Blue Mirror

“Would you hurry up?” she asked him. “That drill is giving me a headache.”

“It can’t be helped, we all have our jobs to do,” He told her. “Imagine if painting made a noise? Small mercies and all that.”

Clarence’s wife, Judy, was not in the mood for such talk. The day was going to be a hard one. Moving in is never easy, especially when the house is a piece of work as well. Luckily, the room she was painting was far enough from the hallway that Clarence was drilling in.

​Judy entered the office space and closed the door, continuing her painting. There was a peace in those moments, while the sun shined through the window, the chirps of birds could be heard. Anybody painting in these conditions would feel pretty relaxed.

After a minute the drill came to a stop, then there was a hammering, but all noise was mostly muffled by the closed door. The only sound that made Judy really jump was the shattering noise soon after that. She leapt to the door, pulling it open to see her husband picking up the shards of mirror scattered across the floor.

“The string snapped,” Clarence told her pointing at the limp, aged string hanging off one side of the mirror frame.

“Well, you know what that means,” Judy told Clarence with a smile and a shrug.

“Seven years bad luck?”

“You will have to get the mirror that previous owners left in the attic.”

“I’d rather have the bad luck, that thing is ugly as hell.”

“Well, you should have thought about that when you drilled a hole in the wall and broke the good mirror.”

“I smell sabotage.”

“Well, you can tell me what the attic smells like a minute.”

Clarence retrieved the heavy mirror from the attic and with the two of them they were able to get it down the small set of stairs and lug it over to the hall.

“Do you think that bolt can hold this thing?” Judy asked.

“The bolt could a car if you balance it right,” Clarence answered proudly. “I wonder about this chord here at the back of the mirror.”

Slowly the two lifted the large, blue mirror and placed it on bolt, lowering its weight gently, both ready to catch the mirror if the chord were to snap. However, the chord held strong and the two stepped back to admire their handiwork.

“There, you see?” Judy asked simply. “Was that so hard?”

“What do you think made the reflection so...blue?” Clarence asked, ignoring her smug face. “Is this a hippy mirror or something?”

“It doesn't matter, as long as I have a place to check how I look before work it works for me.”

Judy walked away from the mirror and returned to her painting. There was plenty of the room left to do, so she sighed deeply and knuckled down. The room was empty of all furniture, so she had more fun than expected moving from wall-to-wall than she did in their bedroom.

Once the last inch of wall was painted she decided to take a break and save the second coat for the next day. Judy opened the door and stopped in her tracks. Ahead of her was Clarence standing in front of the mirror.

“Now, babe, don’t develop an ego on me,” Judy joked stepped forward, wiping paint from her hands.

There was no response from her husband, he remained standing there in front of the mirror, staring at his reflection. It wasn’t until Judy got closer that she noticed his skin as a mixture of red and blue, veins popping and blood pouring from his nose. Clarence was physically destroyed and she screamed in horror.

Clarence seemed to react in that moment or perhaps that was the point he finally died. Falling forward, barely missing the mirror, he collided with the wall and crumpled dead on the floor.

Judy stumbled forward, crying in her palms as she stared at his body through her fingers.

“Clarence? Clarence!” she yelled, kneeling down beside him, checking his pulse and pushing him onto his back.

Clarence as was ice cold, dead for a long while. It is only for the briefest moments that Judy looked up from her husband, searching help pointlessly in her empty home, that she glanced at the mirror. It was all that was needed for her mind to pause, an icy grip taking hold of it.

Judy stood up, staring in disbelief at the sight before. In her reflection she saw herself, wearing the face of shock, but beside her stood her husband. He stood smiling and unlike everything else in the reflection he did not have a shade of blue over him. His skin and clothing were their exact colours, but all around him there was a grim, cool tone.

It was then that Judy noticed her reflection began to grow warmer, the true colours being revealed. In this moment she felt the tightening in her chest as she held her breath. The culprit of the death at her feet was clear so with all her might and willpower she forced herself to look way. In true, physical agony she tore herself from the mirror and took a deep desperate breath in. The coldness of her blood began to fade, warmth returning as her heart returned to its now rapid beats.

The emotions that she embraced drove her to madness, a mind tortured by the will of the mirror, but a mind that had be struck with sudden grief and then purest fear. Judy crawled out the front of her door, feeling as if something was standing behind her now in this house and she had to get away.

Once outside she crawled onto the front lawn and into the sun. The warmth did little to ease her emotions, but it gave her the sense that she was safe now. The grass green, the world was vibrant and breathing. However, when she glanced back at the house she saw only her husband closing the door.