The Mirror
 

It all started two months after moving into our new house. My wife, kids and I were heading home from a restaurant. My kids were talking their nonsense in the back of the car  my wife was driving the car and I was in the passenger seat. We had just gotten home and I had to use the bathroom. We had two but I went to the one that was closest to my room which was the one upstairs next to my daughters room. I go inside and start to pee. Might have been the longest pee i've ever taken. I finish and go to wash my hands in the sink when out of the corner of my eye I see a figure peek out of the closet and slam the door when I noticed it. But there wasn't any noise and it happened so fast I didn’t know if my mind was playing tricks on me. I was certain I was seeing things but I still decide to check the closet. Nothing was inside just what was suppose to be there and the door was still open. I let it go as my imagination. But was it?
This kept happening every time I’d use that bathroom the figure would be somewhere in a dark corner of the bathroom hiding every time I noticed it. At first I would be scared but I got used it over time since it seemed to be no harm but I could never get a proper description of the figure since it seemed to disappear into darkness every time. I didn't dare tell anyone, as I didn't wanna seem crazy. But after two months of this happening it all changed.
I was gonna use the bathroom like any other time as I entered I waved at the mirror jokingly at the figure. I pass the mirror and go to the toilet. I pee and head back to the sink as I look up. Instead of seeing it disappear it was standing...right behind me.
I jump in fright. The creature was large almost double the size of me. It was slender and it was completely dark and with sharp claws, it’s arms reached its knees and the claws reached its toes. It’s facial features were the scariest part. its mouth open wide its teeth were large and it had no eyes but I could see the eye sockets, his tongue was long and it hovered over me. I was frozen at its sight. The creature picked me up but it wasn't me. it was my reflection.
I watched in horror while my reflection struggled and screamed. Although I couldn’t hear him, I could see his muffled screams. he tried to shake the monster off but it was no good  the creature proceeds to stick its sharp claws through my reflections gut. Blood gushed out of his mouth and with no effort he threw my reflection at the mirror and my reflection fell dead. The creature looked at me in place of my reflection and within seconds punched the mirror causing a crack in the middle.
In a blink I was staring at myself in the mirror with my arm extended out toward the mirror. I look at my hand and see it bloody.  Pain fills me as I come to the realization that I had punched the mirror and cracked it. But had I been imagining all of that, no I couldn’t have been it was so real, what the h--- was going on. With all the thinking I forgot about my hand. I look at it and see a mixture of blood and glass, around my knuckles all I remember after that was me fainting.
I woke up in my bedroom my wife and kids next to me.
“What happened” I said
“Well I don't know, I saw you passed out in the bathroom with your hands all bloody and a crack on the mirror’’ she says pauses for a second and then says
“Why’d you punch the mirror’’
“I didn’t… it’s just..’’
“You’re not that ugly, you don’t gotta punch the mirror’’  she says jokingly
“ I don’t know...i might’ve been sleepwalking” that was my lame excuse, but it made more sense than “ a monster possessed me”
After a weird conversation we just left it alone and luckily my hand wasn't to messed up. My wife took out a few pieces of glass and my hands wounds were recoverable.
We replaced the mirror a week after the incident and placed it in our attic. Life went on after that. But one night I had a nightmare. It all started with me hitting the mirror after that the crack that was in the middle spread and a picture of someone would show up. So the first crack spread along with a picture of one of my neighbors and his daughter, then another crack appeared with a picture of my best friend. And as more cracks appeared so did the pictures of someone I know and care about to go along with each crack. More and more cracks appeared and as they almost filled the entire mirror a crack appeared along with a picture of my family. One last crack appeared with a picture of me and then the entire mirror shattered. The creature appeared from darkness along with all the people who were in the pictures who slowly came out, they were all smiling and the creature slowly walked towards me stood in front of me  and said “wake up” he said it in my voice, before anything else happened I woke up.
I was in bed sweating heavily, I looked around for the clock and it read 7:30 AM it was early but I knew I wasn't gonna go back to sleep after what happened. Thoughts went through my head so I wasn't paying much attention to anything but fear overtook all other feelings the thought of that creature taking me scarred me beyond comprehension. I slowly got out of bed trying not to wake my wife lucky for me the sun was out, the darkness was gone the creatures hiding spot vanished and I was now somewhat safe. I carry myself downstairs and into the living room. I grab the computer from the table and take it with me I sit on the couch that’s against the wall because fear was still over me and I wanted to make sure nothing grabbed me from behind. I research my experience online hopefully find some answers to the unusual occurrence, but I didn't get much. There were some readings about people who went crazy over apparently seeing something in their mirror and other cases of people who committed suicide next to a shattered mirror. That wasn't much help for me. But then I reached a website that was in the dark ends of the internet it had a “story” named “The broken Mirror”   it told of a guy who had seen similar events to mine and had kept track of it. Most of what he said was the same for me. Than he got to the dream part and what happened after haunts me. Each month he updated the status, he told of how everyone who he saw in the dream died in the order of the cracks. The first month he saw it as a coincidence, but as time passed he realized. As I read all of his status he slowly got more and more crazy, he even made a chart he put pictures of each person in the order they were supposed to die. Each month more and more of the pictures had crosses over them, with a small story every month. Then only one picture was left and it was one of himself. After that he never posted again. I read more into the investigations and it said “reason of death unknown” . and that was the end of it.
