Mirrors

The young girl closed her door softly, making sure not to let the door make too much sound as it closed. She walked farther into her dimly lit room, walking over to the mirror that was held up on one of the walls of her room. Most people would consider this as such a stupid thing to do. After all, legends like this one were never actually true. Legends were just many to intrigue people. In this case, the legend was probably made even to scare people. But Leanna had a strange fascination with the unknown. She loved trying out legends. In the end, most of her experiments led her to the same conclusion…. The legends were just legends. None of it was real. Leanna didn’t expect anything different this time around; she wasn’t even entirely sure why she did this anymore. But even through all the failures, her fascination with these sorts of things persisted.

Leanna’s room didn’t have much light in it; the only light was that of a bedside table lamp. She didn’t want too much light in the room when she did this; she thought it would be more fun without the light and maybe, she’d get better results this way. Maybe even make it scarier perhaps. People always do say that the darkness makes things much scarier and Leanna wanted to have fun tonight before she felt another failure with another fake legend. Letting out a soft sigh, Leanna plopped herself down on the floor in front of the mirror. The mirror hung onto a few inches above the floor, so Leanna could still see her entire form from the short distance she had chosen to sit from the mirror.

Leanna went over the legend again in her head, just to make sure she had everything needed. The legend she was experimenting with tonight was one that had only recently gotten popular online. It dealt with the theory of alternate universes behind mirrors, only this legend told the terrifying story of demons in mirrors. The legend was simple, just confuse your reflection. Pick a hair strand to start and then pick a new one quickly before your reflection can notice, that would confuse it. Many people had tried to claim truth to the story, but everyone had always brushed them off. After all, it was ever so easy to lie on the Internet. They were all probably just lying to try and scare the more gullible denizens of the Internet.

Leanna looked down at the supplies that sat in front of her. Or, should she say, the supply that sat in front of her. Leanna deduced that she would only need one thing for this little experiment, and that was a small ruler. She had to have something to measure the hair with just to see if her reflection would actually pick a shorter or longer piece of hair than she would be holding. She wanted to see if these mirrors really did hold a so-called demon realm within them.

Leanna leaned forward, starring into the eyes of her reflection. Her looks reflected back at her. Her curious blue eyes and her round face surrounded by the blonde hair that fell long over her shoulders. Nothing out of the ordinary here, it was what she saw every time she looked into the mirror.

Leanna’s hands slowly lifted from their position on her knees, finding their way up to her blonde locks. She separated a small group of locks from the rest of her mane, holding them in front of the mirror, watching her reflection follow her every movement. Leanna smirked, her reflection copying her movements. This was by far one of the easiest experiments she’d ever done with a legend. Just pick a strand of hair and measure it. Simple.

With quick movements, Leanna weaved her hand into her small clump of locks, quickly picking out a different strand of hair then she previously had. Picking up the ruler with her other hand, she leaned forward, starring into the questioning eyes of her reflection. She slowly brought the ruler up, holding it in between her hair strand and the one her reflection was holding. The lettering on the ruler was small, it was hard for the young girl to see but after a bit of squinting, she was able to make out what she was trying to read.

Leanna’s eyes widened, her heartbeat quickening. No. This wasn’t possible. The hair couldn’t be shorter. They had to be the same length, legends weren’t real after all! The strands were almost the same length, but Leanna could tell that the one the mirror held was just a bit shorter than the one she held. But that couldn’t be possible, right? This legend was fake, just like every legend Leanna had ever heard on the Internet. It had to be her mind playing tricks on her. Yeah, that was it. The strands were the same length; it was just hard to tell. The mirror was making the strand look shorter. That’s what was going on here.

But despite her constant reassuring she was doing for herself, Leanna couldn’t shake the feeling of overwhelming fear that was slowly creeping into her body. Leanna’s eyes moved from the hair strands over to the eyes of her reflections. The young girl jumped back, the small ruler clattering to the floor, her reflection following her movements. Leanna swear she had seen it. The eyes of her reflection were angry, the eyebrows furrowed in frustration and the lip had been curled up into a snarl. She was sure of it! But now, her reflection seemed normal again. All the frightened girl starred back at was the reflection of herself, just as frightened.

Leanna shook her head, letting her eyes flutter shut. It was the darkness of the room. She had thought it would make it scarier to do this in little light, and Leanna was correct. It must be just the light playing tricks on her; there was no angered look on her reflections face. It was just a reflection after all! Leanna let out a sigh, setting a hand over her chest. She could feel her rapidly beating heart through her clothing and she could feel her hand shaking as it laid tightly pressed against her chest. She was terrified. She never thought a legend could scare her like that. Even if she believed the legend to now be false, it had still scared her good.

Leanna pushed herself off the floor, brushing off her jeans before walking over to her door, turning her back to the mirror as she flipped the switch, flooding her room with light. She laid a hand against the wall, just under the light switch as she attempted to calm herself down. Why was she so scared? She knew it was fake; there was no point in being scared anymore. Just as Leanna finished up her thoughts, she heard a soft cracking noise, a new type of fear flooding her body.

The air in her room changed. She could feel the heaviness of the air bearing down on her as her legs got shaky, her entire body beginning to falter as the cracking got louder. The cracking was followed by a shattering of glass. Leanna didn’t dare turn around. She wanted to run. She wanted to fling her bedroom door open and run as far as she could get, but her body was frozen in place. The fear that swept over her wouldn’t allow the young girl to move an inch.

Leanna could hear the unearthly chuckling behind her as she felt a presence getting closer to her. Leanna looked down at her arm that was laid by her side, seeing a hand slowly wrap around it. The hand had sharp nails covered in a nasty yellow color with wrinkles covering the decaying skin of the hand, she could see multiple sores on the hands where the skin had peeled off. The young girl gasped, her entire body beginning to shake as she could feel a hot breath on her neck. A voice screeched inside her head, the sound of it akin to the scratching of nails on a chalkboard.