A stone sat heavy in my chest. It rose and fell with every shaky breath. ‘Breathe’ I told myself slowly.

“When you’re ready.” A voice that wasn’t mine whispered. “When I-”, my voice cracked. “When I look in the mirror”, I licked my dry lips, “I see-“

“Turn around already!” A harsh voice shouted from the moss shadow.

I considered them, I did. I just didn’t really care to listen.

“Shhh! You’ll make the whole thing take even longer.” A sour voice hissed.

“When I look in the mirror I see my big heart. I see… Me, and no one else because I’m- independent.”

“Congrats you managed to put us all to-“

I spun around, my gaze hard at the murky glass. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, all while my audience- my peers- made audible gasps, someone started crying.

“But that’s not- Me.”

A blood-red body writhed behind the glass, two flashlight eyes stared back at me. They weren’t innocent, but they certainly looked it. Twisted chestnut brown horns protruded from its head. All that was similar about us was that it too wore the pigment-less sash, except while mine read ‘When I look in the mirror’, it’s read ‘rorriM ehT nI kooL I nehW’.