Hey everyone,

I would like to apologize. For not updating and for not working on this story as much as I should have.

I would also like to apologize for leaving you on that cliff-hanger. The main reason that I forced myself to finish this chapter is because I re-read Chapter 13 and couldn't stand not knowing what happens to Gabby. And I'm the author.

I hope that you all have a great day and I wanted to take this chance to say that I really love you. Yeah you. No, not you, the person behind you. Yeah, the one with the face. I love you.

Happy reading.

Disclaimer: I'm not even going to bother.

Chapter 14

I saw blood. That's for certain.

I saw it in flashes and for a while, the scent of blood was so strong that I thought I was going to pass out. That is, if I was able to. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to block it out. Block out everything. Everything and anything. When I opened my eyes again, all I saw was black.

It enveloped me in a cold embrace. But I couldn't say what else I saw, because there was nothing to see. Nothing at all.

I was still. I could see and hear nothing, and the silence was tearing at my ears. I couldn't even hear the sound of my breathing. Or my heartbeat. It was so calm, but not for a moment was it welcoming. It was the kind of silence in which the tension was so thick that you could almost feel it trickling down your back.

And I didn't like it.

I tried to move my fingers, reach out for something - anything - but I couldn't. I had no fingers to move. I tried taking a step, trying to run, but I couldn't. I had no feet. There was nothing of me. I was nothing.

But wait.

I was wrong. It wasn't black that I saw. What I thought was black was more of a blinding emptiness, as if everything around me had been erased. It hurt my eyes to look at it, but after a while the emptiness became quite soothing.

Maybe I was dead.

The thought of death didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, which was a surprise in itself. I had never really thought about death, not recently anyway, but it was always something that I was aware of. There was a period in my life when I was - ironically - deathly afraid of it. I remember lying awake at night thinking about what would happen if I were to die. It wasn't the thought of dying that petrified me, but rather the thought that no-one would notice. That no-one would notice the fact that I was gone.

I would read about life-after-death. Not in the creepy way that it sounds, but more out of interest.

I read stories about people who had died and other people's opinions on where you went after your death. I liked the idea of Heaven, even though I wasn't Catholic. The idea of a higher being watching over me was a comforting feeling for my twelve year old self. I thought about Heaven and the concept baffled me. I found it amazing that there was a golden castle in the sky, complete with golden gates and angels with golden halos.

I had a friend then. We had been friends for a while. I was surprised that I found myself thinking about her; I hadn't in a long time. We were always together. I wasn't living in New York then, Mom and I had an apartment in Idaho. My friend moved to New York later that year but we never kept in touch. I never saw her again after that. When I moved there the year after, I never found her.

That was the time when I became afraid of death. I knew for a fact that it wasn't not being alive that scared me, but being alone. I needed someone to hang onto.

I looked around once more. I still couldn't move. That was the moment that I decided that I must be dead; if I was alive, then wouldn't I have a body? I pondered this for a while. If I was dead, then where was I?

The place that I was in was certainly not the Heaven that I had come to picture when I was twelve for there was no golden palace, no angels, nothing, in fact, as far as I could see. If this was Heaven, it wasn't too bad, but I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a bit disappointed.

Therefore, I came to the conclusion that I wasn't dead, which pleased me thoroughly. But that left me with a bit of a problem: if I wasn't dead and this wasn't Heaven, then where was I?

I suddenly felt a rush of air blow from behind me and I shut my eyes tight. I took three slow, deep breaths before I opened them again.

I heard something. At first it was a soft something, and I wasn't even sure it was there. But then it grew louder until it was roaring loudly in my ears. I opened my eyes. And this time, I could see.

It was the ocean. I was standing in the middle of the roaring ocean with a storm raging around me. The waves swelled around me, whisking me around like a rag doll. The wind whistled in my ears and thunder crackled from above me.

Lightning flashed, illuminating the scene with a ghostly light. I felt the wind tugging at my hair, tearing and lashing.

And then I was standing on a cliff. Thunder rumbled and it started to rain. I brushed the cold droplets of water off of my shoulders with my frozen fingertips. I stopped and held out my arms. My body was back, and for this I was greatly relieved.

I took a few steps towards the edge of the cliff, looked down and saw the waves crashing onto the rocks below. Lightning flashed again and I jumped back, shivering.

I whipped my head around and squinted through the rain, which was now pouring so rapidly that I was surprised that the ground hadn't flooded. Around me were trees, large trees that looked like hundred year old pines. I shuddered under their shadow. The earth began to rumble beneath my feet and I almost lost my footing. When I looked up again, I saw a mirror.

The mirror was old and the glass was worn. The frame held some intricate design that would only look in place in an old, Victorian manor house. But strangely, it didn't look out of place here.

I edged closer to the mirror and stared at the raindrops that were pouring steadily down the glass, making it look like it had recently been cracked. The mirror was larger than I had thought, and it seemed to be floating in the darkness. But what scared me the most was that it showed no reflection, just plain emptiness.

