Goosebumps ran up Dean's arms the second he drove through the gates and laid eyes on the house. It wasn't just a house. It was a bloody mansion. He never liked it from the beginning but his wife Janet had inherited the place and been head over heels about the place so he had pretended to share her thrill about getting such a big place to live in. He had convinced himself that in time the house would grow on him and he would be happy there. They would be happy there.
The story of the house and her family didn't make it any easier for him to accept the place. It had been passed down for generations, normally given from mother to daughter, but her weird and almost unknown aunt hadn't had any children so she was next in line. Well, her aunt had had a daughter once but she had died at the age of 3 before her aunt had even inherited the house herself and before Janet was even born.
There were rumours about the house and her family all over the little town near by. Certain things were true. Whoever inherited the house had always been single but having a daughter, except for her aunt and Janet herself who was married to Dean and had no children, however the woman to get the house always seemed to cut ties with everyone in her life, even her own daughter. Not a word would be heard until the day she passed away and the daughter was next in line to take over. And then there were all the disappearances that always seemed to go away whenever an owner died and would take up again a while after a new owner moved in. Pure coincidence perhaps but that didn't stop the town from gossiping and spreading rumours about what might happen up in that mansion.
He sighed as he parked the car and looked up at the house. Only three weeks since they moved in and he already hated the place. He thought he could make it into a home and now he just wanted to run screaming away. Something about the place just gave him the chills.
He exited the car and made it to the house with heavy footsteps. He went inside and followed the smell of coffee to the kitchen just to see the door to the basement was open again. Again he sighed. She had become obsessed with that basement and he couldn't understand why. Nothing was down there but a cold concrete floor, old cabinets with nothing in them and a naked light bulb hanging from the ceiling. There wasn't even any windows since the basement was completely under ground. The last two weeks he had found her down there almost everyday, just standing in the middle of the room, looking around as if she was searching for something.
"Janet?" He called down the stairs.
When she didn't answer, he chose to walk down, expecting to see her standing there with that look in her eyes, almost like a child about to cry over a lost doll. To his surprise she wasn't there. Instead his eyes immetiately went to the cabinet that had been pushed away from the wall and to his surprise he saw an open door leading into another room. There was another door, there was another room down there, and they hadn't known. Somehow he felt it right away. There was something not right about this whole thing.
He slowly walked towards the open door and found her standing in there at the end. The room was almost empty except for another naked light bulb in the ceiling and an oval mirror standing on the floor. An old mirror with a black painted wooden frame with beautiful carvings. And there she was, standing in front of the mirror, looking into it.
"Janet?" He called to her again as he walked over to her.
"Dean," she turned around with a smile and held her hand out towards the mirror. "It's me."
"Of course it's you, silly. It's a mirror," he laughed.
"You're not looking," she said.
He turned his eyes to the mirror and jumped back as he saw her standing there looking at him, only it shouldn't be possible, it couldn't be possible, as her real self had her back turned against the mirror. They were both looking at him.
"It's not possible," he whispered.
"I didn't think so either," she said and turned to face the mirror again. "She talks too. Janet, this is my husband Dean that I told you about."
"Hi Dean," mirror Janet greeted him.
His jaw dropped. She even had the same voice. It was her. It was his wife. It was Janet inside a fucking mirror, only it wasn't possible. Things like that could not happen, only in horror movies, yet here they were, looking at a mirror twin of his wife that had just greeted him. Was he supposed to say hi back?
"Dean, manners," Janet said.
"It's okay. He's just as shocked as you were a couple of hours ago," mirror Janet laughed.
"How... why... what's going on?" He finally got out.
"There's another dimension in here. A mirror world if you like. These mirrors have run in our families for generations, connecting us," she explained.
"Who are you?" He narrowed his eyes.
"I'm Janet. Exactly like your Janet, just in another world," she answered.
"What do you want?" He asked.
"To get to know my mirror twin," she answered and placed her hands on the mirror. "Come here, Janet. Connect with me."
Janet moved forward as she started raising her hands. She didn't seem scared, not like Dean felt right in that moment, and he watched in horror as she moved closer to the mirror. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.
"No! You're not touching that thing!" He hissed.
"Hey! I'm a human being!" Mirror Janet sneered.
"You're no such thing. I don't know what you are but you stay the hell away from my wife," he threathened.
"Or what?" She asked mockingly.
He watched her for a few seconds, not knowing what to say. She was right. Or what? What could he do? He couldn't just enter her world and choke her out.
"Let's go!" He sneered as he dragged Janet out of the room.
He turned off the light behind them, closed the door and pushed the cabinet back up against it before pushing her up the stairs in front of him. What he had just experienced creeped the hell out of him and he couldn't shake the bad feeling he had inside. Once up in the kitchen again, he slammed the door to the basement and leaned up against it.
"You're not going down there again, Janet. Promise me," he said.
"But Dean..." She started.
"Promise me!" He shouted.
"Okay," she jumped back as he startled her. "I won't."
