Watching Glass

The mirror looks at you as you gaze into it. It's waiting.

Day 13: “No matter how cleverly you sneak up on a mirror, your reflection always looks you straight in the eye.” —Louis Cyphre, Angel Heart (1987)

Going to school in fall was such a drag. Liv wasn't fond of all the preppy bitches and gooners. They ruined English and Science class every time. If one wasn't being all "Like I don't get it," during a lab on chemical versus physical reaction, then it was the boy who wanted to demonstrate the difference between blue and blew with a sentence about oral sex.

There was so much more to life than sex and who was fighting who. Liv, unlike most of her peers, was an introverted, skeptical nerd. Instead of crushing on teen idols, she had a thing for Socrates, the original bad boy.

On that October morning she was visiting the girls bathroom. Two goth girls stood talking to each other. "Oh my gawd, Margo," one said. "Thats so hinky! You're sure they vanished?"

"Whatever, Edith," Margo rolled her eyes before going back to applying eyeliner. "I heard it from my girlfriend who heard it from her sister."

This had to be another urban legend. Still it sounded like a mystery and Liv had faith that she could debunk anything. She walked up next to Edith and Margo. "Heard what?" Liv asked.

The amount of side eye would've been a hint to most people to go away. Liv just stood there not blinking. Finally Margo put away her eyeliner. "You seem like a pure soul," she said. "So I'll warn you. I heard that anyone who stares too long at this bathroom mirror disappears without a trace."

Liv snorted a blast of air out. "There's no way," she said. "School security would arrest any child molester or crazed maniac that got within fifty meters of the school."

Edith gave a dark chuckle. "Thats because the real danger is in the mirror," she said. "They say that if someone stares into the glass for too long, a black eyed copy of you appears. If you see it, you automatically get dragged through the mirror and it devours your soul."

Liv scoffed; this was sheer idiocy. "I'm gonna stare into my reflection for five minutes," she said. "If nothing happens, then I'll find you at lunch to tell you I told you so."

She couldn't tell if it was admiration or disbelief in their eyes. Whatever the case, they didn't speak for a moment. "Nice knowing you," Edith said. The pair walked away leaving Liv to her own thoughts.

She walked up to the mirror and tried not to blink. Eventually the moisture left her eyes and she was forced to close them. When she continued her observations it was clear to her that had appeared wasn't her reflection anymore. Liv moved, it moved.

Suddenly it smiled, a mouth full of grey gums and needle like teeth was exposed. Hands and arms of surreal proportions grabbed Liv. The silver reflective surface rippled as the girl was pulled through a divide between realities. Once the waves subsided, there was nothing to hint anyone had been there or anything had happened.