––––––––
After taking a quick shower the next morning, Piper gathered all her courage and headed back into her bedroom.
It was amazing how deceitfully peaceful the mirror looked, with the bright sunlight shining through her bedroom window and her mother’s cheerful voice calling from downstairs to tell her breakfast was ready. It was almost peaceful enough to convince Piper that the events of last night had been nothing but a bad dream.
Almost.
Whenever Piper glanced at the mirror, a feeling of dread ran down her spine. The fear was there, as real and substantial as the sunlight, the vague singing of birds in the background, and the lovely smell of pancakes. She couldn’t deny it anymore, then, when faced with it even in the safety of daylight.
After a day of pondering whether or not to tell Alison, Piper eventually decided that she had to. For starters, it was almost obligatory according to their friendship code. They always told each other everything: the good, the bad, the embarrassing, the boring, and even the crazy. Plus she really wanted to talk to someone about it. So she’d asked Alison to stop by her house after school.
Piper sighed as she anxiously regarded her best friend. The decision to tell Alison about what happened last night, with the figure near her bed and the water on the floor, hadn’t come lightly. Although they always told each other everything, Piper had the feeling that this might just be a bit over the top, even for Alison. She didn’t know what to do if Alison thought she was going crazy.
Here they were, sitting in Piper’s bedroom in the early hours of the evening. Normally they would spend this time chatting about boys, sharing the latest gossip with each other, or helping each other with their homework. Now they were going to talk about something a lot more serious than that, and Piper found it saddening in a way that their normal activities had to make room for things less pleasant to talk about.
“Come on, spill it,” Alison encouraged Piper. She smiled gently as she regarded Piper’s sad and confused expression. “P., I know everything that goes on in that insane little head of yours. I know when something is up with you. So tell me. Enlighten me.”
Piper sighed. She didn’t know whether to be happy because her best friend knew her so well, or scared because her emotions were so out in the open that she couldn’t possibly keep them a secret from her.
Piper took a deep breath and began. “Last night, I woke up after having a nightmare and I saw someone in my bedroom. At first, I thought I was going crazy. The figure disappeared as soon as I put on the lights. But when I got out of bed to investigate things, there was water on the floor. It’s not like there’s a hole in the roof or a busted pipe or something like that. The water was dirty, filthy, its color nearly black. It smelled like seawater. I know that it sounds crazy, Al, but you have to believe me. I’m not going insane. I’m not seeing things. This is real.”
She went silent and looked at Alison with pleading eyes. If Alison didn’t believe her, then it was game over. She’d be so concerned with Piper’s wellbeing that she’d tell Piper’s mother, who would probably send Piper to a mental asylum or a psychiatrist. If Alison didn’t believe her, she’d probably stop believing in herself as well and become convinced of her own insanity too.
Alison didn’t reply. Instead, she just looked at her friend with a serious expression. “I’ll need more details than that, P.”
With a sigh, Piper related the whole story, going into detail about how the figure looked and what she did afterward.
“It might come as a shock to you, but I believe you,” Alison said. “You’ve been my best friend forever. I don’t think you’re hallucinating, and I certainly don’t think you’re going crazy. No, to be honest, I think that mirror is still to blame. There’s something seriously wrong with it. I think it’s what is responsible for the dark shape, the seawater, and all those things you’ve just told me.”
“You actually believe me?” Piper asked, relief sounding through her voice.
“Of course,” Alison replied. “Why wouldn’t I? We’ve seen enough horror movies to know that the fact that no one believes the heroine is usually the reason why everyone eventually gets killed. I’ve known you since kindergarten, and you’ve never been one to make up stories. I believe you. But we have to gather evidence. It’s no use if I believe you and no one else does. We have to find some proof that the mirror is really haunted, cursed, or whatever. But before that...why don’t we take it back? Back to the attic? It’s safe there, and it won’t be able to hurt you from up there.”
Although Alison’s suggestion made sense, Piper couldn’t really bring herself to do it. Mostly because there was something else about the mirror, something that she hadn’t told her friend yet.
“Al...” she began, her voice trembling. “Al, I think my father’s in there.”