I glanced behind me, checking that the cliff and the lightning and the ocean were still there, as if the roaring sound of the wind and thunder and waves wasn't enough.

I tentatively stepped even closer to the mirror, until I could almost touch it. Slowly, colours began to fill the seemingly empty frame, forming swirling shapes. Eventually, the shapes reflected the image of that of my own face, just as a normal mirror would. She in the mirror moved as I did, blinked as I did and sighed as I did.

But she wasn't me. The face continued to morph and change until I was looking at myself once again, but this time, Her face reflected that of a much more beautiful being. It was like someone had taken every small detail about my face and crafted it to perfection.

My cheekbones we high and slender and my nose was thin and perfectly proportioned. My hair was darker and curls fell freely down my shoulders. My skin was pale and smooth and my lips were full and red.

Although She was clearly me, in my eyes, she looked alien.

But still, she entranced me.

I began to reach my fingers out, as if to try to touch the girl in the mirror.

The sudden clap of thunder made me jerk my hand back. The rain was pouring harder now. Lightning struck the ground and flames erupted around me in a swirling dance of embers, the fire sizzling as the rain poured steadily down.

The mirror reflected the flames, which were now seeping up the branches of the pine trees, even brighter and more dangerous than they really were. I glanced at the girl in the mirror. The rain streaming down the glass looked like tears flowing freely from Her eyes.

Her eyes. It happened so quickly, that I wasn't entirely sure if it was real. For a moment, Her eyes seemed to glow red.

But I hadn't imagined it. Because while I'm sure my face showed fear, my reflection just smirked. Her lip curled up at the corners and her eyes narrowed.

I slowly backed away from the mirror, my breathing becoming shallow, but my path was blocked by a wall of fire that surrounded me. And even if it h didn't, the edge of the cliff was less than twenty feet away.

The sky darkened and the light of the fill moon lit up the ground, casting everything around me in a pale light.

The wind roared louder, the flames danced higher and the rain poured harder. Lightning struck the ground over and over again, sending white sparks into the air. The swirling waves were beating so hard on the rocks below that sea spray was shot into the air and trickled down my back, which was already soaked with rain.

The earth rumbled once more and at the same time, a blast of thunder and lightning filled the sky and the ocean waves grew higher than before.

I whipped my head around to face the mirror. The girl in the mirror parted her lips to reveal two pointed fangs. I chocked back a sob and tears slowly ran down my face, mixing with the rain until the two were unable to be distinguished.

The girl in the mirror grinned and licked her lips which I now noticed to be stained with what I recognised as blood. Dark red beads dropped off her fangs and trickled down her chin.

By this time, my hair was plastered to my face and I was soaked to the bone. Tears fell freely down my face as my reflection raised her hand to reveal her black, claw-like nails. Her hand was pale, long and slender and she reached out as if to touch me. But then her hand retreated and she pressed her fingers against her face.

Her nails raked down her cheek, drawing pool long blood to the surface of her skin. As she did so, my own cheek began to burn with pain and I clutched my hand to it in attempts to dull the ache. I pulled my hand away to see it stained with blood.

I gasped pleadingly at my reflection whose cheek was bleeding just as mine was, but she just smirked. She brought her hand to her throat and I realised what she was about to do.

I could barely hear my sobs and cries over the sound of the roaring wind and the crashing waves as my reflection drew her fingers in a line across her neck, clawing at mine in the process.

I clutched my throat, trying to stop the blood from pooling at my chest, but it seeped through my fingers and oozed over my hand. I gasped as the blood continued to flow freely and rapidly, and my head began to spin.

I couldn't tear my eyes away from my reflection as she threw her head back with hysterical laughter, blood dripping from her fangs and her hair whipping around her face like a halo. I whimpered at the sight of her, my own featured morphed into this terrifying creature.

I fell to my knees and blood dripped onto the earth, mixing with the flaming embers and the pooling rain drops. I was panting heavily and the colours around me blurred into swirling shapes.

The rain poured steadily down and lightning flashed once more.

The mirror was now decorated in black strands that laced across the glass like a web, as if infecting the image. The black threads wove themselves over my reflection, so it would soon be covered in the dark substance.

But my reflection did not seem to notice. She just gazed down at me, lying on the floor at her feet. I looked up into her eyes, hoping to catch a glimpse of pity, remorse or even recognition, but her eyes showed none of that. I could tell that her soul was as dark and unpredictable as the ocean below.

I stared at the floor, crying helplessly. My hands were shaking and it felt as if all of my energy had been drained. The pain in my cheek and throat was now reduced to a dull throb.

I let out a long breath, defeated. My heart was pounding in my chest and the waves thrashed about harder than ever before. But before I closed my eyes, I raised my gaze to Her's, a decision I immediately came to regret.

For Her eyes were as cold as ice and her smirk was dripping with malice.

I looked long enough to see her claw-like nails rake over her chest, and rip out our beating heart.

What a lovely way to end the chapter, don't you think?

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Ask me questions about anything: the chapter, the story, my characters, my life, anything...

I love you all.

Daphne