Prologue
A mutter: “Lower your voice! Our daughter might hear us!”
A couple had a debate secretly in a kitchen.
“We can’t even afford anything because of our debt. Why do you think we can still provide her with a psychiatrist?” Words came out from the wife, and it never sounded discreet as her voice was almost too loud.
Their daughter heard them; she was eavesdropping. She wasn’t even surprised — the way they were confusingly trying to choose over money or her health — and also when words were sometimes incomprehensible at her age, she probably knew the gist of it. She always knew her family struggled with money. The only sad thing was she never knew what to feel about it.
It was already night when her parents were still there, and it was already past her bedtime. The girl ran to her room when she heard their footsteps coming, then tucked herself to bed pretending to be asleep.
“Good thing she’s not awake.” Her father whispered.
☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼
Hours had passed.
Door creaked! Lights outside flashed to her eyes.
The girl woke up to find who opened the door. She went to peek at her parents’ room, only to find out that it wasn’t them. Whom could it be?
“I’m down here.” Words passed through her ears like a wind.
What?
She checked downstairs.
“Wanna play with me?” A whisper like before, but it vibrated and echoed like a dream.
The girl was curious and unafraid. “Who are you?”
“Look me in the mirror.”
So she did.
“What do you see?”
Just me.
Suddenly, her mirror self creepily smiled, mouth corners reaching to their cheek. Skin became freakishly pale, while its blonde hair turned green. Death spoke through its eyes. Then its body vanished, and blood began pouring from its scalp. “Is it still you?”
It was a nightmare in the flesh of reality intensified by the high-pitched laugh of this devil. The girl’s curious nature became a sad little curse. Fear turned her body into hard-rock ice. And dark shrouded the lights entirely inside the place.
“Wanna play? I’ll introduce you to my friends.”
