Delusions of Deception

She stares into her reflection, yet the reflection does not resemble her. Instead, it resembles a face that's pale and long with cat-like eyes and a nose that reminds her of a bird's beak. Her hair that's black and shoulder-length, with it straight as a line, with no curves or edges. She grimaces at the reflection, a feeling of nausea rising. She blinks a few times, and the mirror reveals her true look. A round face with wide round eyes, long black curly hair, a button nose, and heart-shaped lips. She sighs in relief and washes her face with water.

Lately, she's been having strange dreams. Flashes of faces appearing in her head, ones she's familiar with but never interacted with before. It consists of a small family of four, who repeatedly appear constantly in her night of slumber.

And then the face that stares back at her, when she looks at herself in the mirror. She has a strange feeling that that girl belongs with that family. She can’t put together why she’s been having those strange dreams, although she has a feeling that it might have something to do with her acting career. Her current role involves a happy young teenager living her life with her big happy family. That was the beginning of those weird dreams.

Pushing that thought aside, Takahashi Hinata is a well-known Actress beloved by the entire world. She starred in the ever-growing popular series, The Blood on my Hands, becoming a big hit for how Hinata portrayed her character. At that time, she had come back from an incident where she had been missing for a year. Using that trauma had really impacted the series and pushed it to have eight seasons when originally only four.

She bathes in her glory in recognition of her skills. She was living her life like a princess in her mansion bigger than the Biltmore Estates. Her father, also well known, directed at least a hundred films, all a big hit. She doesn’t particularly remember her mother, only knowing that she died. Other than that, it’s been her and her father living to their fullest.

Cheerful laughter rings in her ears. A blurred figure comes running towards her with outstretched arms. She catches the blurred figure and swings them around, laughing alongside them before they both fall to the ground. Then, the blurred figure gets to their feet and helps her up. Dragging her to a swing set, where another figure is already swinging on it. The blurred figure jumps up and down and says something she doesn't quite understand, and in a matter of seconds, she finds herself pushing the blurred figure on the swing. She frowns as she wonders how she ended up from in front of the swing to pushing the figure on the swing, but then again, there are many questions running through her head that also needed some explaining. The blurred figure laughs, the other beside them giggling as well. She, too, finds herself filled with joy.

A flash of light catches her and the other two figures' attention. She looked where it came from, and in front of them were two older-looking figures, all smiles with a camera in hand. Again she doesn't understand what they're saying. However, she finds herself posing with the two figures on the swing set. The camera flashes, and the blurred figures on the swing, run towards the other two blurred figures. Together the four figures glance in her direction, expecting her to come over and see the photo.

Strangely, something tells her to stay away from the four figures at the other end of the swing set. That if she were to go over there, something she doesn’t want to know would be revealed to her.

Without her consent, her body moves on its own. She tries to resist, but her body wouldn’t listen. Her body had a mind of its own and knew what it truly needed. She swallows a lump in her throat, a sensation of fear beginning to spiral inside of her. She’s only a few feet away, yet feels like she’s being dragged to a bottomless pit where she can never come back from.

She’s in front of them now, her hand holding the camera. They’re trembling, sweat forming, and she almost loses grip, but a strange force keeps her from dropping it. She hesitates to turn it over, although her hands move and the camera flips.

Her eyes widen in horror, the screen displaying the image of the girl she keeps seeing in the mirror.

Hinata’s eyes snap open. Cold sweat drips down her skin. She shudders when she thinks about the girl in her dream. Who was that girl, and why was this happening to her? She tries to piece the dreams and the girl together, but she could never find a conclusion to these endless nightmares.

Having had enough, she gets herself dressed for the day. Her schedule does not allow her to dwindle from her success. She’ll solve this mystery sooner or later. In the meantime, she had an interview to do.

“Welcome back to SunriseSet News! I bet you’re all excited to see who we have invited!”

The crowd cheers wildly, excitement filling the room.

“We all love and know her, please welcome…… Takahashi Hinata!!!!!!”

Hinata enters the stage and bows to the audience. She then throws kisses to her beloved fans, smiling big and wide for the cameras that flash in her direction.

“It’s an honor to be here, Rebecca. Thank you for the invitation!”

“I’m glad you are enjoying yourself so far. And it’s MY honor to get to meet the worldwide known Actress!”

“Now that we know a bit about the movie you're starring in, we all like to know, is your family just as happy and loving as the film? You seemed to have enjoyed yourself while acting during this movie. Most of the movies you starred in were mainly you being the villain or starring in thriller movies.”

