I had always been told that sleeping with the mirror facing the bed was bad luck and it should be avoided in general. My girlfriend is fairly superstitious and avoids the mirror facing the bed avidly. Recently we got a new puppy and she gets really anxious when we leave the house, so as soon as the front door is shut, she destroys whatever she can lay her paws on. The past tenant for whatever reason decided to get rid of the doors to the two bedrooms, so our destructive four pawed friend started to dig a hole in the mattress which we were furious about. She did it several times but without doors it was impossible to keep her out of the room when we were not there. My girlfriend bought a dressing table which has a good size mirror and we installed it on our bedroom. It was the perfect size to seal the doorway and avoid our mattress being shredded more, it already looked as if we had found it in an alleyway. So we did that everytime we went out without our pup. As I said, my girlfriend hated the mirror overlooking the bed, so everytime we got back and went to sleep we slid the dressing table out of the way. One night we came back exhausted from a long day at work so we both pushed the dressing table so we could fit into the room but did not slide it so the mirror would not overlook the bed. It is a decision I would come to profoundly regret… My girlfriend and our pup where fast asleep when I decided to call it a day. I got into bed and briefly stared at my reflexion in the mirror (I was on the side of the bed next to the dressing table), then stared at my girlfriend through the mirror and thought she just looked beautiful. I fell asleep almost instantly after that. A few hours had gone by when a faint knocking woke me up, Alice is a heavy sleeper so it was unlikely this sound would wake her up. It’s the damn neighbour’s cat hitting our trash can again I thought. I dismissed it and went back to sleep. As I was trying to sleep I hear five faint knocks, then five more, same rhythm, same volume. This was fairly odd, but not enough to scare me, pissed thinking I had wake up in a few hours and it would be difficult to dismiss the sound and fall asleep again I opened my eyes and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I saw myself, at least that’s what I thought I saw, but I saw the back of my head, same shirt. I tried to adjust my eyes to the light of the moon coming in from the hallway outside the room and double checked if my sight was correct and it was not my sleepiness toying with me. It was. I sat on the bed, my reflection did the same, but never looking towards me, at this point terror filled my body and adrenaline made me hear my heart beating hard in my chest. I stared at the reflection for what I thought was five minutes, could have been thirty seconds I don’t know, trying to figure out if this was a really fucked up dream… it wasn’t, I was completely awake. Whilst I sat there trying to figure out what the fuck was going on, my reflection started to turn around, slowly, moving one arm to the left then the head and back started twisting its way to stare back at me. In the mirror my hand was crooked, like the fingers where bashed with a hammer and had claw like nails, the skin looked like it was decomposing, so disgusting I could almost smell its foul stench, my face… I caught a small glimpse of it when it was on full profile, in my eye socket it was completely dark, darker than the night, a deformed nose that would make breathing imposible and my mouth… It had all these long crooked teeth coming out, some piercing both lips and I imagined their smell to be fouler than my skin. I could only look for a couple of seconds before I layed back on my bed and looking at my girlfriend. She looked so peaceful, sleeping quietly. I was paralysed by fear, my brain could not process if this was real or a fucked up dream created by itself. A few moments later I smelt the most sickening odor that had ever gone through my nostrils, quickly I realized it was coming from behind me. A quiet tear from fear fell down my fully opened eyes and fell to the bed, couldn’t move, couldn’t shout, couldn’t hear, it was like drifting through the void of space in my bed, looking at Alice. A few seconds later the foul smell was nearly unbearable as the crooked teeth of my demonic dopleganger started to run up my cheek until the reached my ear. “Shhhhhh, if you tell her she’s dead, you’re mine to play with” it whispered in my ear, in a perfectly normal voice that didn’t match it’s look, it was like hearing a recording of me whispering, it was my voice… It was like a child whispering into your ear to tell you a secret, it moistened my ear and I could feel what I thought was its tongue or a piece of moist skin rubbing my ear. I must have passed out, woke up to daylight and started crying like a frightened child, a thirty year old adult crying like a three year old, unconsolable. Alice and my pup ran into the bedroom and tried to calm me down for a good three quarters of an hour. After a few days I dismissed it as a very lucid dream emanating from my very vivid imagination. I was doing fine for a couple of weeks and had almost forgot about it, but today in the bathroom the mirror reminded me it was not just a dream…
I want to thank those who read this quick story and would like to hear your opinion. I love to write as a hobby and constructive criticism is appreciated. Story recommendations and suggestions are also welcome and appreciated!