As She Looked Into The Mirror
Author’s Note: It is still a work in progress. The idea for this came to me when my sister was telling me one of her many totally messed up dreams. Ironically, while writing this piece, for some strange reasons, I kept thinking of John Carpenter’s In The Mouth of Madness, perhaps one of my favorite Carpenter’s films.
As she looked in the mirror, last night's dream again flashed before her eyes. This was the third time she had seen the same dream again. Images of a child being dragged into a tunnel of darkness, an otherworldly sound, and a subway tunnel was all she could remembered and yet she could never figure out the meaning behind this. Hell, she didn't even had a child. Then why was a child being dragged from her hands? Just thinking about was giving her a headache. Suddenly the phone rang and her heart skipped a beat. She picked up the phone and a few moments later, the phone dropped from her hand onto the floor.
She couldn't hear anything the man was saying on the phone. All that mattered was that her sister was dead. The last time she saw her sister, Isabelle was when she was leaving the house after announcing that she was pregnant. That was about ten years ago. She quickly grabbed the phone again to hear the rest. Few minutes later, she put the phone down. She wanted to cry, but there were no tears, she wanted to yell, to scream at the top of her lungs, but there was nothing besides an emptiness. She grabbed her purse and went out to the address given to her by the man on the phone.
About half an hour later, she had arrived at the police station. She went inside and asked for the man who had called him. When someone tapped her shoulder. She turned around to see an elderly man standing in front of her. He was a portly man with s short round face and was wearing a run of the mill three piece suit. Which had seen better days.
“Hi, I believe you’re looking for me,” he said
“Are you the one who called me regarding my sister?” she curtly replied.
He stepped out of the way and pointed towards his office, “This way ma’am,”
She stepped inside his tiny office, which was filled to the brim with file cabinets. A small table was in the corner with a chair and a fan, which was barely keeping the office cool. Right next to the door was a bench, where a small kid was sitting, sucking a lollipop. The detective gave her his chair and sat on his table.
“You know I still haven’t caught your name Miss…” the detective said while lighting his cigarette.
“It’s Harriet.” She replied, “Ingrid Harriet.”
“When was the last time you saw your sister?”
“And you never had any contact with her? During those ten years?”
“Yes. I. Am. Sure.” She replied with a cold fury.
“May I ask something personal?” the detective asked while lighting another cigarette.
“Sure.” She tensely replied back.
“For someone who just found out that her sister has died, you seemed to be in a rather calm mood, in fact a rather hostile I might say. May I ask why?”
“And what exactly do you hope to gain by asking me that?”
He dropped the rest of his cigarette in the ash tray and took out a file from the cabinet. He gave her the file. As she opened it, there were pictures of her sister, lying naked in a room, with strange intricate symbols carved into her body. She almost gagged. Her sister’s face, even in pictures looked in intense pain. Her tongue had been carved into the shape of a face. She threw the file back at the detective and started to cry. She had hated her sister for the longest time, but she did not deserved to die like that. Hell, nobody deserves to die like that. The detective gave her a glass of water.
“Who did this to her?” she asked.
“We don’t know yet. That is why I am asking you. Did you had any contact with your sister in the last ten years?” the detective replied.
“No, she never tried to contact us after leaving the family. To be honest, we never even knew why she left. May I?” she asked for a cigarette when she saw him lightning another. He took one out and gave it to her. She took a deep inhale,
“We all knew she was the odd one among us. She always had a unhealthy passion for strange and weird things. At first, I and our mother thought this was just the growing phase you know. Like the whole Goth appearance, it was fun while it lasted.”
“But when did you grew out of it?” The detective had now started to record her answers.
“I think I was 17 or 18.”
“But your sister didn’t?”
“No, she actually became more obsessed.”
Ingrid asked for another smoke, “she started going to these parties at her friends where they would play with Ouija Boards, have mock rituals. She started reading these books on witchcraft and cults.”
“And you did not tried to stop her? I mean you or your parents?”
“We did, god knows we tried.” She said bitterly. “But it was like she had become a completely different person.”
