Psychomanteum

The mirror showed a reflection that wasn't my own.

I sit quietly in the dark, observing her pale features and black, beady, pupil-less eyes. Her lips, strung together with ebony thread, quiver as if to move.

I reach my hand out, slowly inching it toward the surface of the mirror. A shudder takes hold of me, and I consider withdrawing my hand.

But curiosity killed the cat. The glass cracks beneath the warmth of my palm. I cannot breathe.

"Pandora?" Jax called out through the closed door. "We're gonna switch it up and send you into the basement to start the spell."

No response. Odd, Jax thought to himself. Maybe she popped the noise-canceling headphones on to listen to the digital voice recorder. He slowly pushed the door open, careful not to startle the self-proclaimed psychic - and his long-time friend.

To his relief, Pandora was sitting in the wooden chair where he had left her, staring blankly into the mirror. He could barely make out the features of her face in its reflection.

"Um, hey, Pan?"

Jax saw her eyes shift slightly in the mirror's reflection as she seemingly acknowledged his presence.

"It's, uh, it's time to switch to the basement," he continued. "That is, if you don't mind."

"I don't mind," Pandora replied. Her voice seemed more monotone than usual. Was she just hyper-focused?

"Okay, cool. Did you manage to capture anything in here?"

Pandora arose from her seat, the wooden chair dragging noisily across the floor as she stood up. The sound was deafening in the otherwise silent room.

"Nothing significant."

Jax, slightly confused by her shortness, nodded his head. "Right. I mean, we weren't given much information by the homeowners, so I won't be surprised if we don't catch much."

Pandora turned on her heels to face Jax. A crooked smile crossed her face, pale against the darkness that enveloped her. "Perhaps we will uncover something in the basement."

She walked out of the room, a cool breeze trailing her that chilled Jax to the bone. He shuddered and rubbed his hands on his upper arms. Jax followed his friend, unaware of the cracks that had developed in the mirror's glass surface.

In the basement, Pandora and Jax were met by their two fellow investigators, Henry and Liam. Liam was tinkering with the battery pack on a video camera, cursing under his breath.

"What's wrong?" Jax asked Liam.

Liam sighed and offered his explanation. "This is the third battery pack we've run through in the last five minutes. Five. Minutes. They were all charged up, I swear!"

Jax was the one who had charged the batteries. This particular camera was brand-spankin'-new, having only ever been tested once out of the box at home. He had been able to run it for hours on just one battery there, no problem.

"Maybe something is draining the batteries of their energy," Henry - the group's hardcore believer - offered.

Pandora chuckled but did not speak.

"What's her damage?" Liam asked Jax.

"She's fine," Jax said, although he wasn't quite sure he believed it. "Are we ready to roll?"

Liam turned on the video camera and checked its battery status. "Fully charged. Let's do this. I just hope she is ready." Liam glared at Pandora, who stood silently, smiling eerily at him.

Henry picked up the boom mic while Liam pointed the X-spot cameras at Jax and Pandora before manning the handheld camera. He nodded at Jax once the camera was recording.

Jax turned toward the handheld camera and began to speak. "So far, we have had no apparent paranormal phenomena occur inside Riverside Manor. However, the one hot-spot the homeowners warned us about was right here in the basement. According to them, there is a portal to Hell in this hole right here." Jax pointed at a dug-out crevasse about three-and-a-half feet in depth; Liam trained the camera into the hole and zoomed in.

"As you can see," Jax continued, "the hole appears to have been man-made, dug into the soil. Most of the basement floor is covered in concrete, but this area was never paved over. We've set it up so that Pandora can conduct a séance of sorts using a spell to communicate with any spirits that might be coming through this portal.

"Pandora, whenever you're ready."

I saw it. I saw it all.

And I was powerless to stop it.

My friends... I could not warn them though, believe me, I tried. But I was not the one in control of my body - it was.

From the other side of the cracked mirror, I watched it walk out of the house with crimson smears on my hands.

What have I unleashed into the world?