Alison stayed quiet for a while, but then she turned to her friend and raised her eyebrows. “What?”
“I know it’s silly. But the screams that come from the mirror and the dark figure in the room...I can’t help but have the feeling that I know that figure, that I know that person. I can’t really explain why I think that, it’s just a feeling. So I thought that...maybe that dark figure really is my father. Maybe he’s trying to send me a message.”
“A message from the beyond?” Alison inquired. As she saw the hurt expression on her friend’s face, she got rid of the sarcastic tone and questioning look in her eyes and shot Piper a worried glance instead. “P., I know you miss your dad. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like for you... But this? I’m pretty sure that whatever’s coming from that mirror, it’s evil. And your dad isn’t evil. He was a good man, and he loved you to bits. He wouldn’t scare you.”
“But what if he’s trying to send me a message?” Piper pressed. “Maybe the signal is distorted or something. You know like in that movie about that book by Stephen King. The ghost was trying to send a message, but it got changed and it made the receiver very, very scared. But the message wasn’t a scary one.”
“You mean White Noise? I can’t even recall the plot of that movie. Anyway...” Alison said, determined not to drift off into movie-talk when a more serious matter was at hand. “I don’t think so. I don’t think that mirror would give you and me both such a bad, evil vibe if the message it’s sending you came from your father.”
“But it feels...I don’t know, how can I explain this?” Piper asked aloud. “It feels familiar, Al. The figure...it feels like I know him.”
“Maybe that’s because you want to feel that way,” Alison replied softly. “Maybe you desperately want the message to be from your father, because you miss him. That’s normal, P. But I don’t think that’s the case. Your father wouldn’t intentionally scare you or hurt you.”
Piper sighed. “I know, Al. It’s just...I have this feeling...I can’t put it away just yet. Will you stay with me so that you can see for yourself?”
Alison looked at Piper as if she had suddenly grown three heads. “You want me to stay here? Tonight? With you and the evil mirror from hell?”
“Yes,” Piper replied instantly. “What better way to find out if it’s all real or not? If it turns all evil and terrifying while you’re here, that’s proof that I’m not making this up.”
“Right.” Alison looked doubtful. “Thanks for making me feel all safe and sound now. Fine, I’ll stay here. This will be the best sleepover ever. I’m pretty sure I’ll end up staying awake all night now, considering you just scared the living daylights out of me.” It was a joke, but the look in her eyes showed that she really felt frightened. Or at least uncomfortable.
Piper suppressed a smile. “Please, Al. We all know that’s impossible. You’ll sleep through anything, a hurricane, a tornado, and probably the appearance of an apparition in the dead of night as well. No worries. Besides, maybe the mirror won’t try anything while you’re here.”
“I still don’t understand why you don’t just take it back to the attic,” Alison countered. “It was harmless there, and it wouldn’t give you all those sleepless nights. Plus, it wouldn’t scare me to death then.”
“It’s not going to scare you, Al.” Piper gave her friend a reassuring smile. “I swear. Besides, if the person trying to contact me really is my dad, then I’m not returning his only means to get through to me back to the attic. Period.”
When Alison didn’t make a nasty comment, or say anything else for that matter, Piper continued.
“Now, let’s watch that movie you suggested, the one with Orlando Bloom. Since Mom won’t be home tonight, it will just be us girls.”
Alison had a huge crush on Orlando Bloom ever since she’d watched Lord of the Rings. Piper wasn’t that much of a fan, but she felt like doing her best friend a favor.
“Fine,” Alison said, her face brightening. “It’s a great movie, or, well, so I heard. The reviews are really great.” She smiled brightly, and for a moment Piper actually believed that all was normal and all right again. But then she glanced at the mirror, and she knew that it wasn’t.
She did the only thing she could do. She put on her brightest smile, tried to listen to everything her friend had to say, and focused as little as possible on the cursed mirror. Alison continued chatting happily as she inserted the DVD of Elizabethtown in the player.
But the feeling of dread didn’t disappear, and Piper occasionally glanced at the cursed thing, wondering if the dark shape in her room last night had been her dad, or someone else altogether. She remembered the first thought that came into her mind when she saw the figure—evil. She doubted she would think that if the figure was her father. On the other hand, perhaps her dad’s message got distorted somehow. Nevertheless, Piper couldn’t help but wonder what other terrifying things the mirror had in store, if any.
