Umme Hani Anika

“Oh…my…God!” bellowed Nora staring with eyes as wide as saucers at the strangely familiar figure, on the other side of the bathroom mirror. There, in the middle of the mirror with darkness as her garment, a pale-faced, white-haired girl with white irises against the black background of her eyes stood Nora herself with an eerie smile. Instantaneously, Nora noticed she could not breathe properly, her body was completely frozen and not dropping the smile for even a second, the figure on the mirror finally spoke with a hoarse voice, ‘Excuse the late introduction. I am well technically you…my name’s Aron, I also go by other names depending on whose mirror I wish to appear, and you are currently residing in a fragment of my world and me in yours,’ and then with the snap of Aron’s fingers Nora was released and she dashed for her bedroom door.

Nora pulled on the door handle to try and open it, but to no avail. ‘Oh…I would not do that if I were you’, came a voice like the ghost of a whisper. Nora turned back slowly, beads of perspiration trickled down her face seeing Aron slightly annoyed, in her closet mirror whose irises had turned blood red. ‘I’ll pretend I did not see you doing that, I was going to warn you to not touch the door,’ snapped Aron. At this Nora pinched herself for a reality check, but was petrified to learn it was otherwise. As Aron closed her eyes momentarily the irises had turned back to being white and she spoke, ‘Now you have exactly twenty-four hours to leave this place, all you have to do is find a mirror where you can see your own reflection, easy right?’ ‘No’, said Nora finally finding her voice, ‘You can’t do this to me, please!’ ‘Please let me go!’ pleaded Nora with tears brimming in her eyes, if she wanted to get out of there she might as well forget her pride. ‘Oh! I am more than willing to let you go since you seem to have unfinished business in your world,’ with this Aron showed her the peaceful sleeping faces of her mother and father, through the mirror. She did not know where the courage had come from but Nora herself was surprised when she glared at Aron and barked ‘DON’T…YOU…DARE…HURT…THEM!’ heaving with each word. ‘Well…I might have to if you are stuck in this world!’ retorted Aron as she made a fake show of polishing her long, razor-sharp, fiery red fingernails and blowing on them. ‘Oh and do find yourself a torch or candle, it gets dark here pretty fast,’ vanished Aron with the warning.

True to her words, through the window, Nora could see the sun was quickly going for a slumber. She stood still for a moment taking the scene of the room, from her pink bed with matching bed sheets, to the teddy bear sitting beside her walk-in-closet, to the bunny slippers and pajamas she was wearing, nothing seemed to be amiss in this world, except for the small glitch that she did not have any reflection in any type of glass material. She started rummaging through the things in the room looking for the mirror where she might be able to see her reflection, but it was futile. Suddenly a groan sounded from the other side of the door, realizing that the sun had set already she remembered about finding a torch. Trusting her hunch she ran straight to her backpack, fished for her cellphone and luckily found it. Turning on the flashlight she accidentally pointed at the door and noticed the room’s door was ajar. Someone had entered the room and was walking about in the room with careful footsteps almost matching with Nora’s. She held her breath as she flung the cellphone torch here and there and when it fell on a couple of salivating, yellow canines about five feet high belonging to some creature with obscure figure just a few feet away, she fainted.

When she finally came to, she saw Aron in her closet mirror standing with a disgruntled expression as she uttered, ‘You have only 2 hours left.’ ‘No way!… I slept that long?’ inquired Nora. ‘I took away some of your time since I had to intervene last night,’ answered Aron. Nora’s eyes widened at this. She felt a chill seeing Aron whose eyes had changed to a murky green colour, it was like she was seeing one of her photo negatives. ‘B-but… I cannot find the mirror in such a short time!’ said Nora meekly. ‘Is there… no other way?’ she asked. ‘Well, there is but it would cost you, your most precious thing,’ answered Aron. ‘And what is that?’ quizzed Nora. ‘Your soul!’ replied Aron with a smirk. Nora mulled over her choices, stuck for the rest of her life in this abominable world or go back to her own world at the cost of selling her soul. After what seemed like an hour or so, Nora looked Aron straight in the eye and said ‘I want to go back to my world.’ ‘You sure? Don’t say I didn’t warn you!’ responded Aron.

Nora woke up with a start and saw that most of the people in her office had left for the day.  Remembering what happened before she wanted to pass it off as a dream, but it felt too real to be one. She never imagined her darkest fear would morph into something like that.