The Glass Mirror

“ Zac!” Zac flew up in his bed, his eyes widened in fear. Taylor stared at his brother.

” Hannah!” He screamed.

“ Zac, what’s wrong!! Wake up! Calm down! Who’s Hannah?!” Taylor cried, shaking his brother who was now in a cold sweat.

Zac’s eyes finally focused. He blinked and gasped in fear.

“ Zac? What’s all the noise?” Mrs. Hanson walked into the room, and looked in puzzlement at Zac.

“ He keeps calling some girls name. Hannah.” Taylor shrugged.

Taylor could have sworn he saw his mothers face go slightly white, but it went away so quickly.

“ Enough of that. Zac has just had another nightmare,” Mrs. Hanson said briskly. “ Back to bed Taylor.”

” He’s been having nightmares a lot lately. Kinda like he did after New Years. But I thought they stopped.” Taylor said. “ And now they’ve started again….. say what is today?”

” December 27th, you should know. It was just Christmas yesterday.” Mrs. Hanson sighed. “ Taylor, go to bed, please.”

“ Ok, ok… yeesh!” Taylor grumbled. He headed down the stairs from Zac’s attic room and went to bed.

“ Taylor…” Zac said suddenly, the next day while the two were up in the attic and Taylor was looking for a shirt Zac had borrowed from him.

“ What?” Taylor asked, looking up.

“ Can I….. show yu something?”

“ Sure. What is it?”

” Promise not to tell anyone?”

” Sure, ok.”

” Promise?”

“ Sure, I promise. What is it anyways?” Taylor’s interest was spurred

“ First.. Tell me, who’s name was I screaming last night? I don’t ever remember.”

“ Hannah. I dunno why. You were having a nightmare.” Taylor stood up..

“ I thought so.. that name has been floating around my head lots lately….” Zac drifted off for a moment before speaking again. “ Taylor, come see this.”

Taylor followed Zac to a far corner of the room where an old heavy iron chest sat. Mr. Hanson had said never to move it.

“ Have you ever wondered why they never want us to open it?” Zac asked. “ There’s nothing in it. Well, except this…” Zac opened the chest and in it were some clothes. The top ones looked almost new, and they were a folded pair of jeans and a pink shirt that someone about 13 might wear. Underneath them was a less new looking pair of clothes that an older boy may wear. Under that was a pastel dress that was dusty and smelled musty. The clothes under these got even grosser. Many were moth eaten and the colors faded the farther you went down into the chest. Taylor pulled out the very last article of clothing. A black and white polka dot dress that looked like someone in the 60’s would wear. It was dusty and moth eaten and was falling apart.. Taylor shook it out coughing. A black and white picture fell out of a pocket in the dress. It was folded in the middle and the date read December 31st, 1963. Taylor looked at the picture. On it was a picture of a girl, about 15, wearing the polka dot dress. Beside her were two people most likely her mother and father. They were all grinning at the camera.

“ So? Some old clothes and a picture.” Taylor said. “ I bet they were our great relatives. They look a lot like us.”

“ That’s not the point.” Zac snapped. “ Here, help me move the chest.”

“ Ok… but mom and dad said..”

“ Forget what they said! You need to see this!” Zac grabbed one side of the chest. Taylor shrugged and grabbed the other end. They hauled it away and over and set it down a few feet away.

“ Look!” Zac exclaimed.

Taylor looked at he place where the chest had been. A trap door with a big bolt lock on it.

“ Weird…” Taylor said. “ Mom probably didn’t want us to move the chest cos maybe the trap door is a long drop.”

“ Yeah, sure Taylor.” Zac frowned.

“ What are you saying?” Taylor asked.

“ Mom and dad are keeping something from us.”

Taylor rolled his eyes.

“ Yeah, Zac. They’re flesh eating monsters that want to suck our blooood!” Taylor laughed. “ You’re insane!”

Zac had stopped his listening.

“ How many days until new years?” He asked suddenly.

“ Three. Why?”

“ I don’t know.. I just have a feeling…”

“ What?”

“ I don’t know… Taylor can I tell you abut my dreams? Do you promise not to laugh and tell anyone?” Zac asked.

“ I guess so…” Taylor shrugged. “ Why do you always scream in them?”

