The Mirror

Evangeline Abealard, or we simply call her Evangeline, is a seventeen-year-old teenager climbing up the dusty wooden stairs inside her late grandmother's brick home.

With each step she takes, the wooden floor creaks a bit loudly. Her cerulean eyes look upward, seeing the entrance and the exit door.

Currently, she's going to the attic to check things up. For as long as she could remember, her grandmother warned her not to go to the attic, and she put in emphasis not to take the cover off of the body mirror.

She didn't know why her grandmother was trying to scare her when she was young, but her curiosity is getting to her, and she wonders why she forewarned her. Maybe it's because of superstition?

She begins to recall what her beloved grandmother warned her,

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"No matter what you do, my dear angel. Do not disobey my warnings and remember the things that I have told you." She said in a grave tone.

Little Evangeline glanced at her grandmother in curiosity. She was sitting on her lap in front of the fireplace while her grandmother was seated on a rocking chair after her grandmother told her a strange story about the odd creatures and a helper inside the mirror. Since she doesn't understand anything, she felt a little afraid of that particular story.

"What do you mean, grandma?" She questioned while her voice trembled, and her grandmother comforted her by patting on top of her honey-brown hair gently.

"What happens if I disobey you? What would the mirror do to me?" Her voice was hushed, imagining that the monsters would discover them, but she felt calmer unlike before thanks to her grandmother's comfort with her big, warm, and wrinkly hand.

"The mirror will get you, dragging you inside until you are in a different world!" She replied in a raspy tone, and then she began to tickle her sides while little Evangeline screamed and giggled simultaneously in delight.

---

While she remembered a bit of what her deceased grandmother said with fond memories, she couldn't help but curl up her lips slightly with a soft smile, and she now realised that she was standing in front of the door.

"Here goes nothing." She mutters under her breath in encouragement, and she holds the doorknob and twists it until the door creaks open.

The ceiling is dusty with lots of cobwebs, and a layer of clouds of dust got disturbed when she comes inside. Evangeline coughs while covering her mouth and nose with a handkerchief. The floor is filled up with dust bunnies.

Inside the attic, there are a lot of paintings, broken pieces of furniture, types of furniture covered with white cloth, plushies, and big chests around the area. She knows that it's filled up with her grandmother's old memories.

She steps forward slowly while she's looking around the place, but she finally finds it: The full-body mirror is covered with a dusty white fabric straight ahead.

Evangeline has a lot of questions inside her head, wondering why her grandmother brought the antique. Is it sentimental value for her and that's why she never gets rid of it? Or is it simply a part of her collections?

Unfortunately, all these inquiries she gets would be left unsolved because the owner of the mirror was no more.

"Grandma…" Her tears begin to leak in sadness, missing her dear grandmother. Her palm presses against the clothed mirror while she wipes her tears away with her handkerchief.

Her parents decide to visit her grandmother's home in a rural area in France to tidy the place up. They know that their daughter loves this place.

To honour her, they sometimes visited the deceased home to clean the place up. Sometimes, they just hang out together as a family bonding time.

While Evangeline got distracted, lost in her memories, she didn't hear the footsteps approaching.

"Evangeline! Are you there?" Her older brother calls out, and she squeaks in surprise, accidentally uncovering the fabric until the cloth drops down on the floor carelessly. Instead of her reflection being exposed, there's nothing in there.

"What…?" She says with bated breath, and she feels confused.

"Evangeline!!" The doorknob begins to coil until the door is open.

Evangeline pivots her feet until she faces her brother with a relieved smile.

"Jul-"

"Behind you!!" Her brother cries out in warning while his blue eyes widen in fear, and his face is struck in horror, but his warning is too late.

Something grabs behind her, covering her waist until she gets pulled in swiftly. She didn't have a chance to scream because it was too quick for her until everything went black.