Fiction: The Mirror, a short horror story

 

The Mirror

A short horror story, by Erik Engström. July 2024.

All my life I have been afraid of death, not because death frightens me, but because of the end of life and my existence. To not say what my heart desperately wanted me to say to those I loved, and those I hated.

Last night the dream came to me, as it often does. A dream in which I am standing in a barren graveyard, where the tombstones have been forgotten, left in the care of only time itself. I often dreamed nightmares about dying, waking up cold from feverish sweat that left damp pools on the pillow.

This morning was no different, I woke with my breath caught in my throat, a silent scream echoing in a seemingly infinite moment of suspended terror.

I looked around, a gray haze of morning light seeped through an opening in the curtains.
“What time is it?” I wondered to myself silently. With unexpected grace I moved towards the window, still with my heart pounding rapidly after the encounter with my greatest fear.

Looking through the windows I could see it was morning, everything was normal right? There were traffic in the streets, children playing outside completely free of worry of what awaits after life, or after death I should say. Time passes rapidly for us, we are children one day, grown up the other day, gone the next.

My mother was my greatest comfort, she had always been there for me. I called out, but I did not hear a reply. I called out once more, louder and more anxiously, yet only silence met me again.

So I rushed downstairs, hearing my mother’s voice, I called out yet again. No answer.
“Is she playing with me?” I thought, now annoyed.
Rushing forward to hug her, my arms slipped right through her waist in a swirl of mist.

In pure panic I screamed with my loudest voice. There wasn’t even an echo of my voice.
I could feel the world spinning around me, dark patches covered my vision and an anguish I have never felt before struck me like a punch in the gut.

I ran to the bathroom to throw up, but something caught my attention. I looked up, facing the mirror.

I looked into the mirror and there was nothing looking back at me. I was stuck in eternal damnation with fear being my only companion.