Mirror Series

I like to have staring contests in the mirror. My eyes strain until I watch my reflection blink.

The more I stare at my reflection, the more I realize it isn’t my own. It’s smiling.

“Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look,” I tell myself as a second shadow forms in the mirror’s reflection. It can’t know I see it.

Showers always relax me; except for when I realize there’s a double-sided mirror in my bathroom.

I startle when I see my family walk into my bedroom through the mirror’s surface, calling my name. When I turn around to an empty room, only then do I panic and start knocking against the mirror’s surface, hoping someone will let me out.

I watch my face twist and shift into dozens of versions of myself as the mirror shatters in front of me. Dozens of new faces that I don’t recognize appear alongside my own as I feel breath on my neck.