Inside the Covered Mirror
Heather Marcline never knew what fear truly was until she tried to find out what's inside her friend's mirror. Correction- what's OUTSIDE of the mirror.
"Heather, Calli's on the phone!"
"Ok, be right down!" Thundering footsteps above showed that Heather was indeed coming quickly. At the bottom of the stairs, she raced through the Victorian decaled- walls and quickly picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
"What are you doing Saturday night?" Calli's over enthusiastic voice asked.
"Nothing that I know of…why?" Heather asked, smiling.
"My brother's having friends over, and there's no way I want to be alone with them. Can you sleep over?"
"Definitely! I'll see you on Saturday then."
"Great! See ya then."
CLICK. The conversation abruptly ended with the silence to be ominously heard in the days to come.
(thematic music)
Heather awoke to the warm peach glow of the sun caressing her face. Thoughts of the night and the nightmare she had had left a gaping hole in her stomach. The idea of going to Calli's house brightened her dreary mood. Deciding to get an early start to the day, she leapt out of bed with a newfound energy to meet the end of the day and the thought of seeing Calli.
The day went by like a blur. She had gotten dressed to go to the church breakfast, then the rest of the day seemed like those winds in the tornado she'd heard about on the news. Soon enough, it was 6:00 and time to see Calli.
Heather lived only two blocks away from Calli's house, so she was able to walk with her sleeping bag and fluffy pillows up the street. It was getting dark already, but she could still the outline of the quaint house in front of her. Although she'd been there many times, the house gave her an odd sense of dread…probably because Mr. Doone, Calli's father, had committed suicide there five years ago, for a reason no one understood. She'd been there to soothe Calli's aching heart and bring tranquility to her mind, but she never had time to do those things for herself.
She stepped up to the front stoop of the house. She reached out to the red door to turn the knob. That's when she noticed a cold air coming from around the door. Thinking it was only the odd weather they'd been having lately, she shook the feeling and entered the house…not knowing she should have thought about it more. She'd regret that later.
Calli was right. Her brother's friends were definitely over, making noise and being the average loud and obnoxious teenage boy. She slipped unscathed passed the boys, and walked the dark carpet-covered corridor to Calli's room. The cold air seemed to be getting thicker with a damp uncertainty that was lingering in the air. The thick air made her cough a couple of times before she decided to try and enter Calli's room. She should have paid attention to the fact that the air was getting colder as she approached the door, but she shook it off, once again, as Mrs. Doone's odd way of leaving the air conditioner on in the winter. She had never been the same since her husband's death.
Calli was seated in the middle of her bedroom, flipping through some old magazines. She'd probably found them in her closet. It took a moment for her to realize that Heather was there, as she was engrossed in another teen boy/star she loved this week. When she realized she was there, she looked up and smiled.
"Hi! You can put your stuff down on my bed."
"Sure," Heather responded, plopping her red sleeping bag on Calli's bed. "What's up with the covered thingy over there?"
"Oh, I don't know, Mom probably took it down from the attic. She was cleaning today." Sure enough, there was a mauve velvet covered object in the far corner of the room. The high quality fabric cascaded over the oblong object, showing off the curves and fine detail that laid underneath.
"Well, let's see what it is," Heather suggested. She removed the wonderful fabric from its resting place to reveal a French-styled mirror beautifully hand crafted. Between the gold paint and the fine detail this was truly an extraordinary piece of art.
"Wow." The girls marveled at the beauty of the delicate mirror.
It took longer than expected to gaze at themselves in the mirror, it was so beautiful. But for some unknown reason, Heather chose that moment to look at Calli's reflection and saw that her eyes had changed to red.