“ Well… see its weird…. I’m in my room, just sitting here, and I’m drinking champagne.. like on new years.. Then I hear this scream underneath me. I don’t know where it’s coming from and I freak. Suddenly I’m in this dark room. There’s a girl chained to the wall, and she’s crying and staring straight ahead of her. She’s talking about dying. I don’t know why…are you following me?”

Taylor nodded.

“ Ok..” Zac continued. “ so then this big mother- ass type black hole opens up in front of her… oh! And another thing I noticed before this was there was, like, a shelf running along the whole length of the room and there’s stuff on the shelves.. but I don’t know what. So anyways, the big hole opens up and something comes out and it makes this really loud noise. And she starts to scream and struggle. Then she gives up and suddenly looks at me and calls my name and says.. I remember this part the best.. she says ‘Zac, you’re next!’ not in a threatening way.. more of a warning. Suddenly I feel like I know her, and I start calling her name, which must be Hannah, but I don’t remember it, but since that’s what I called out, that must be it.

“ Then, I start to run to her, but I can’t. All I can do is scream her name. She’s like, getting sucked in the hole cept her arms and legs are stilled chained so her arms and legs are keeping her back. Then I hear this crunching sound and her arms and legs go limp and break and then the chains snap off and she goes flying into the hole. It closes up and I hear her call my name again and then I wake up.” Zac finished.

“ That’s some weird dream ,Zac my man.” Taylor said.

“ I know… the thing is.. the more I think of it.. the more I feel like it really happened. Like I really saw some girl, Hannah, get sucked into a hole.” Zac sighed. “ I sound insane, right?”

“ Right.” Taylor nodded, and began to laugh. Zac didn’t laugh with him.

“ Avery!!!” Taylor cried, the next day.

“ Hi hi Taylor!” She had Mrs. Hanson’s lipstick all over her lips.

Taylor tried not to laugh. “ Red really isn’t your color Avie.” Taylor snickered. “ Come on, get out of here before mom catches you.” Avie giggled and ran out of the room. Taylor was about to follow her when something caught his eye.

He neared the dresser and his mothers makeup box. Avery had opened it so that it had bumped Mrs. Hanson’s antique jewelry box. Taylor noticed something sticking out from behind it. He pulled it out. A picture. He squinted and looked at the old faded picture of a girl in a polka dot dress. He frowned. It was the same girl in the picture that he and Zac had seen yesterday. He flipped over and read the scrawled writing on the back.

Christina

The Alpha

Taylor frowned again. The Alpha? Didn’t alpha mean the first? Taylor was slightly confused. Why did his mother have a totally dated picture behind her jewelry box? Taylor reached over to push the box out farther, perhaps to find more evidence as to why his mother had this picture, but he heard the front door open and with it, his mothers voice. He suddenly felt guilty. Shoving the picture in his pocket, he bolted out of the room and into his own.

“ Wow, it’s the 30th!” Isaac commented the next day. “ The year 2000 will be here in no time.”

“ Aren’t you worried about the Y2K bug?” Jessica asked.

“ I think everyone is a bit.” Taylor said, coming into the room. “ Hey, where’s Zac?”

“ Up in his room. He’s had another nightmare. This one must have been worse.” Isaac replied.

“ Oh, would you stop that? Isn’t a kid allowed to have nightmares?” Mrs. Hanson scoffed, in a hurried manner.

Taylor shrugged and went up to the attic to find Zac in his room.

“ Hey.. another nightmare?” Taylor asked. Zac nodded.

“ Taylor, this one was way scarier.. everything happened the same.. cept when Hannah turned to look at me and say the famous line.. it wasn’t her face… it was mine.” Zac gulped. “ I was the one tied to the wall.. Only I was standing there in my dream watching. I watched myself get sucked in the hole.”

“ That’s got to be harsh, man.” Taylor commented.

“ What’s today?” Zac asked suddenly.

“ The 30th.”

” New years Eve tomorrow?”

“ Uh huh.”

“ Taylor.. around midnight, can you promise to stay near me… like until midnight is over.. until 12:01?”

Taylor gave his brother a look, but then he saw he was dead serious.

“ Ok…ok.” Taylor said. “ I promise.”

“ This is boring!” Taylor whined. It was about 11:36. “ Why can’t New Years be earlier?”

