Through the Mirror
Chapter 7
Banshee (AU). Reunification, Part 1
1.9k words 10/6/20 R1
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The seven year old, blonde haired, blue eyed girl trembled inside the black depths of her dark bedroom. Soft, gentle rustling outside her window broke the late night silence. She nervously pulled the covers over her head and dug her fingertips deep into her teddy bear as tightly as she could. She tried to still herself, silence her breathing, and conceal every single motion. She nervously peeked out through one single narrow gap in her blanket, towards the window, and shuddered at a barely perceptible flutter beyond a razor thin opening in the drapes.
She smiled at the sweet sound of salvation, Dad's footsteps tromping down the hall, to save her. "Dad, I can't sleep, I heard a ghost outside."
Dad stopped and looked into the room "Honey, it's past your bedtime. You have school tomorrow. It's just a bird or something. See if you can go to bed."
"Can you check for me?"
"Honey" he paused, looked down at his watch, wrinkled his brow, and let out a deep sigh "it's late."
"But I saw something" her eyes pleading.
"Honey, you know there are night birds, moths, and things out here. We're near the river."
"Daddy!"
"Ok, honey" Dad grumbled as his mind rehearsed tonight's endless list, the family's evening race to bed. Dinner, homework, bath, put her to bed, then bills, prep for work, cleaning, chores, laundry, and helping his wife with the dishes. He looked down at his watch again and sighed. Midnight, if I'm lucky.
He flipped the light switch, bathing the room in warm, yellow light. He slid the heavy red drapes open "See honey?" The shining light flooded against the blackness beyond the window, concealing the outside, revealing nothing but darkness beyond the reflection of the room.
"Ok? Now go to bed." He turned, hugged her, clicked off the light, and purposefully trudged out of the room.
The little girl buried herself into the depths of her covers and peered cautiously out from their safety. Her eyes eventually accustomed to the darkness. She stared at the uncovered window, petrified, watching.
Slowly, the fluttering gray things focused into floating, matted hair, shrouding a bony, desiccated face. The thing came into focus, floating near the window, clothed in a heap of ancient rags, billowing in the wind. The girl peeked one single eye out from under her pillow. Her eyes focused and recognized the empty eye sockets staring, and the bleached, bony, broken teeth grinding back at her. This mummified apparition watched her night after night, every single night. It hovered outside her window and stared in silence, waiting.
The girl stealthily turned her head towards the hall and looked. She decided to escape the ghost. She bolted out of the bed and flew down the hall as fast as her legs would take her. She dove between Dad and the sink as he washed dishes with Mom. "The ghost! It's outside my room again!"
He put his hands on his hips disapprovingly. "Go to bed!"
Her eyes were white with terror. "Dad! No! She wants her daughter back! She's coming to take me!"
Dad laughed at the latest round of nonsense his daughter came up with. "No more internet videos for you young lady. And since when are ghosts 'she's'?"
"Dad!"
"Don't Dad me. You've spent way too much time on your tablet and now it's time for bed." The girl clung tightly, refusing to release her grasp. "Come on honey." He picked her up. She clung to him with a veritable death grip as he carried her back, unknowingly, towards those same stony, empty, lifeless, hollow eyes. Watching. Waiting.
"Now look, I'm going to show you there's nothing outside!"
"No! She'll come in!"
He rolled his eyes, frustrated, unlatched the windows, and threw them open. "See!"
He turned around and looked at her, hands on his hips, annoyed, as the open window welcomed the ancient mummified banshee corpse. Her matted hair and tattered rags silently, slowly, flowed into the room.
The girl turned white as a stone and hid behind her father as she watched it billow in behind him, bit by bit, without making a single sound. It slowly reached out a dried, curled, brown, leathery, hand tipped with black, jagged nails towards her. "See, honey, I told you there's nothing to worry about! Now, I'm going to close the window and you're going to bed."
He turned back towards the window and crashed head first, straight into the floating corpse. It screeched and ground bony teeth at him. Terrified, he bolted towards the door, but in his panic, slammed his head into the door frame, and slumped to the ground.
The banshee reached out, captured the fleeing girl in her iron grip, and floated up off the ground towards the beckon of the damp, foggy night air. It passed halfway through the window, screaming child in hand, when Mom stared in and screamed. It instantly twirled around, snapped ancient broken teeth together, and flashed off after Mom while the girl yelled, flailed and kicked.
Mom almost made it to the bottom of the stairs when it snatched her. It turned, snarled, and slowly dragged the pair back up the stairs, when a young girl's happy voice echo'ed out of their dining room.
"Mom?"
It slammed to an instant stop, screeched loudly, and turned. It urgently dragged it's prey towards the dining room.
"Mom?" The voice beckoned her, again, out of the room behind them.
It turned into the dining room to look, and spied a blonde haired girl staring at them out of the large dining room wall mirror.
The girl inside the mirror smiled "Mom? Are you there?"
The banshee screeched loudly, and threw the girl and her mother to the floor. It reached out, gingerly touched the hard mirror glass, and screeched again. The girl was gone. The banshee instantly flashed around, grabbed the running girl, and started dragging her back towards the waiting darkness, while her mother screamed and threw things, powerless to deter the ghostly figure.
Suddenly, the sound of a large rock falling into the water splashed behind them. Sloshing roared into a tornado, and the banshee ground to a halt. It screamed and strained against some invisible force now gripping it. It dropped the girl, and clawed hard, black, nails deep, into the walls, stair case, and floors. It fought as hard as it could, leaving long, heavy gouges, splintering every surface of the rooms - ceiling, floors, furniture, and walls. It struggled, losing the battle against the force, dragged backwards, closer and closer, inch by inch, towards the roaring, swirling, fury awaiting her, inside the mirror frame.
The father, mother, and girl looked on in horror as the banshee corpse tore, wrenched, and clawed their house apart. It ripped boards, tore floors, and shredded walls as the boiling dining room hurricane sucked the creature in.
Finally, the gates of hell prevailed, hades abyss repossessed it's lost. The storm instantly dissipated as quickly as it formed. The mirror's surface quickly flattened and hardened, restoring their huge, decorative dining room mirror.
The trembling, shaking family looked aghast at destruction. Their house, ripped, clawed, and torn to bits by whatever they just saw happen. They stared silently at the long trails of deep gouges and splintered boards that ended at their beautiful, gold trimmed, mirror.
The father gripped his wife and daughter tightly, thanking heaven for powerful intercession on their behalf. He kissed their heads and replayed their narrow escape in his mind. He peered into the shiny, gold trimmed mouth of hell from a safe distance and stood up purposefully "I don't know what that was, but we're leaving now, and we're never coming back."