Reflections

I stared at myself in the floor length mirror, twisting and turning my body to look at it from different angles before letting out a sigh of disappointment,
“What is wrong with me?” I say as I look at a side view of my body “why am I so unhappy with myself?” I said while looking at myself head on, examining every inch of myself and felt nothing but disgust.
“What’s wrong with me?” I asked my reflection as if it would give me an answer back, however this was reality and no magical mentor was going to give me some riddle that would give me the answers I sought, instead I threw on some baggy clothes and left the room to go about my day.

“How was your weekend Riley?” Sara, my best friend, said with her usual chipper smile. I returned her bright smile with one of my own and began telling her about all of the things I had done.
“... And then my brother laughed so hard that juice came out his nose, how was your weekend?” I asked, still laughing from my own tale,
“Oh, you know…” She trailed off, taking a moment to pull her phone out of her bag “James and I planned to kill you and dump your body in the town over” she unlocked her phone and started scrolling her social media as if she didn’t just say the most horrific thing imaginable but then she sighed and locked her phone to look at me “what’s wrong Riley?” She asked, finally seeing the horror on my face,
“You… You planned to murder me with your boyfriend?” I asked, scooting away from her ever so slightly but now it was her turn to look horrified,
“What!? What are you talking about? You’re my best friend in the whole wide world, why would I plan to murder you with my EX-boyfriend, I just told you he cheated on me with some girl from the town over!” Sara exclaimed, horror and shock written all over her face but I could swear I saw hatred in there as well, however I blinked and it was gone, as if it was never there to begin with. I stood up and started walking away,
“I just remembered I had an errand to run! I’ll talk to you later!” I called over my shoulder, too afraid to look at her properly just in case I saw that hatred again.

As soon as I got home I locked the doors and closed all of the windows and curtains, shutting everything and everyone out before making my way to my bedroom to sit in front of the same floor length mirror as before, only this time, my reflection was different, something was off. I usually felt like something was wrong with my body but this time I couldn’t place what exactly was wrong because everything looked the same, at least I thought so. I moved in closer, watching my reflection and that’s when I noticed, my reflection was delayed by the slightest bit. I panicked and scrambled to my feet to turn the mirror around before hiding under the blankets in my bed,
“I’m being ridiculous, mirrors can’t be delayed, I must just be tired” I nodded to myself as if the matter was settled and I laid there, waiting for sleep to come but it never did, my mind was racing as it went over the day and my interaction with Sara, “How did I mishear her so badly? Am I so stressed out that I’m becoming delirious?...” I continued to ask the empty room question after question after question as they popped into my head for hours until something unexpected happened.
“Riley…” A voice whispered, I shot out of bed and looked around my empty room,
“Hello? Is someone there?” I called out but there was no answer, I shook my head and chalked it up to hearing things “get a grip Riley, your head is playing tricks on you” I tapped my cheeks to make sure I was fully awake then left my room to eat and have a long shower, hoping that destressing would settle my mind and my nerves.
After eating some delicious food and having a nice relaxing shower I turned my mirror back around, figuring everything would be okay now that I was no longer as stressed as I was before. I was wrong. In the mirror I was covered in blood, my body shook from head to toe while I stared at my reflection. I looked into my eyes but instead of fear, they were vacant and emotionless.
“Who are you?” I asked my reflection, studying the shell of a person staring at me. The reflection didn’t answer back, nor did I expect it to but there was something about it that made me think for just a second that I might get a response, however none came.
I grew angrier and angrier at the reflection that stared at me with such emotionless eyes, my own anger wasn’t even showing in them but I could feel it within myself,
“Who are you!?” I screamed at my reflection as it screamed back at me, and there it was again, that delay, but it was a longer delay this time like the signal was bad.

