Wasn't

Introduction

This story is for the Vocal "Broken Mirror" Challenge which you can read about below. The music is David Bowie's cover of "Around and Around" . By the end of this story, you will know why.

This was inspired by a five-second sequence in the film "Everything Everywhere All at Once".

First

The mirror showed a reflection that wasn't my own. I looked in the mirror, it was round and shiny, it wasn't me in the mirror, well it was, in and out, but my head and mind were spinning. There was something wrong, it was like the mirror would not let me go.

I wasn’t sure how I had got here.

There I was, sitting on the floor looking into this strange mirror that would not let me close my eyes, it would not let me go. I needed someone to help me escape, but I was pinned here by something, almost paralysed.

I was helpless.

I couldn't take my eyes off the mirror, and it was speaking in some kind of demonic, unintelligible language, I think it wanted my soul.

Second

I don’t know if it’s the stuff that the guy gave me last night. He told it would blow me out of this world, but now I am sitting looking at this mirror. I need a drink, but I can’t move, my flesh feels like it it drying out, my blood feels like it is turning to dust in my veins, and there are flies buzzing, and that is driving me mad.

The flies, the buzzing, and the mirror is twisting my mind like a wet towel squeezing out all the life from me.

The mirror is stealing my soul and the flies are stealing my life. I am being eaten alive. I know I have a phone in my pocket but I cannot move, I know that soon I will be no more. Something is coming for me and I cannot stop it. I am doomed.

Finale

After calls to the police about a missing person, he had not turned up for work or phoned in, and family and friends had called to the house but were unable to gain access. All the curtains and blinds were shut and had been for weeks according to neighbours.

Police broke into the house and were appalled by the smell of decay and the sound of buzzing from the garage. There was a door from the kitchen to the garage and when the police opened it a swarm of flies flew out.

In the garage was a desiccated body, that had been attacked by the swarm and on the floor next to it were emptied packs of Class “A” drugs and syringes. It looked like the owner had been on some kind of drug binge and was sitting on the floor in front of the washing machine, which incredibly was still running.

It was stuck on a wash cycle and was still spinning the contents around, and this man must have been just watching it. Who knows what was going through his mind or why he just stayed here until he died watching the washing machine?

Maybe the autopsy would reveal something, but until now he had just been a normal everyday person. There was no history of mental problems or drug abuse, but the scene in the garage told its own story.

Was this the drugs or something more sinister? The empty syringes and packets were more than a lethal cocktail for anyone, and the question was, what had caused this man to do this to himself?