The lights flickered and went off. Camila felt as though hundreds of eyes were watching her every move through the darkness of town. She walked desperately through the isolated town as the silver clock struck 12am. She took in the atmosphere, breathless. There were no lights visible. It was total darkness except one store glinting brightly as if done on purpose. She decided to approach it with caution and stumbled on the steps. “Hello? Is anybody there?” She was wearing a light pink coat with long brown boots covering half her thighs. Her hair was kept out in lose curls. Camila looked out into the distance behind her. There was a single butterfly that fluttered by.

It was red.

She strolled into the store. Camila was restless and out of breath. She glanced around her. There were stacks and stacks and stacks of shelves. But the question was, what was on those shelves? Was it a jar of sweets? Or was it something else? She felt frightened and alone. BANG! The door shut closed as the bell made a tinkly noise. The door jerked close on its own. “What’s going on?” Camila asked the empty darkness in confusion. Her head was spiralling out of control and she felt nauseous. Camila ran at the door tugging on the doorknob which was heavy and wooden and extremely tight. She rattled it but it was cold and stubborn. Cold shivers ran down her spine and she began to feel sweaty. She panicked and looked for an escape. Engulfed in darkness, the only object she stumbled across was an antique, withered and rusty mirror. The mirror had black patterns like a slithering snake engraved around it. Her hands clasp and tremble on the doorknob once again which was still sealed closed.

A couple of minutes later, Camila’s fingers had become stiff and cold. She tried to stay as calm as possible and took in a few deep breaths and gazed at the mirror behind her. She endured a sense of inflicting pain. Someone had touched her. It was long, cold bony fingers tapping her shoulder. She shuddered and hesitantly swivelled to face the mirror to find no reflection staring back at her. She felt as though she was being suffocated softly.

Appearing behind her was a pale corpse-looking figure of herself glaring back at her with cold eyes.

~ Thiviya