Most Frightening Reality

The mirror showed a reflection that wasn’t my own. This thought greatly disturbed and frightened Kathy. She had just purchased the antique mirror from an antique shop in Boston, Massachusetts. She and her husband lived in a townhouse where she worked at home on a computer running her own business. Her husband worked for an advertising agency. She had long wanted to get a framed full-length mirror so that she could see how she looked when dressed to go out. That day she had been in the city center and happened to see the mirror through the shop window of an antique store. She had bought it and two men had just delivered it and placed it in a corner of the bedroom near the dresser.

She had specially put on a new dress to see how she looked in the mirror. Now she stood in front of it feeling goose bumps rise on her arms. There way deep in the mirror was a horrifying image of a woman who might be either insane or perhaps a witch. She stood there in a long red cape with a hood over her hair. Her face was white with pencil-sharp eyebrows, two black glowing eyes, a pencil-thin and sharp nose, and the reddest lips she had ever seen. So terrible was this image that she took a sheet and draped it over the mirror.

It still bothered her a lot and she could not imagine how she had not seen anything in the mirror when she had purchased it. When her husband Chris came home for dinner she told him about it right away. He went straight upstairs and Kathy lifted up the sheet. Chris stood in front of the mirror and frowned. He told her to let go of the sheet and they went downstairs for cocktails.

“You didn’t see anything in the mirror at the store?” Chris asked.

Kathy shook her head, “Not a thing, just my own image.”

“Then I suggest you call up the shop tomorrow, tell them what has happened, and have them arrange to pick up the mirror.”

That night when they went to bed Kathy did not sleep well. She had a very bad nightmare where the horrid woman in the mirror comes right up to the front of the mirror, it shatters, and she steps right out of it. The following day after her husband left for work Kathy settled by the computer with a mug of coffee. She found herself searching for information on antique mirrors, witches, strange images, and other things. When she went to make a sandwich at noon time she thought she heard strange noises coming from upstairs.

Leaving the sandwich in the kitchen she went upstairs. Standing outside the bedroom door she felt her heart beating fast in fright. Opening the door she stepped into the bedroom and stood still listening. There was definitely a shuffling sound and it appeared to be coming from the mirror. Slowly she approached the mirror and with a shaking hand she lifted up the sheet. The horrid image was clearly closer to the front of the mirror and it appeared to have a horrid leer to it. Dropping the sheet Kathy ran from the room slamming the door behind her.

When Chris came home she told him about her experience. “Did you phone the shop?”

“I tried to reach them all afternoon but there was no answer”, Kathy replied.

“Well, that alone is strange. I am going upstairs to take a look”. Chris decided.

Curious to see if perhaps this was her imagination about the image moving, Kathy followed him. Chris pulled up the sheet and was not prepared for what he was about to see. The horrible woman was definitely closer to the front of the mirror and she seemed to have a determined look on her face. Chris dropped the sheet back down and turned to Kathy.

“There is definitely something really spooky going on. I don’t want to have this mirror in our bedroom until you can get the shop to take it back”. “Come let’s see if we can move it to the downstairs hallway”.

They both grabbed onto the mirror but it was much to heavy even to budge. It almost seemed as if the mirror had been bolted to the floor. However, Kathy had seen two workmen carry up the stairs and they hadn’t seemed to be struggling.

The next day Kathy spent another anxious time all alone. She tried to get in touch with the shop but there was no answer. She called Chris at work and he asked her to fax him the receipt for the mirror. He was going to stop by the antique store to see what was going on. After work Chris went to the store but in place of the antique store was the New and Used Bookstore. He entered the shop and spoke to the owner showing him the receipt. The owner looked puzzled and informed him that he had opened the shop 3 years ago and as far as he knew on that block there were no antique shops.

Meanwhile back at the townhouse Kathy finally decided that enough was enough. She had been hearing shuffling sounds and other strange noises all afternoon. She was thinking about locking the bedroom door but had decided that was not going to help matters. Now she was determined to put a stop to this madness and figured that perhaps smashing the mirror would end it all. Then they could find a way to get the mirror downstairs and out of their house.

Slowly Kathy climbed up the stairs and trembling from head to foot she opened the bedroom door. The shuffling noise and other sounds had stopped. Everything appeared to be quiet. She went over to the mirror holding a heavy vase and pulled the sheet off. The horrid woman’s face was flat against the mirror and before Kathy could scream the mirror smashed inward. Greatly disturbed by what he had found out Chris pulled up to the townhouse. He got out of the car and started toward the steps leading up to the townhouse. Suddenly he stopped and looked up. How strange it was that the townhouse was dark. Kathy’s car was here so she should have been home. Perhaps the mirror had spooked her so much that she had gone to her friend’s apartment.

He reached the front door and with a shaking hand put in the key. Before he could turn the key the door was flung open. There standing before him was that horrid mirror image but for some strange reason it seemed to have Kathy’s eyes. It said, “Welcome home”.

The next day the main story in the Boston Chronicle:

Local man Chris Harris was found dead after having fallen backwards down the steps of his townhouse. His wife Kathy Harris is missing and her parents are seeking answers to their daughter’s disappearance. The only thing that was unusual in the townhouse was a smashed mirror in the bedroom.