2018

Chloe leaned back in the soft brown arm chair of Doctor Parker's Manhattan office, clasping her hands in her lap. Beside her sat a fake pot plant which she couldn't help but fidget with every so often. It was an anxious habit. She always felt anxious when she was sitting in this office, more so than usual.

Across from her sat Doctor Stephanie Parker, a psychologist with long dark hair, pale skin, and brown eyes. Chloe figured that the woman might have been in her late forties, but the makeup made it hard to be certain.

Doctor Parker tapped at the notepad in her hands with the black and gold expensive looking pen. "Why are you here, Chloe?"

Chloe shook her head and took in a deep breath before she spoke. "The truth is... I haven't been sleeping very much. I spoke with my mother the other day she still treats me like I'm a lost animal... She refuses to mention anything about that night... But every time I close my eyes my eyes... I see her... I see my grandmother's body lying in that blood. I thought I was fine! I thought that I was over it!"

She wiped away a few tears with her knuckles and bit down on her bottom lip. The truth was that she felt that she was going insane. The night that she had found her grandmother's body lying on the floor, she was certain that she had seen something in that smashed mirror.

Chloe could have sworn that she had seen the reflection of her grandmother standing behind her. But that would have been impossible. Her grandmother's body had been lying on the floor entirely out of view of the mirror. The reflection had disappeared so suddenly, which was why she had always put it down to shock.

That night had changed her entire life. She had gone through therapy and had broken up with her boyfriend. She had managed to hold onto her sanity long enough to move away to college and then to Manhattan, but she had always felt plagued by the memories.

"Traumatic memories can resurface over time," Doctor Parker said. "But that is all they are. Just memories... Have you been taking your medication?"

Chloe shook her head again. "No, they weren't working... I was having some... I guess you would say side effects."

"Side effects?"

"I was seeing things that weren't there... Like people in the mirrors."

Doctor Parker's eyes narrowed on Chloe. "Do you mean reflections?"

"I mean people... there was nobody with me. They were hallucinations, plain and simple!" Chloe could feel her paranoia rise. Would this confession be the one that would admit her to an asylum? She had left out the sight of her own distorted reflection.

Sometimes it looked as if her own reflection had a mind of its own... Like it was mocking her or something.

"I can prescribe you something a little different, Chloe. Something that will not cause any hallucinations. I will also prescribe you some sleep medication. You need to sleep. I suggest you take some time from work and get a good night's rest." The doctor scribbled something down on her pad and tore out the page, handing it to Chloe.

Chloe stood up and looked down at the words on the paper. They were illegible to read but she knew that they were just the names of more fancy drugs that would just fail to help her. "Thank you, doctor Parker." She left the office and headed for home, stopping by the pharmacy to pick up her prescription on the way.

By the time she had reached her apartment, it was seven at night and the sun had already set. Her apartment was dark, so she flicked on the dim skylight and placed her purse on the cupboard by the door.

The sound of the song 'Youngblood' alerted her attention to her phone ringing in her purse. She picked it up and answered it to see that her younger brother was calling. "Hey Alex, what's up?"

"I get that you have a life and all... but why would you call mom and dad and not talk to your baby brother?"

"I'm sorry Alex... you were at school. But we're talking now, aren't we?"

"Yeah, only because I called you. But anyway, what did you say to mom? She and dad won't tell me."

Chloe shrugged even though she knew that her younger brother couldn't see. She pulled out her two prescription bottles from her purse and walked towards her bathroom with her phone pressed against her ear.

She wasn't going to remind her younger brother of the night that she had last seen their grandmother.

He had been sheltered from that scene and it was not something that she would reveal to him. He was far too young to understand.

"Chloe... Chloe? Are you there?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm here." She had made it to the bathroom sink where there was a drinking glass sitting beside the tap.

She put her brother's voice on speaker and left her phone on the shelf, filling up the glass with water. She opened her medicine bottles and took out a capsule from each.

"Dude, I called to speak to you and you're barely talking to me," Alex said. "What did you say to mom? She's been a wreck since you called."

Chloe swallowed the capsules with the water and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her hazel eyes stared back at her with dark shadows surrounding them. Exhaustion was written across her face. Her light brown hair looked as if it hadn't seen a brush in days. "Alex... I can't tell you... you're only eleven."

"Did it have to do with grandma?"

Chloe glanced at her phone in silence, not realizing that her own reflection was still staring right back at her.

"You need to stop hiding things from me, Chloe. Grandma didn't die... her reflection did." Alex's response sent an eerie chill down Chloe's spine.

She picked up her phone and left the bathroom. "Alex, those mirror stories were just tales. You can't seriously believe them."

"How can I not? That was the last thing that she told me. I'd like to believe that grandma is okay... That she is alive in the mirrorverse."

Chloe was growing tired of her brother's nonsense. She made her way to the bedroom and prepared for bed. "Okay, Alex. I'll call you in the morning. I'm going to bed."

"But it's still early there..."

"Love you, Alex... Bye!" Before he could reply Chloe ended the call and collapsed onto her bed. She reached across to the nightstand to put her phone down. As she did, she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror across from her bed. "Fucking stories!"

She laid her head back down on her pillow and stared at the cracks on her pale white ceiling feeling her eyes close softly. She hoped that she would not have another horrible nightmare about the world on the opposite side of the mirror and about the evil that it contained.

#

Chloe's dream took her back to that night. Back to the night that her grandmother had died. She saw her body lying on the blood-stained tiles. Shards of glass lined the bathroom floor and the sink. The mirror had been smashed.

The pool of blood was coming from her grandmother's neck. She had slit it herself. She had committed suicide, which was very unlike her. Chloe's screams echoed out throughout the house. Amidst the cracks in the mirror, Chloe saw a second person standing right behind her.

But there was nobody standing behind Chloe. That second face had an identical likeness to that of her grandmother. But it was as if she was whispering something to Chloe. Something she couldn't quite understand.

Could it have been a hallucination from the shock? Maybe it had been her spirit? But the image was certainly there and then just like that, it was gone again.