“Did she had friends? Who pushed her that way?”
“That’s the strange thing.” She replied back.
“She never did had any good friends…” she replied back after finishing her cigarette. She asked for another one. It was also the first time she had looked at the kid sitting behind her. Still sucking on his lollipop. “Most of the friends she had grew out of that phase. Some even tried to bring her out of it. But I don’t know, she just never left.”
The detective turned off the recorder and placed it back into the drawer. He then took out another file from the cabinet and gave it to her. There were more pictures of her sister. These pictures showed her living her life as a normal happily married woman. There was a man in every one of those pictures but she didn’t recognized him. Except for the kid, who was quietly sitting behind her. She looked back at the kid and the pictures again.
“So he is my nephew?” Ingrid asked.
“Yes.” The detective replied. “There’s something more I did not told you about your sister.”
“We had been following your sister for quite some time. Especially about ten years ago.”
“You mean when she left us? But why?”
“We believed that the cult your sister joined ten years ago was on our list for domestic terrorism for quite some time.”
Ingrid felt her hands shaking due to the earth shattering revelations. She couldn’t believe that her sister was forced to move out and now she was involved in terrorism? She felt like she hardly knew her sister. But as memories started to pour back, she realized that she actually really didn’t knew her sister at all. Since growing up, Ingrid never was close to her sister.
The detective shook her shoulder lightly, “Miss Ingrid? You all right?”
She quickly finished off her cigarette and give the officer a hasty smile, “Ye...yes I am fine, just a little shaken up.”
“I bet,” the detective replied, “
Ingrid turned around and once again looked at the child sitting behind him. He was opening another lollipop from his pocket. She looked back at the officer and said, “So he is my nephew?”
“Ah, niece actually.” The officer nervously chuckled.
“Niece?” Ingrid said while looking at the child again. She was wearing a blue t-shirt with black jeans and plain black converse shoes. She had ruffled hay colored hair and a small round face. She blew her a raspberry when she saw her staring. Ingrid turned back again.
“Yes, niece. A few days before your sister was murdered, your niece was left at a social service office. There were two letters actually. One is specifically for you, which I will hand it to you in a few moments, while the other was regarding Mabel.
“Mabel? That’s her name?” Ingrid asked as if she was uncertain about the name.
“Yes, Mabel Harriet.” The detective said, “The first letter came with specific instructions regarding what to do with Mabel, her medical, dental records, doctors she went to, everything. There’s even a safety deposit account which is left under your control.”
Then the detective took out a large brown envelope and handed it to Ingrid. The envelope only said, “For Ingy”, which made Ingrid very angry for a moment. The detective laughed upon seeing her face.
“None of your business” she angrily replied and shoved the envelope inside her purse.
“Now Miss Ingrid, the most important bit,” he said, with a seriousness he hadn’t displayed before.
“We are under the suspicion that whoever murdered your sister is also after your niece. The first letter was very strict about not handing Mabel to anyone besides you. I believe that she was deathly scared for her daughter and there must be a reason why despite you two not seeing each other for over a decade she trusted only you. Is there anything that you can think of, any one, who you think might have had a hand in her murder?”
“As I said detective,” Ingrid replied nervously “I really do not know anything. I have no idea about any of her acquaintances.”
“I understand. Now, according to your last wishes, I am supposed to let you take Mabel home as her only next of kin. Usually I would advise against that, but given the unique condition of this case, I will allow it. However, I will be visiting your house quite often to make sure that she is well taken care of.”
Despite Ingrid not seeing her sister for so long, she was mortally hurt and the more she looked at Mabel, the more she saw her sister and a wave of motherly feelings came pouring out inside of her. She picked her up and kissed her on her cheek and immediately felt connected to her. She smiled at the detective, “Don’t worry, I will take good care of her detective.”
She shook her hand and he gave her another packet of documents to see later. She thanked him again and walked out of the police station. She walked towards her car and laid Mabel in the back seat. She had already fallen asleep. As she drove home, tears kept coming out of her eyes, and soon she was sobbing uncontrollably. She parked her car by the side of the road and cried until she couldn’t.
