You get home from school. You are tired. You take a nap.

You get up, sludge across your room to where you had left your phone. You need to work on homework. You dismiss the long to-do list to the back of your foggy brain and lay back down.

Now the lamp light gives you a headache, the natural light having faded away while you were on your phone. You get up, you have no choice, you have homework. You push yourself out of bed, and stagger into the bathroom. You try to wake yourself up by wiping your face with a damp wash cloth. You look up into the mirror. You scream. A strange figure stares back at you where your reflection should be.

              Your heart beats out of control and you run out of the bathroom. The fog on your senses has been torn apart by terror. Too scared to look behind you, you scream again. Someone will hear you; they will save you. On one side of you is your bedroom, the other the staircase. You quickly make your decision and run down the stairs. Too fast; you trip at the bottom, ending up on the floor. You close your eyes and curl into a ball to protect yourself.

              Footsteps pound towards you. What? What’s wrong? A clouded voice asks. You dare to open your eyes and they are caught by the shadowy figure’s. Your vision tunnels to the mirror above you on the wall. The clouded voice comes again; it’s not the figure speaking, though. Hands grab you.

              “What’s wrong?” The voice asks again, becoming clearer and more familiar. You gasp for breath as your fear eases by the presence of another person. You manage to warn them, “There’s someone in the mirrors,” but they shake their head and assure you there is no one there. You look to the mirror again. It is still there, staring down at you, but you do not scream.

              “See, there’s no one there, only you.”