I was honestly scared about the reading, I didn't know if the events were real or just a hoax despite all the evidence. But I didn't see the creature much after that. I shouldn't have ignored all the evidence because just as I believed everything was ok again it happened.

Two months had passed and I would never see the creature again, i'd think of it every now and then but it had not crossed me that day. After staying up all night with my wife watching movies in the living room it was time for sleep. We went upstairs and I quickly fell asleep. And I had a nightmare. It was a house burning and the fire alarm going off. I woke at 5 am to my wife waking me. I look up at her dazed and confused and she points out the window. My neighbor's house was on fire. The daze goes away and I was in shock.
“Call the fire department !” I scream at her she reaches to the phone and I jump out of bed. As I exit the room and head down the hall my kids look at me and follow behind .
“Stay here!” I scream at them as I head down stairs and out the door. As I reach the front door I hear screaming from inside. It was daisy my neighbor's daughter.
“Dad what are you doing!” my daughter screams at me
“I gotta go help them!” I scream back
But before she can answer I break down the door and look around
“Daisy, Paul, Jessica! Can you hear me!”
“Help” a voice cries from the kitchen
I run in to see jessica stuck under a piece of wood I push it off and help her up
“Go help Daisy and Paul I will make it, hurry!”
I run up the stairs screaming for daisy and paul I hear her voice coming from her room. As I enter I see daisy on the floor knocked out and to her left was paul… a big piece of wood was piercing his head cutting clean through, he had tripped and fallen into it. His blood was all over the place but paul was gone, but I had to save daisy. I run towards her and pick her up the entire room filled with flames and the air slowly killing my lungs. Through the fire I could hear the fire department arriving and my wife and kids screaming. As I put daisy around my shoulders I head towards the door. But at the door, was the creature looking at me through it’s empty eyes. Before I can react it pushes me towards the wall and I fall down along with daisy. The creature looks at me and walks towards me, I struggle to get up and the creature at this time is right above me, it looks down and slowly extends his arms to grab me. I think quickly and grab a piece of broken glass and stab the creature with it, it makes a noise that is indescribable, and I then stab it again. It growls at me but it falls backwards. At this point daisy is waking up, I get up and look at daisy who is looking up, she realizes what's happening and starts screaming. I grab her and go past the creature and head towards the door but the creature grabs me and I fall. After this I don’t remember what happens much the creature grabs daisy off of me and throws her into  the closet which was lit in flames. I remember her screams of pain as she burns, I remember trying to save her but getting tossed out the window and getting knocked out.
I didn't wake up after that, I didn't realize what had happened to me. I had been in a coma for 4 years. But it felt like I was in h---. Dreams happened seemingly everyday. They were all different, but had two constant similarity the mirror and death. I rarely stopped dreaming and when I wasn't I could hear my family begging for the doctors to help me. Sometimes i’d hear my kids crying and telling me to wake up. But whenever I was having a dream it was horrifying. They all started with a new crack on the mirror followed by someone dying. Daisy was the first one in my dream burning alive in the closet, then my best friend getting torn apart by wolves in his camping trip, then my brother getting shot. Each dream involved the creature picking up their bodies and taking them. These dreams felt like they lasted for ever. And so many died. There would even be dreams where it would be me running forever getting chased by the creature. But I woke up eventually, sadly it wasn't a good thing.
I remember waking up and seeing the light blind me the doctor was so happy and he told me about how I was going to be alright. Yet he never explained what happened probably because he knew that I knew. He called my family over and they were all so happy they hugged and kissed me. And eventually we went home, but I couldn't sleep. I was to afraid of sleep, I stayed up for days and my wife begged me to sleep. I couldn’t everyone was dying around me and I had to see what was next so one late night I decide to go up to the attic. I had to confront it. Whatever was killing everyone, sadness wasn't a problem and I wasn't scared anymore after the things I saw. Nothing scared me. I enter the attic in sneak mode trying not to wake the family. The attic is in total darkness but I walk forward, guided by nothing more than myself. As I reach the mirror I take out my phone and turn on the flashlight. I find myself staring into the mirror, and the mirror is cracked almost completely i recall the dream, only one crack was left and it was for my family. I wasn't gonna let them die. I look into the mirror and I see the creature emerging from the darkness behind me. I turn around from it and it is standing in front of me. I wasn't scared anymore, but the creature didn't attack.
