Violent blasts of hot air threatened the sky which was
full of dark masses of cloud hanging over Brenton Village. Now and then forks
of lightning flashed in the distance, plunging an isolated house, fringed by
fields and woodland into darkness. Sitting by the window, facing the fireplace,
Aleah shivered from to time to time. She sat with a diary on her lap, holding a
note. Recognizing the slanting handwriting, she began to read.
‘As you’re a young woman, you’re old enough now to
understand, to face the truth. It’s high time you knew the truth about your
life. Who killed your adoptive parents? What was the real nature of your
adoptive father? Why did we bring you up, protect you? All you need to know is
in the diary - especially in the page marked by the book-mark. Read on but only
if you wish.
Love, Grandpa’.
‘Be Careful!’
A
sudden, sharp stab of pain struck her full in the chest. ‘What! Killed…
the real nature… to protect me… but from whom or what? She was totally mystified by the words. A stream of
thoughts and deep anxiety flooded over her.
‘I
can’t believe it. No way! She shouted, squeezing the paper. ‘I’ve lived a lie
for 25 years’.
Large and thin and with papyrus-like pages, the diary
was covered with simulated, worn out leather. She went straight to the page
that was marked and suddenly she panicked, wrinkling her nose in disgust as she
looked at the picture. Where there should have been one face and two arms, there
weren’t. Reflected in an ornate mirror, a slim body held out four thin arms
outstretched as if to grab you. Four screaming, lined faces topped the demon’s
body framed by long, hair flying.
‘How could this diary, or even this awful creature,
and I be directly linked? She asked herself, looking puzzled.
She peered at the picture, her face becoming as white
as a sheet as it vanished before her eyes. Startled by the sight she leapt off
the sofa. Shaken by what must have been a trick of light, she glanced at the
book on the carpet and froze with fear; what she saw was more than just unexpected.
It was unreal; the demon had left the image.
She whirled round nervously and scanned the living
room before hurrying upstairs. Everything seemed to be as usual until she heard
the bathroom door creaking on its hinges as it opened a crack. A deep haze of
steam escaped and filled the landing. A chill passed through her.
‘It can’t be real. Demons don’t exist in the real
world,’ she told herself and, steeling herself, she poked at the door. Popping
her head around it, the mist seemed to be dissipating and she stepped in. All
at once her eyes filled with fear as the letters ‘R…E…V…E…N…G…E’ appeared one by one on the mirror, and she broke
out in a cold sweat. Before her the
reflection of her body was terribly emaciated, floating in the air and was
drawing nearer. Aleah saw her own face, embodied in the demon, disfigured a ghastly
white with black irises and sniggering at her. Shocked by the scene, she stepped
backwards on trembling legs as the demon manifested, stretching out an arm and
scratching her brown face with its spine-like nails.
Shrieking in pain, she swept out of the room as chaos
descended; Doors and shutters started banging and glass shattered as she ran
down the stairs; the carpet quaked under her footsteps as if she was being
pursued. The house seemed to come to life and decay at the same time. Aleah
stood transfixed for a short while, her eyes wide with amazement, before she
was flooded with fear and headed to the door. She twisted the doorknob but it
refused to turn.
‘No! Let me escape from this nightmare,’ she pleaded.
She tugged the door but it refused to let her out. ‘No, No!’ she cried out, battering
at the door. Helpless with panic, facing this dark and mysterious atmosphere,
she sank down, feeling a sting of a tear on her cut face.
A sudden deep silence fell, followed by the slight
squeaking of the lamp dangling from the ceiling mixed with strange giggles and the
rumble of thunder outside. None of this boded well, Aleah thought, an idea
suddenly floating into her mind. She stood up and ran until a blinding light
coming from the mirror, prevented her from moving further. Two person’s
like-shapes and a smaller one came slightly to sight.
‘Mum, Dad? And this child? Oh my God! But it’s….,’ she
murmured, misty-eyed.
All at once her hand flew to her mouth, and she looked
thunderstruck. Her father’s body was changing; pointed ears, bat-like nose,
eyes with no irises and indescribable skin. Meantime, her mother’s belly had
swollen like a balloon until it burst. A half demon, half human like- baby came
to life.
‘No!!! No way!!! She wailed.
‘Their relationship
had become too perilous with a child like me…so they got rid of me…and you
came,’ a voice whispered.
‘No!!! It’s unimaginable, I can’t trust it,’ she howled.
‘The time has
come to think the unthinkable, younger sister,’ she pointed out. ‘Now I want your… life just as our parents… took…
mine, I mean they tried. But where they failed, I succeeded,’ she crowed.
‘Being trapped for years, I have waited eagerly for this day. You set me free
and now it’s time; to face your real life,’ muttering a bit louder. ‘To face
your half-sister,’ she squealed, and…..
Aleah slumped to the tiled floor and felt a rough,
firm grasp on her ankle, dragging her.
‘Ah… No! Let me go,’ she shrieked.
She shook, trying to free herself, but it didn’t do
any good. Aleah groaned with pain as her half-sister’s nails plunged into her
calf. Clenching her fists and gritting her teeth, she felt the rush that anger brought
as she twisted and turned fiercely, finally sighing with relief. Seized by a
fit of eerie coughing, she crawled to a large stand and reaching for a
cut-glass vase, threw it with all her might. As the vase reached its target a
shout of anger broke out and a noisome smell assailed her throat.
’It seemed to make her suffer. Maybe I guessed right,’
she thought. Looking at a dagger-like shard of glass that had fallen from the
shattered mirror, she smiled.
Limping to the
living room, she snatched the diary and hobbled upstairs before skimming
through the page by flashlight. ‘As the
legend tells, The Mirror Demon is one of the most powerful… It’s the ability to
appear and disappear through a mirror, to show……Using its body as a terrible
weapon, it can…inflict suffering any way it wants…or even…It can…. human
appearance… years…even give birth. The baby… half-human, half-demon.
Flooded with fear, she hurled the book on her bed
before summoning up the courage to return to the bathroom. As she splintered the
mirror; a deeper shout of anger than the previous one filled her ears. Aleah’
body was aching more and more from her injuries and now her throat too. ‘Courage!’
she thought, ‘I’m not going to surrender now. I’m so close stopping her.’
Calling up her last reserves of strength, she smashed
the mirror on the floor and collapsed. Before her eyes grew accustomed to the
dark, the deafening and terrifying roar of a sister she had never known filled
her ears. Aleah breathed the scent of victory in the air but it was bittersweet.
Feeling a bit regretful, she crawled to the bed and got under the duvet before grasping
the diary. She could finally unwind, but not for long. The dairy started
wobbling on her hands as the words ‘she
can split herself in two’ filled Aleah with terror once more.
Copyright 2008 sébastien
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