***
The scream was even more horrifying than before. It was high-pitched, heartbreaking, and filled with all the pain, sorrow, and sadness in the entire world. It brought tears to Piper’s eyes, but along with those tears came an overwhelming feeling of dread. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
As she bolted up in her bed, Piper was confident this time that the person screaming was her father. It was obvious that he was in great agony, but was trying to send her a message anyway. What bothered her was that she had absolutely no clue as to what the message was. The scream rang in her ears even now, when she was wide-awake. It had been a wordless scream, a cry, without any real meaning.
Then with her mind still half-asleep, she realized something else. The spot next to her, where Alison had been sleeping, was empty. Piper’s eyes widened as she stared in horror at the empty spot. Where was Alison?
Then the most terrifying thought entered Piper’s mind. What if those screams weren’t really from her father? What if it was Alison screaming for her help? All thoughts about haunted mirrors and ancient curses vanished from Piper’s mind and were replaced by images of serial killers and potential rapists. Those threats seemed all the more real and closer-to-home than a supernatural threat.
Instinctively, she reached for a potential weapon. The closest thing that came to hand was a math textbook. On her tiptoes, Piper got out of her bed and grabbed the math textbook. Although she had previously detested it for being so heavy, she was glad for its weight now.
As silently as she could manage, she opened her bedroom door and stared into the dark, empty hallway. The hallway was clearly vacant, the only light being the light downstairs which stayed on day and night, one of her mother’s self-proclaimed remedies against burglars. Piper listened intently, but there wasn’t a sound anywhere. She didn’t hear any burglar moving around searching for things, or the creaks of the wooden floor beneath the burglar’s weight. The house sounded like it was abandoned, as if Piper was the only person inside. As if Alison had disappeared.
Piper quickly scanned the rest of the hallway, and switched the math textbook with an old vase standing on a dresser. The vase was an antique artifact and very pricey, but it was the heaviest thing around, heavy enough to cause a concussion. Except there was still no sign of an intruder.
Carefully, cursing herself for making the slightest noise, Piper made her way downstairs. The stairs were old and creaky like the rest of the house, and Piper worried that by the time she made it to the ground floor, the next-door neighbors would have heard her as well. However, the house remained eerily silent as she walked through the illuminated downstairs hallway and into the dark, empty kitchen. There was no movement, no sign of anything or anyone even as Piper turned on the light. A wild, mindless panic took control over her. She had to find Alison. She had to help her. People didn’t just disappear in the middle of the night.
She left the kitchen and ran into the living room, turning on the lights everywhere. There was no sign of Alison in the living room, either. The house was so quiet that, if not for Alison’s disappearance, Piper would have been convinced the earlier screams were just her mind playing tricks on her. However, Alison was clearly missing and had to be somewhere.
Piper ran from room to room, half expecting to see the lifeless corpse of her beloved friend bludgeoned to death somewhere in one of the downstairs rooms. Eventually, she lost it. She didn’t care about remaining silent in case a serial killer was on the loose in their house anymore, she didn’t care about making him aware of her own presence. All she could think about was finding Alison, safe and sound. So Piper started screaming Alison’s name at the top of her lungs.
As she ran back upstairs, two equally frightening thoughts hit her. Since Alison wasn’t answering, she was either in the attic, where she probably couldn’t hear Piper’s screams, or trapped in the mirror. Although she didn’t even know how the latter would be possible, Piper had seen too much and had heard too much not to believe it was possible. It must be.
On the hallway on the first floor, Piper paused indecisively. Go the attic, the only sane, possible hideout of Alison and perhaps a raving lunatic killer? Or blame it on the mirror...that cursed object which could possibly have kidnapped her friend? In the end, it took only mere seconds, and Piper still chose rationality, reason, and logic above superstition, magic, and curses.
Gathering all the courage she could muster, she ran toward the attic stairs and made her way up to the damp, scary place. The stairs groaned under her weight. Piper couldn’t imagine anything scarier than an attic in the dead of night. Anything besides the mirror in her bedroom, that is.