She came home and put Mabel into her own room. She went back to the kitchen and took out the letter that the detective had given her. She took a glass of wine and opened it when a key fell out of it. It was a golden skeleton key. There were engravings on the key but she could not make anything out of it. She placed the key on the kitchen counter and opened the letter,
If you’re reading this, then that means that I am no longer part of this world. I know we have had differences when we were growing up, things I was into, it created a rift between us which we were never able to bridge. But I wanted you to know that I have always loved you and even though I may not have showed it but I deeply admired you. Since I left, I realized what a fool I had been, what I once thought was fun and games slowly became a matter of life and death for me. I wanted out, I wanted to leave everything and wanted to embrace you to feel safe in your arms but it wasn’t meant to.
Then the letter took a strange turn. The writing seemed sloppy, almost as if she was writing in a hurry.
Ingy listen, this key is everything. This key can help you take care of Mabel and can bring me back. Help me Ingy. Take this key to Rhode Island and find the house with the Brick Chimney.”
That was it, not another word. The letter abruptly ended. She read the letter again and again, until she almost memorized it. She thought about calling the detective but she did not. Instead she went online and started to look for the aforementioned house. She did found it, it was an old estate, owned by an obscure 19th century fishing tycoon. It had been locked up and left to rot for decades. She quickly printed out the details to how to get there and went back to check on Mabel. She was still sleeping soundly. She slowly lifted the blanked a little and lay down next to her. She wanted to sleep, but she could not. The past few hours had completely changed her life for good and worse. Mabel tossed towards her. It was an odd feeling, she had devoted so much of herself to her work that she never took time out for having a social or even a love life. Having children was a thing of a past and in her mind it was a thing that happened to other people. But now here she was, taking care of her niece and an odd feeling of happiness erupted inside of her. The slow rhythmic breathing of Mabel was enough to make her sleepy too and in a few minutes she fell asleep as well.
She was standing in what looked like a subway tunnel. The entire tunnel was as bright as day and yet there was no source of light. The floor was wet and slimy and she could sense something moving inside the greenish black water. She tried to yell, but no sound came out of her mouth. Panicking, she started to run. She ran for what seemed like hours, until she came across a metal gate, blocking her way. On the other side was Mabel standing, sucking her lollipop, oblivious to everything else around her. She called out to her but again no sound came out of her mouth. Slowly behind Mabel, something started to come out of the slime. It looked like a woman, she had the physique of a woman, but her head a swollen mass of rotting decaying flesh with hundreds of eyes and two long antennas. The creature came close to Mabel. Ingrid yelled at top of her lungs but to no effect. The creature held Mabel’s arm and started to walk away, they both looked back at Ingrid and slowly vanished into the light.
Ingrid woke up crying and terrified. She quickly looked and saw Mabel sleeping soundly, she was now sucking her thumb. Ingrid kissed her forehead and went out to the kitchen to drink a glass of water. The phone rang and her heart skipped a beat. She picked it up and all she could hear was a raspy breath. She saying, “Hello?” for a few times when someone finally spoke but it wasn’t the person who she was expecting.
“It…it is me Ingy” the voice weakly replied back.
“No! You cannot be. You’re dead.”
“I am dead, but I am not dead….also…I….” it seemed as if whoever was speaking on the other end was having enormous trouble in just uttering words.
“I…have discarded my physical self…you should see Ingy…the things I am seeing, it’s beyond human understanding…and soon…,” Isabelle sounded as if she was moaning in pure pleasure. Her moaning turned into hysterical screaming and the line went dead. She looked at the half empty glass and took out the bottle of whiskey from under the cabinet. She did not even bothered with pouring it in the glass and started to drink it. It burned her throat but it calmed her nerves and by the time she drank half the bottle, she almost forgot about the call.
The next morning, she called the detective. She did not told him about the call nor the letter. He tried asking if there was anything worth mentioning in the letter.
“She wrote she was sorry and now she wanted me to take care of her daughter,” was all she said of the letter. But he was a bit relieved to hear that she was planning a little trip out of town for a few weeks.
