybe it wasn’t actually talking and her friend was right, it was all in her head. She felt crazy, maybe she did need to get help of some sort, maybe all of this was something going on with her. As she got up to leave her room, still feeling unsafe in the area, a voice called out to her.

“Loriella” 

The girl stopped in place, her breath stopping as she heard the voice. It was no hallucination, but a sound clear as day. Her hands began to shake, her vision getting blurry as she waited for it to continue, wishing it had said anything but her name.

“Loriella, my love.” The voice sounded soft, kind, like a trap luring her closer. It made her feel entranced, as if she had no choice but to continue this conversation.

She lowered herself to the ground, sitting on the floor as she stared deeply into the hole she had cut. “Who are you?” was all she could ask the man in the mirror.

The aura in the room felt different, it was not any better, but it felt so alluring to her. Perhaps this is what the mirror wanted, her. Maybe the mirror had been waiting for her to talk first.

“I have been waiting for you. Since the day I died I have waited for someone like you.” Loriella began to smile, feeling flutters in her stomach at his words. It was strange, as if in her head she was terrified and wanted to flee, but her body could only go closer.

“Why me?” She tried to push for answers, hoping to get clarity as she has wanted for so long.

“I died years ago, to the hands of someone who I thought was the love of my life. After our wedding day she had murdered me, taking my fortune and running off with my brother. It was devastating to watch. Since then I have been wallowing in the mirror, wasting away. Then you moved in, I had seen you in the attic, where I had been sitting, tossed in the corner. I was amazed by you.” 

The memories of the event he explained came back to her, an old mirror thrown in the corner as she tossed boxes of stuff she considered useless into the dark room. If she knew those months ago that she would be living this way now, all because she lost a game of rock paper scissors to clean the leftover boxes, she wouldn’t have thrown rock.

“I tried giving you flowers, but you rejected me at every turn. It hurt, but you were worth it, for now you made the first move.” The mirror began to glow and Loriella snapped out of her daze, the fear rushing back. She backed up quickly, trying to get out through the door, only for it to be locked. Did the man do it?

“Let me out, please. Whatever you are doing, I do not want to be stuck with you.” She shook the door handle, the mirror shaking intensely. 

Loriella tried to escape, tried to run. She began banging on the door, yelling for her roommates, but to no avail. Her eyes began to fill with tears as the newspaper started peeling off of the glass, falling on the floor of her room. All she could do was cry as she tried to open the door, wishing it would somehow unlock.

“Don’t leave me Loriella, just listen to my voice and be with me.” 

The glass shattered, and what felt like chaos stopped. The room was silent, the only noise being the sniffling of a scared woman, now sitting on the floor, laying her head on the locked door. Suddenly, as she thought it was all over, footsteps emerged in the silence. She wished it was her roommates coming to check on her, however that was too optimistic. Her eyes were shut tight, wanting to pretend she didn’t know exactly who was now standing right in front of her.

“Hello there, Loriella.”