“Well, yes, I do have a knack for playing the villain. It was just kind of an instinct to play them seeing how I myse----” A memory flashes in Hinata’s mind.

It’s a cold day. However, her body is covered well from the bruising Fall breeze. When she finishes taking in the fresh air and enjoying the scenery atop a cliff, she turns around and glances at the body lying against the tree. She smiles pleasantly, walking over to the body and crouching before it. She tilts her head, her smile never fading.

“--re you alright? Hinata?” Rebecca repeatedly calls to Hinata, who has fallen into a daze. Hinata snaps out of it and frowns for a mere second before cameras can even catch the look and switches back to her cheerful expression.

“Sorry. I must’ve not gotten enough sleep.”

Rebecca, the hostess, laughs at the response before stating her question again.

“Well, we are glad to hear you have a knack for being a Villain, but we as an audience want to know more about the family who raised you before you became popular!”

“Oh… well… It’s always been me and my---” She stops mid-sentence, her memory jumbly and shuffling as she tries to remember things she's done with her da---- her younger siblings. She laughs to herself when one particular memory pops into her mind.

“Me and my little brothers, we used to cause my Mom and Dad lots of trouble. I remember this one prank I did with my little brothers that really angered my mom. I had my little brothers get Stick on Paint Streaks and place them all over my parent's bedroom. We then splattered paint all over ourselves and waited for my mom to come home from the store. She was so shocked that she fainted. Of course, father found out, and we were grounded for at least a month.”

The crowds dead silent. They stare with shocked and confused expressions, some even exchange glances of worry for the Actress. Rebecca is so speechless that Hinata tilts her head and asks with an innocent and truly confused tone, “What? Did I say something wrong?”

Rebecca takes a moment to collect herself. “Well…” She clears her throat. “It’s just that… you never had any siblings. Moreover, your mother died a while back. Didn’t she?”

“I di--” her hand hovers over her forehead, a searing pain shooting through her head. Memories of the small family of four engraving into her mind that the pain becomes unbearable. Her ears begin to ring, and sweat drips from her forehead. The world is dizzy, and she thinks she’s about to faint until one memory stands out to her. In the distance, there's a pond. And by that pond there she stood, with someone beside her.

Hinata doesn’t remember much after what happened during the interview at SunriseSet news. The only thing that remains was the pond she saw.

That pond wasn’t a dream but a memory. If she finds that pond, then everything will surely come together. She gathers her belongings and drives to the pond in her memory.

At first, she didn’t know which way to go, but she managed to find that place when things began to look familiar to her. It leads her to a quiet suburban area, two hours away from her current home. The neighborhood was relatively peaceful. A few kids hanging out on the streets, parents chatting with one another, she can tell that this community is very close.

She groans in pain as she has flashes of memories where she, too, was a part of this loving neighborhood. However, her memories are becoming distorted. The memories she made with her father are now being replaced with the mystery family. Many mixed feelings arise in her, not having a clue on what to do with them. She continues to search for the pond, and as she drives by the neighborhood, her head becomes more and more jumbled with flashbacks of this place.

She’s so overwhelmed with frustration and all these mixed emotions that she might explode in outrage of madness. Something she hopes doesn't come to pass. What's even worse is that her headache grows, even more, making this search unbearably endless. As she is close to giving up, she blinks her eyes a few times, rubbing them. She exits her car, the winter breeze catching her off guard.

Once she’s composed, she looks in the direction where she saw two girls going up a trail. Both black-haired with one who had curly hair, and the other that's straight. She follows the girls, who suddenly vanish, but even without their guidance she somehow knows where to go. Passing by frozen bushes and drooping trees, walking down a snow-filled meadow and finally reaching a frozen pond.

And while she took her journey to the frozen pond, memories of herself and the other girl flooded her mind. All pleasant memories of the two together, except for one that's of jealousy for the other's popularity. And when the girl stared at her with her brown orbs, she saw herself with shoulder length black hair, cat like eyes and a long pale face.

A hand goes to her temple, not because of the freezing cold, but because of the memories that sting as they play in her head. She snaps open her eyes when she suddenly hears screaming. She looks at her surroundings but finds no one in the area. She frowns and looks back at the pond, stunned by what she sees.

The sound of water being constantly hit muffles the cries of the girl's plea, as her head continues to stay dunked underneath water. Silence is what's left, and the gears in her head begin to shift. An eerie smile crossing her lips, while tears stain her cheeks, and a thought struck her mind,

How would people react if they knew,

What happened to the real Takahashi Hinata?