“I think that’s a good idea. It’ll do you much good. Might even help your mind off of things.”
“You’re right Detective Gabe,” she replied cheerfully.
He asked a few more questions regarding Mabel, and then he hung up.
She started to pack. She wanted to get out of her house as soon as possible. After last night’s call, she had been scared. She had that feeling of constantly being watched. She changed Mabel’s clothes and they both drove off to Rhode Island.
While driving, she kept glancing at Mabel, who looked exactly like Isabelle. She was sleeping soundly which brought a small sense of relief to her.
It took her the next morning to reach Rhode Island. The house in her sister’s letter was located in a very secluded suburban town called, Phillipsville. It was a small quiet fishing town that looked as if the town was stuck in 1800s. The architecture, the cobbled streets they all gave the town a strange vibe. She found herself a motel called, Eldritch’s. It was a very old Victorian house, converted into a motel. It was situated at the edge of a cliff which overlooked the entire town. She parked her car in the vacant parking lot and made her way into the lobby but there seemed to be no one at the main desk.
There was no reply, so she rang the bell. Still no response. She ranged the bell a couple of times when a dainty looking woman walked in. She had a bunch of gardening tools in her hands and she was covered in head to toe with mud. She immediately stopped when she saw Ingrid, like she couldn’t believe that there was a customer standing in the lobby.
“Oh I’m so sorry dear, I was just cleaning out my garden.” The woman said with a sincere smile.
Ingrid smiled back, “It’s quite all right. I was wondering if there’s a room available for a few days.”
The old woman took off her gloves and threw them into the dustbin.
“Oh you can have the entire motel if you want,” the old lady laughed, “we barely get anyone here ever since that big hotel opened a few years ago.”
Ingrid got worried a little. She did not wanted to stay in a completely empty motel for god knows how many days, especially not with Mabel.
“So you mean there is no other guest here besides me?”
“Oh I am sorry dearie, I did not meant to scare you off like that.” The old woman said while giving her the key, “I have just one other guest besides you. A uh…one of those people who take pictures for those travel magazines.”
“You mean like a photographer?”
“Yes!” the old woman said excitedly, “a photographer, yes, that’s what he is. Handsome looking fellow I must say. He is staying in the room across from yours.” and to Ingrid’s surprise, the old lady winked at her which brought a surprise chuckle.
“Now, the dinner is served at 9, and though you may bring food from outside, it will be your responsibility to clean it, since it’s just me and my husband running this place and god knows we have seen better days.” The old woman said while slapping her buttocks which again made Ingrid laugh. Ingrid turned away and was walking towards the stairs when the old woman called her out,
“what is it now?” Ingrid asked, with a slight annoyance in her voice.
“Well, seeing now that you’re here, I do have a proposition for you.” The old woman asked sheepishly.
Ingrid crossed her arms and said, “I am listening.”
The old woman took off her apron, revealing a 60’s style polka dot dress, which had seen better days and also threw it out into the dustbin. She lighted a cigarette, “Well, you seem like a fine fellow and I was wondering if you can actually work for us and I will allow you to stay here as long as you want.”
“You want me to work here?” Ingrid asked, completely surprised by the lady’s sudden proposal. “But I am a guest here.”
“I know dear girl, but just hear me out.” The old woman replied while cleaning her hands with a wet towel, “all you have to do is to just cook something a little at night, making sure that all the windows and doors are locked at night and minor cleaning and I’ll allow you to stay here as long as you want. Lord knows you’re gonna be here a while.”
Ingrid was intrigued a little by the woman’s offer. She didn’t know how long it will take her to find the house and her sister and by doing just a little, she could pretty much live here for almost nothing. But it all sounded a little too good to be true.
The old lady seemed to be an expert face reader for she said, “I know my offer sounds a bit too good, but there is no one else to hire and we barely make any money.”
“Can I give you my answer tomorrow? I have been driving long and am very tired.” Ingrid replied while pointing at Mabel.
The old woman gently touched her arm and said, “off course dearie, rest well. We will talk more tomorrow.”
