As I wiped off the steam from my bathroom mirror, I saw the most horrifying image I’d ever seen in my life. There was a little girl staring back at me as if she was me. When I jumped up startled, she jumped up startled. When I backed away, she backed away. But that wasn’t the scariest part.

It was her eyes. They were as black as night, and her eyebrows narrowed at me, as if concentrating on something. All of a sudden, my arms began to twitch uncontrollably, and my legs locked into place. Her lips began to part, and a black liquid oozed from the sides of her mouth. Her head started to shake, and as her eyes rolled to the back of her head, she began to cry out tears of blood. She let her long, knotted hair fall into her face, and her image began to flicker as if she were beginning to disappear.

I broke away from the trance, and walked up closer to the mirror. “GO AWAY!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. The little girl didn’t even react. She just responded to my little outburst with I slight smile.

My heart felt as if it was about to leap out of my chest. I could feel the beat go throughout my entire body. It pounded harder and harder by the second. I closed my eyes as tightly as I could. “GO AWAY!” I screamed again so loudly, my voice actually strained and cracked.

The feeling of the little girls’ presence subsided, and the hairs on the back of my neck rested back onto my damp skin. As I opened my eyes, I could see my own reflection again. But something was different about it. I looked as strange to myself now as the little girl did.

My eyes were wide, and alert from the fright. All around them were blotches of red. The frown line around my mouth had intensified, and so did the bags under my eyes. It made me look a lot older than I actually was. And I could have sworn that I saw a gray hair in my bangs.

I’ve got to get out of here, I thought to myself. I quickly dried the remaining water off of myself and ran to my bedroom. I picked up the clothes that I had laid out on my bed and threw them on. It was a pair of skinny jeans, a tight, plain black sweater, and a brown pair of boots. I never even bothered looking in the mirror.

I ran down the stairs of my apartment as fast as I could, and headed towards the key rack, only to discover that they weren’t there. Where had I put them? I ran around the house, twice, looking for the keys that I always seemed to misplace. After looking through the couch cushions, my bedroom (and practically destroying it in the process), and checking through my jacket pockets, I decided that I would just have to walk. Walking in the middle of the night was probably a lot safer than staying here, anyway.

Throwing on my leather jacket, and a black scarf, I walked out the door, preparing myself for the cold, winter night.





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*

As I walked down the ally, I could feel the fear creeping into me. I made sure I never let go of my cell phone, or pepper spray. I already knew where I was going. It would only take me few minutes to get there.

I remembered that, as a child, whenever something went wrong, I would walk up to the old cathedral, and I would just stay there for the night. And that’s exactly what I was doing now.

Once I finally reached the place, I walked into the sanctuary, and nelt beside the altar. There was a list of things I wanted to say to God, but couldn’t quite get them out yet, because I was still thinking about the little girl. What was she? Was she just a lost soul trying to get the other side? Was she just there to torture me? Before I could ask him anything, a priest interrupted me. He was still dressed up in his robe, even though it was probably after one o’clock already.

He had a full head of brown hair, which was rare for the priests here. Most of them were aging, and getting to be in their seventies. But, the man in front of me didn’t look to be a day over twenty-five. And he wasn’t just any normal priest. He was my best friend; at least, he was when we were growing up.

I was a little ashamed of myself from not visiting him for in a while, but I hadn’t been to the church in years, and that was where he always was now, seeing it was his job. He looked at me with his dark brown eyes.

“Rachel?” he asked as he stepped a little closer. “Is that you?”

I lowered my head, not wanting him to see me like this. I was on the break of tears.

“What’s wrong? Why are you shaking?”

I hadn’t even noticed I was shaking, and him bringing it up made me shake even more. He sat beside me on the alter and held my shoulders awkwardly. Taking a few deep breaths, I calmed myself enough to look back at him.

“I saw something.”

His eyes narrowed. “What did you see?”

“I saw…a spirit…or a ghost…or…something.”

He looked at me, confused. “I don’t understand”

I took a deep breath and continued. “I looked into a mirror, and I saw a little girl, instead of my reflection. Something wasn’t right about her. She was…evil.” I looked up at him, and he froze.

“What is it?” I asked.

“You are the third person who has talked about this.”

In a weird way, this gave me hope.

I wasn’t crazy. It really happened. I just needed to find the other people this happened to, and see what they knew. And who the little girl was.

“Who were they? You know, the people?”

He had a scared expression on his face, and looked as if he didn’t want to say what he knew.

“What?” I asked, getting impatient.

“All the people who talked to me about it are…dead.”