“Why, why did you ruin me” I say.
“Why did you ruin my life!” I scream.
It didn't answer but rather it extended its arm, and pointed at the mirror.
I turn towards the mirror and see the reflection, it wasn't there anymore but something pulls me through the mirror. I look up and see the creature, my surroundings were all white, but I didn't care I wanted a revelation.
“What are you?! Why are you killing everyone?!”
“ I am not real, I am your other side i’m the one that's gonna bring light to your problems” it says.
“You are my problem you d--- monster why are you killing everyone”i say.
“ you’re insane, you can not tell but you’re growing more and more insane by the day. Ever since you broke the mirror you have lost your mind.” it says.
“What are you talking about,” I say.
“You were sent to the hospital after breaking the mirror…”
“You’re lying I never went to the hospital, my wife fixed up my hand and you controlled me to break the mirror,” I say interrupting .
“ NO! I tried to help you. But you saw me as the enemy I never was, but I was to late the mirror had already taken you.”
“What are you talking about this doesn't make sense.”
“The mirror, it made you insane. You started seeing things in the mirror and going crazy”
“But it was you I saw,” I respond.
“You never saw anything. The mirror was a gateway to another world for you. You never saw me, as I am not real.”
“But how can you not be real if you’re right in front of me.”
“ let’s start from where it all began and maybe you’ll snap out of this insanity. It all started when you punched the mirror, you were rushed to the hospital where they treated your wound, you had fainted and didn't wake until you got home. The doctor had assumed you were having some breakdown and that's why you punched it. You started acting weird after that. And one night you went into the attic and had a breakdown. You started putting pictures of dead relatives and friends on the mirror and then you put one of your family.”
“Wait dead relatives, they weren’t dead you killed them I.. i saw you “ I say angrily
“No, you need to snap out of this.  you made me the excuse but all those people were already dead. But with your mental state depleting, you must’ve forgotten your past. The whole problem here is that you thought those people were alive, you created me as an excuse for the deaths of those people, you were already struggling with the death of loved ones, but with the combination of the mirror and the deaths of loved ones, you created this…this perspective which never happened, why do you think I look so ugly to you? because you made me out of the characteristics of fear. do you understand. Your neighbors were your close friends and their house burned down killing paul and daisy, your best friend was killed in a camping trip, your brother was shot at the age of 20. Those 14 people you thought i killed had already died. If you do not stop i fear you might hurt your family.”
“But, I remember waking up seeing the fire and going in to help them, and I remember seeing you push me away as I tried to save daisy.”
“That never happened, it was part of the series of dreams you started having about their deaths. You put me in that dream, once again as an excuse. But the truth is daisy and paul had died 10 years prior to these events.”
“It felt so real… wait what about the coma I was in for 4 years after you pushed me out the window of the burning house.”
“you weren't in a coma, you went insane. at first you started going up to the attic more often and making cracks on the mirror, and crossing your friends and relatives pictures off. One day, your wife figured out and started realizing you had some serious mental issues. You were sent to get help, but became unresponsive so you were sent to a hospital for insane people. That’s what the  coma was 4 years in a mental hospital. The workers tried helping but you usually just started talking to yourself and running around your room. Eventually you  were let loose for a week and now here you are, hopefully this revelation turns your life around.”
I could only remember millions of memories going through my head, and everything came back to me. My dead friends and relatives, the mental hospital, the attic and The Mirror. Everything was real. The memories that I had changed came back to me as well, I was Me. I looked up and saw the creature slowly fading away.
“What’s happening to you?’
“You made me out of your bad memories and fears, now that they are gone. I am too, but if you keep the mirror they will come back try not to think of me or the mirror much, as it will bring back the memories”
As he fades away, I walk through the mirror. And back into the real world, but this time it is really real.
I grab my phone and leave the attic. It was day time, my wife that was looking for me and spotted me.
“C’mon you’re gonna be late for the therapy, we gotta get you dressed” she says slowly pulling me away
My daughter looks at me and says
“Something's different, daddy are you okay”
“You know your dad is having problems right now hon…” I interrupt her
“I am just fine honey”
Now here I am 1 year later writing this story, I got my life back in track and if you are wondering, we moved far away. Life is good and this is gonna be the last thing I write before I sign off forever. I am happy.