Even with the light bulb on, the attic was illuminated only partially and the dark, shadowy corners looked menacing and threatening. Even though the attic room scared her to death, there was no sign of her friend here. No sign of life whatsoever. The attic room was silent as a grave.
With her panic reaching its climax, Piper turned around and made her way back downstairs, not even bothering to put out the light in the attic. She ran down two stairs at a time and ran back to her bedroom, deciding that she was out of options now. If rationality and logic didn’t work, then she would have to trust her gut feeling. People didn’t just vanish. Alison had to be somewhere, and if she wasn’t anywhere in the house...then she probably was in the mirror.
Piper found her room bathed in an eerie, otherworldly glow. Her night light was on but the light bulb was flickering, which gave the room a 1960s horror movie kind of vibe. The mirror was exactly where she had left it, hanging lifelessly on the wall. Although it still scared Piper, it didn’t look as threatening as she had thought it would. She’d anticipated that the mirror would be pulsating with evil, like the very pits of hell. It was deceptive, the way the mirror now hung there, almost innocently.
It took Piper five steps to get near the mirror. She grabbed the antiquity with both hands and shook it roughly.
“Bring her back!” she screamed now, completely overwhelmed with panic and grief.
Although she realized it was far-fetched, a part of her was convinced that this was the mirror’s wrongdoing. Somehow, the mirror had taken Alison from her. Piper was going to get her best friend back, no matter what it took. She didn’t know why the mirror had taken Alison and didn’t even care. It made no sense, especially not if the mirror served as a connection between her and her deceased father. Her father would never be as mean and vicious as to take her friend away from her, even if he meant it as some sort of punishment.
A punishment for what? Because she had not helped him when he was suffering? Because she had been too chicken to come to his aid? Because she had been too afraid to tell those doctors about her suspicions about what was going on the entire time? She had been eleven years old at the time. A mere child. Her dad loved her. He wouldn’t punish her for keeping her suspicions to herself. He would understand. He would.
Piper realized that she was telling herself the same things she had told herself over the last five years. It wasn’t her fault. Even if she thought she knew what exactly was happening to her dad, it wasn’t like any doctor would believe her. She had told herself the same reassuring message a million times now, but it did nothing, absolutely nothing, to stop her from feeling guilty.
“Give her back!” Piper shouted again, this time even more furiously. The only thing that kept her from not smashing the mirror into a thousand pieces was that she feared that perhaps her friend would never be able to return from the mirror-world then.
Then, as if it was a miracle, she saw something in the mirror. A reflection. A reflection besides her own. Short copper-blond hair with a beautiful oval face and light-blue eyes that looked worried and tired at the same time.
Alison.
“Piper?” came a voice from behind her.
It was only then that Piper realized Alison wasn’t stuck in the mirror. The image she saw was not Alison stuck in some mirror world. It was the reflection of a real life Alison, standing behind Piper and looking worried at the latter’s strange behavior.
“Al?” Piper asked, releasing the mirror and turning around to face Alison, her mouth slightly agape. “Where have you been?” she asked, both anger and relief sounding through her voice.
Awkwardly, Alison raised her right hand, showing a glass of milk. “The kitchen...” she replied slowly, shooting Piper a calculating look that was somewhere between “what the hell is going on” and “I feel sorry for you.”
“No,” Piper replied, shaking her head. “You weren’t. I went to check for you in the kitchen. I called your name. I searched for you everywhere.”
Alison bit her lower lip. “I just went downstairs to get some milk, P. I didn’t hear you yell. I’ve only been gone for about five minutes.”
“But I did yell,” Piper insisted. “I ran through the entire house screaming your name! You never responded. I was worried sick about you!”
There was doubt in Alison’s voice when she replied. Her gaze betrayed her concern about Piper’s sanity as well now. “Why would I do that? Why would I not answer if you’re screaming my name?” Alison asked her cautiously.
“I...I thought,” Piper began, but then she remained silent and sat down on the bed, looking defeated.
Alison sat down beside her and put an arm around Piper, pulling her close.