Zac didn’t say a thing. Taylor sighed, shoving his hands in his pocket as he paced around Zac’s attic room.

“ Hmmm..?” Taylor felt something in his pocket. The picture. Of the girl. “ Hey.. Zac? Would you mind if I just went to check something really really fast?”

“ Will you be back before 12?”

“ Sure, don’t worry.”

“OK.”

Taylor headed out the room and downstairs to his parent’s room. Neither one was home. They were at a New Years Eve party. The other kids were asleep and Ike had gone to his own party.

Taylor slowly opened up the door to the room. He walked in, carefully and headed straight to the jewelry box.

Without a though he pushed it aside.. Pictures spilled out from behind it. Taylor gasped in surprise. He looked at them. All pictures of kids. The ages ranged. Each had a name and a number. The one after Christina said

Eric

The Second

It went on like this. The pictures got newer and newer.and soon they were in color. Each had its name and number.

“ Weird…” Taylor muttered. He flipped through the pictures, looking at each one. All of the children were blond and either had blue or brown eyes. The picked up the last one. It was a picture of a smiling girl. She wore a bright pink shirt and jeans. Taylor flipped it over and gasped in pure horror.

Hannah

The 37th

The old grandfather clock struck 12.

“ Screw!” Taylor cursed. He jumped up. Zac. He had forgotten all about Zac.

“ Zac? Zac!” Taylor screamed as he ran up the stairs two at a time to the attic.

“ Zac?..” He burst into Zac’s room. It was empty. His eyes flew to the chest. It had been dragged away and the lock on the trapdoor unlocked and thrown aside. Taylor ran and opened the door. A stench rose from the crypt below. He couldn’t pinpoint the smell.. but words for it cam to mind..death.. fear….evil….

There was a small ladder. Taylor descended the ladder and fear built up in his throat.

He finally reached the bottom of the crypt. A small hallway. Taylor walked down it into a room lit by some unseen light.

Taylor cried out softly. There was no Zac in the room. But there were other things. A long shelf lined the wall. Along the shelf were framed pictures. Pictures of families. They were like the ones he had found. Each started old, and got newer and newer. In each one he could identify the person in each that he had seen in his parents room. The most recent 10 scared him. He was in them. In every picture were his mother and father, hardly aging at all. But in every picture compared to the next, one family member was missing, and a new one had appeared. Taylor stared at the second last one in utter fear. It was him last year. A family photo he had never remembered posing for. They were all there, except Zoë. But what scared him most was the family member he did not know by recognized from the picture upstairs. Hannah. She was in her pink shirt and jeans and Taylor saw that he had his arms around her.. like she was his sister….

In the last picture, Hannah was missing. Taylor was wearing what he was wearing at that moment, as was everyone else as he had last seen him or her dressed. Even Zac…..

Taylor realized with horror. In the center of the room was a large mirror. On the wall in front of the mirror were chains. To hold a person down with. Taylor stared at the mirror gasping for air. He looked at it in the front. It was a totally normal mirror. Although antique, totally normal. The back of the mirror, though, was anything but.

It was made of pure gold. Words were engraved deep in the gold. Taylor read them.

I AM THE GLASS MIRROR

I see all. I know all. I am.

I consume all in my path. I must feast each year a child of the household of the Hanson. For they are cursed with my heavy glass forever and eternity. To feed me is there will for if they forsake me, I from a different world, which visits this one each year, I will sacrifice their souls to eternal pain and I will find a new household to feast upon.

Hear my words. I awoke when the alpha was fed. I will not rest until the omega comes to me.

Taylor backed away from the mirror.. he heard a soft crunch as he stepped on something behind him. He whirled around. A picture. He lifted it up. It was Zac.

Zachary

The 38th

Taylor dropped it.

“ No.. no no..”

A hand clamped his shoulder. Taylor screamed.

“ Taylor!!” Isaac cried. “ Are you alright?”

“ Yes… I had another dream. Like the one I told you about…. With the boy and the hole and him calling out my name? Telling me I was next.”

“ Its ok, Taylor.” Isaac assured him. “ You were calling out a name. Zac. Who’s that?”

“ I…. I honestly don’t know. Maybe that’s the name of the boy that was chained to the wall. The more I think of it, the more real it feels. Like it really happened. I’m insane, eh?”

“ Yeah, probably.” Isaac laughed.