Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

It was an old mirror, victorian with silver edges, curls adding up to something that made the silhuett of the ocean. He knew at once, it was the one. She would love it, the perfect gift for the perfect woman. He brought it to the cashier and asked about it.

”It's from like.. the 20's or something, used to hang in Crawford Manor. Nice piece, just the right amount of creepy.” the cashier said, smiling toward Dominic.

”I actually find it beautiful.” Dominic replied, smiling at the young woman.”Did you know, back in the day people used to say that mirrors were powerful enough to trap a soul, once it had been released from it's body?”
”You mean when the person was dead, the soul went into the mirror?”
”Yes. They even went far enough that they covered every reflecting surface in their homes to make sure the people they loved made it to heaven.” Dominic said as the cashier wrapped paper around the mirror and put it in a bag with the thrift store's name on it, Out With the Old.

”People do have a tendency to take the occult to strange levels.” the cashier smiled as he payed for the mirror.

”Have a nice day sir!” she shouted as the door to the stor swung shut between him and her, and Dominic felt a smile on his lips. Few things could brighten his day as much as friendly people. He knew that it was part of her job to treat customers well and be kind to them, but he could also tell it was in her character. He had what some called ”people skills”. Personally, he preferred to say that he had the ability to read people.

He walked down the street in a leasury pace; at his age, there was no longer a place to hurry to. He had come to the point where he realised that time was something fluent and bendy, and that every man himself decided when he was late and when he wasn't. Also, he had no power over time, and no matter how much the younger men he met when taking his walks, rushed down the street to get from place to pace... Dominic never decided to speed up.

Amelia waited for him when he got home. She was the perfect definition of a grandmother; she wore an apron with a pattern of red squares, her hair was thin and grey even though it was long, black and thick the day she first had met Dominic. A smell of freshly baked cookies surrounded her wherever she went. Unfortunately, Amelia never had the chance to becoma a grandmother; she and Dominic had been unable to concieve. Instead, they became the friendly, elderly couple that everyone felt free to send their kids to if they needed a babysitter.

”Dominic!” she smiled toward him, and every time she smiled, the years melted away before Dominics eyes. Amelia would always be 17 to him, she would never change. As long as her eyes sparkled with laughter and joy, she was always just a darkhaired teenage beauty with her whole life ahead of her.

”I brought you something.” Dominic knew his wife loved surprises, and she had been talking about getting a mirror for the hallway for such a long time..

”It's perfect.” Amelia breathed as he showed her.”It will fit perectly above the dresser.” Dominic got a hammer and a nail, and soon the couple were standing in front of their new purchase, admiring the skillful craft around the edges of it.

”The frame is a masterpiece.” Amelia smiled and kissed her husband's cheek. None of them noticed the small silhuett of a woman in the corner of the mirror, slightly grey, frozen solid, like she had been painted there.

”Mirror, mirror of them all, who's the farest of them all?” Amelia joked, and Dominic laughed when answering in a deep voice.

”You, my dear, is farest of them all.”

The painted woman in the glass flinched.

”I once was lost, but now, I'm found. Was blind, but now I see...” the hymn was one of the dearest ones to Amelia, and she sang it while taking the cookies out of the oven. Dominic had gone to one of the neighbour's, Patrick and Stacy's, to have a late night drink with Patrick. Amelia was baking for the Church's bake sale.

The reflection in mirror shifted, Amelia could have sworn it. She could barely see it from the kitchen, in the corner of her eye, but she saw it. There was a beam of light roaming through her new mirror. But Amelia was a rational woman, and she just shook it off like a duck shakes water from her feathers. She happily went about baking, not noticing the dark shadow that slipped out of her new mirror, down to the floor into a puddle of pure darkness. It floated, just about an inch over the floor.

Amelia, unknowingly sang without hesitation, not knowing that in the seconds that followed a figure took shape in their hallway. It had a hoarse voice, like it hadn't spoken in decades. It looked like a woman, but the cold that came from her, glowing around her like the faint glow of an old lightbulb. And it spoke, chanted, the same verse over and over and over, whispering...

”Bloody Mary bloody Mary, coarsing blood, bloody Mary bloody Mary, none understood, bloody Mary bloody Mary, up to no good.” she giggled, and transformed from a woman into a blackhaired woman in to a little girl with even darker hair, a white top and a pair of blue pants. After the change she let Amelia notice her.

”Are you lost, sweetheart?” Amelia asked.”Are you the daughter of the new family on the other side of the road?”
”I know what you did, Amelia.” the girl said.”I know about the camaro and the little girl in red.”

”What are you talking about?” Amelia stuttered.

”The girl in red, long gone, dead.” the girl mumbled.”And you are about to become just the same.”

”No.. It was an accident!”
”You're a killer, Amelia.”

”No! She came out of nowhere, it was a mistake!”

”Murder, bloody Murder!”

And the girl changed again, for the last time. Her nails grew longer, her mouth wider and her teeth grew pointy and greenish. Amelia stumbled backwards, hitting her lower back against the dishwasher.

”The family never got to say their goodbyes.. Now I'm here to take your eyes.”

They say when bloody Mary starts scratching, she doesn't stop until she claws right through your skull, into your brain and out the back of your head. That was exactly how Dominic found his wife. The wounds were still fresh, her skull pooring blood onto the floor.

There were two holes in her head, clawed with almost surgical skill; two cylindric empty spaces right where her eyes used to be.