Mirror Mirror

7/12/2083

I have seen Mackalya in my dreams again. Each night it becomes more and more real; her powers strengthening from my agonizing fear. Since the year '79, she has been working her way into my head to take over my thoughts and control me. I swear that I have seen her in person a few times, but it has to be impossible, as she is not real.

I AM REAL.

I shake my head and rub my face at the sudden voice in my mind. I know it is Mackayla. Each time I try to write in my journal about her, she appears and puts my normal thoughts to a halt. It seems she is growing stronger by the night. At first, she had only been powerful when I was in a deep slumber, but not it has gotten to the point where she is appearing in my real life. I can see her, I can hear her. She is everywhere.

Mackayla is me. But I am Kaitlyn. We are the same person, only she is evil, and I am good. She appears in my dreams and tries to be rid of me in order to take over my life and leave a bad trail of my memory. She wants to pretend to be me so that my friends and family have a negative impression. She has even told me that when she finally gets me, she will kill them, too. It terrifies me just how powerful she is becoming, though I am the one that is allowing her to because I do not know how to stop her. I do know one thing though: I need to stop fearing her.

She feeds off of fear. She has appeared to others in their dreams, making them think that it is me, as Kaitlyn, and making them fear me. It has been working, and through the fear of others, she is beginning to manifest herself into the real world and making herself appear to others as a real human being.

I learnt that if I stay awake most nights she does not bother me as much. I have been restless for the past eight nights trying to figure out how to destroy her before she does so to me first. I figure that I will have to face her head on, though my chances of defeating her are slim.

I have talked to a close friend, Jacob, about my experiences. He has experienced Mackayla for himself and is the only one who generally believes that what I am saying is not complete nonsense. He agreed to help me on my mission to stop Mackayla before she takes over my life. We had come up with a plan — one that makes the most sense. The plan requires me to go to sleep — something that has terrified me immensely — to try to bring her out of the alternate universe and into the real universe. I had always believed that if I fell back into a slumber, that it would be the last time. However, this is the only way to bring Mackayla into the real world so that I can get rid of her for good.

“I will record your behavior as you sleep,” Jacob had suggested. “That way I can tell you how you react to seeing her and come up with a way to appear stronger in her presence.”

As I make myself comfortable to sleep, I grab Jacob’s closed pocket knife from the end table and hold it tight in my hand. A concerned look forms on his face, but after looking at him worriedly and nodding, he finally understood why I had felt comfortable sleeping with it. Somehow, in these odd dreams, whatever I had slept with appeared in the dream as well. Therefore, if I need something to defend myself, I have it.

“I can’t be the one to kill her,” I explain to Jacob.

He nods, and says, “I will wake you up if it gets too dangerous.”

It’s nice that he knows why I cannot be the one to kill her. It would ruin everything, and my life would be threatened.

I am in a forest, but it eventually evolves into a desert. It appears to be extremely hot, but I feel nothing but chills. I am scared again.

As an echo, I can hear Jacob’s voice, “Don’t fear her, Kaitlyn. Keep your strength.”

I continue walking, searching for Mackayla. “Come out, you drag,” I mumble.

I turn my head left and right, wondering from which direction she is going to come at me this time. I hear faint whistling in the distance, and suddenly a mist blows through the dry air and trickles my skin. My heart begins to pound heavily, and my stomach drops at the thought that Mackayla has finally found me.

“Well, well, well,” a voice gently coos. “Long time no see, Miss Kaitlyn Marie.”

I furrow my eyebrows and look around, turning my body in every direction in hopes to catch the slightest glimpse of her.

“Where are you?” I ask angrily.

“Right here,” Mackayla says.

Moments later, I feel a heavy body on my back, and the weight brings me to the ground. My face hits the dirt hard, and I inhale dust involuntarily.

“Don’t let her, Kaitlyn!” Jacob’s voice returns, suddenly calming me down, and somehow strengthening me.

I push up on my body, shoving Mackayla off of me. I quickly stand to my feet and stare her in the face with my eyebrows furrowed. Her smile is provoking me, and my agitation is amusing her. She had noticed the knife in my hand and crossed her arms teasingly.

“I assume you’re going to use that to kill me?” she asks, but I do not answer.

She takes a step forward, and I can feel my hands shaking uncontrollably.

“You’re seizing, wake up! Kaitlyn!”

But I cannot wake up. I do not have her in my grip yet.

I eye Mackayla, daring her to come after me. All I have to do is grab her with a tight hold, then she will come with me when — if I wake up.

Mackayla can read my mind. She knows my plans. However, I do not have a choice. I have to go for it, or this will never end. I squeeze the knife in my hand and take off running toward her, but before I can grab hold of her, she disappears and reappears where I had been standing before I started to run. I take a fall once again, and the antagonist laughs at my attempt.

“You think I’m just going to let you get after me like that? You good people really have no idea how this works.”

I stay on the ground, growing more and more angry and scared as she chuckles at me.

“Kaitlyn, don’t fear her. It’s making her superior to you.” Jacob calls.

I move to stand, but a force shoves me back down.

“Jacob cannot save you,” Mackayla says in a raspy, terrifying tone.

I feel a heavy pressure on my shoulders that is holding me against the ground.

“I’m not afraid of you!” I scream. “Leave me alone! I am not scared!”

Mackayla does not laugh at me this time. Her face suddenly appears in mine, her eyes dark with envy and disbelief.

“You seem pretty scared to me,” she says in a mellow tone.

I breathe in and out heavily, squinting my eyes at her in hatred. “I’m NOT afraid of you,” I repeat sternly.

I scream at her until my faces burns red and my knuckles are white. I scream at her until my muscles tighten and all the air escapes my lungs. With each scream, the pressure on my back lightens and lifts my strength while weakening hers. I continue to scream until I am on my feet, can no longer breathe, and have her pinned to the ground. I hold on as tight as possible, knowing that it cannot, and will not be long.

“Jacob!” I scream. “Wake me up!”

Mackayla begins to regain her strength little by little as my fear returns due to the fact that if I do not wake up soon, the entire plan will not work.

“Jacob!” I scream again.

Mackayla’s force begins to push up on me, but I hold on with every piece of strength I have been granted in such little time. And just when I think that Mackayla is going to push me off and over, everything goes still, and the two of us disappear simultaneously.

My eyes snap open, and Jacob yells when he sees Mackayla and I appear together. She pushes me over, forcing my head into the arm of the couch. I drop the pocket knife while trying to keep her off of me. I punch, kick, and scream — anything to keep her off of me long enough for Jacob to act. He quickly crawls over and grabs his pocket knife from under the ottoman without being noticed. I kick at Mackayla’s chest as hard as humanly possible, in my ability anyway, and for a short period of time, she is shoved off of me. Jacob then rushes over and grabs Mackayla by the neck, holding her back from me. I scoot back against the couch, watching as he presses the knife to her neck. She smiles and squirms in his reach, knowing that she is not as strong in the real world as she is in the alternate universe. I breathe heavily as I watch what is going on in front of me. Numerous moments of silence pass by before Jacob drops the knife in front of Mackayla’s body. I become nervous at the sight, but when he twists her neck hard, my heart stops. She slumps to the ground with a hard thud, then Jacob runs over to me and wraps his arms around my trembling body. I cannot take my eyes off of Mackayla. This is over. It’s finally over.