The Lurking Reflection

A thick fog clung to the streets of Harrow Creek, a small town where the gray mist seemed to settle in every corner, even the hearts of its people. For years, it had been a place where the ordinary met the extraordinary, though no one ever spoke of the latter. It was a place where people moved on quickly, forgetting the things they should never forget.

Mara always found it odd that she was drawn back to Harrow Creek. She had left years ago, running from memories that haunted her. But the death of her mother brought her back. The house where she grew up stood at the end of a narrow, winding road, its windows dark and its door slightly ajar. As Mara stepped inside, a familiar chill ran down her spine.

She hadn’t been back in nearly a decade. Yet, nothing had changed. The air still smelled faintly of old wood and lavender, the scent her mother had always favored. It should have been comforting, but instead, it felt like a cold hand on her heart.

She dropped her bag by the door and moved into the living room, her footsteps echoing in the hollow silence. Her mother had always insisted that the house was special, that there was something more to it than met the eye. Mara had never believed her, dismissing her warnings as the ramblings of an old woman. But now, with her mother gone and her childhood fading like a half-remembered dream, Mara felt a gnawing unease.

It was when she stepped into the hallway that she noticed it—a faint glow coming from the old mirror in the hallway, the one her mother had kept covered for years. Mara had always hated that mirror. It was antique, with ornate edges and dark wood framing it. As a child, she had been forbidden to look into it. Her mother had always been adamant that the mirror held a secret—something dangerous that should never be uncovered.

With a deep breath, Mara approached the mirror. It shimmered faintly, almost like it was alive, and her reflection seemed... wrong. At first, she thought it was the dim light, but when she leaned closer, her stomach twisted. Her reflection didn't look the same. The woman staring back at her had eyes that were too dark, her face drawn with an expression Mara didn't recognize. It was as if the woman in the mirror was... waiting.

Without thinking, Mara reached out and touched the glass.

The moment her fingers made contact, the mirror trembled. A rush of cold air blasted from its surface, sending a shiver down her spine. The reflection of the woman in the mirror began to shift, her face changing. It contorted, twisting into something inhuman—something far older and darker than Mara could comprehend. Her own reflection grinned back at her, a smile that felt too wide, too wrong.

Mara recoiled, but the reflection did not. It stepped out of the frame, as if the glass had become a doorway, and the woman reached out, her fingers thin and cold. The world around Mara blurred, and she felt a pull, like gravity had turned against her.

“Mara…” the reflection whispered, its voice not her own, but her mother’s. "You should never have come back."

The grip around her wrist tightened, and Mara screamed, struggling to break free. But the more she fought, the stronger the hold became. The reflection’s voice echoed around her, pulling her deeper into the mirror’s embrace.

“Everything you left behind is waiting for you...”

Suddenly, the room grew dark, and Mara was no longer standing in her mother’s hallway. She was somewhere else—somewhere cold and damp. The walls were lined with mirrors, each reflecting a different version of herself, but they all shared the same horrifying, twisted expression. She wasn’t alone in the mirrors. Figures moved behind the glass, silent and watching, their eyes fixed on her every movement.

“You left us behind,” the voice of her mother echoed through the darkness. “But we never left you.”

The walls seemed to close in as Mara stumbled backward, her heart racing. The mirrors around her cracked, spiderwebbing in all directions, but each piece reflected her, distorted and broken. The shadows began to grow, their forms shifting as they stepped out from the fractured glass, forming figures of darkness.

As the figures closed in around her, Mara realized too late what her mother had meant. She hadn’t just left the house behind—she had left something else, something far darker. The mirror had been a gateway to a past she could never outrun, a past that had always been watching, waiting to reclaim what it had lost.

She tried to scream, but the darkness swallowed her words, and the figures from the mirrors wrapped themselves around her, pulling her into the glass. Her body was pulled through, her limbs twisting unnaturally as she became part of the reflection itself, trapped forever in the world behind the glass.

And in the house, the mirror shimmered once more, waiting for the next unwitting soul to touch its surface, to discover its deadly secret.

Thank you for daring to step into the world of The Lurking Reflection. If you enjoyed this chilling tale, please consider liking and sharing it with those brave enough to face the darkness. Who knows what lies waiting in their reflections?