My phone rang beside me. After screaming at my own reflection I sat on the floor in front of it, staring it down to make sure it didn’t do anything else weird while I wasn’t looking, I wasn’t crazy. I answered the phone still watching my reflection,
“Hello?” I asked softly, watching my lips move a second after I heard my voice,
“Oh thank god, are you okay? I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for weeks!” It was Sara, she sounds worried,
“What do you mean? We saw each other yesterday” I briefly took my eyes away from the mirror to look at the date on my phone. When I looked back at the mirror I saw my legs, I was standing, which was odd since I was still sitting on the floor,
“Riley? Are you still there?” Sara asked, but I didn’t answer, I looked up at my own legs until I reached my face “Riley? Don’t forget to bring a shovel, you’re going to need it” I stopped, being brought back to Sara,
“What did you say?” I asked, my heart was in my throat as it was beginning to get hard to breath,
“I said, you’re going to need a shovel to dig your grave” she said sweetly, I could even imagine her usual chipper smile, even if she had said something completely unhinged.
“Sara, are you playing games with me? Ha ha, this has been a fun prank but please stop, this is starting to freak me out” I pleaded, squeezing my eyes shut for fear of my reflection doing anything else weird. There was a knock on my bedroom door, making me jump and scream in fear,
“Riley!? Are you okay!?” My bedroom door was thrown open and in came, Sara.
“Wha-what? When did you get here? We were just on the phone a minute ago!” I yelled, I was now in full panic mode,
“Don’t you remember? You broke down crying asking me to come over because you didn’t feel safe alone. We’ve been watching movies for hours now, you just came in here to grab your phone” she crouched beside me, her face was a mix of worry and confusion “are you okay?” I looked at the mirror and it seemed normal, no delay and nothing seemed out of place, except for the slight smile on my reflection’s face. Very slowly I reached up and touched the corners of my lips, they were turned down, I wasn’t smiling in the slightest,
“Sara I need help, I keep seeing things, and hearing things, and if what you’ve said is true then I’ve lost so much time, I don’t know what’s happening to me” I broke down sobbing,
“You’ve told me this already Riley” I heard her scoff “why do I even bother? Your skull is apparently too thick to comprehend what I’ve been telling you this entire time” I looked up at her in shock “what? Don’t look so surprised, now get up, we’re leaving” she began pulling on my arm, forcing me up to my feet and dragged me out of the house to her car.
“Where are we going?” I repeatedly asked her this the entire drive until we reached a large building, it didn’t look like anything special, just a generic building people rented out, regardless of how many times I asked even after we got out of the car she refused to respond, she wouldn’t even look at me as we walked through the building and into the one behind it. “Why won’t you tell me what’s going on!?” I yelled, but she grabbed my arm and dragged me through some locker rooms and into an indoor swimming pool room. I yanked my arm away from her and ran to the doors but they were locked from the outside. “Why are you doing this to me!?” I screamed at her back and this time she snapped around, a look of disgust and hatred was clear on her face, but it wasn’t Sara, it was me. I was staring at myself but everything was wrong. I took a step back as I stared at myself “what is wrong with you?” I looked at my face in horror “why are you looking at me like that? Why do you look so disgusted with me? Why do you hate me so much?” I yelled at myself as the other me rushed over, I stumbled back to get away but fell into the pool.

I was floating, no, I was sinking, and as I looked up I saw faces, lots of faces staring back at me, some were horrified, others concerned, some angry, and others held indifference as they stared at me. Why were they staring at me? I could swim back up if I wanted and that’s when I saw it amongst the faces, my own face with the most satisfied grin I had ever seen on another person. Maybe I should just stay here, it was more peaceful here anyway, I didn’t have to see my own judgemental face anymore. I closed my eyes and let the abyss take me over.
Everyone was looking over as a body was dragged out of the pool, a woman was sobbing as a policemen held her away from getting too close to the body,
“Riley!” The woman screamed, it seemed like she was very close to the person who fell into the pool.
“What was wrong with them?” Someone in the crowd asked, everyone was whispering about the incident, about how the person was screaming at anyone who got too close and when that woman rushed towards them to stop them from falling into the pool, they fell back, hit their head and fell in anyway. At some point someone called the police, but everyone was too stunned to do anything but watch as they drowned.