Lies. Betrayal. Failure.

That’s all I see. “Is that all you want to see?” It’s voice echoed within my head. It’s lipless mouth stays perfectly motionless. It’s glaring eyes completely void of light stare directly in to mine. I shudder at its vacant stare, though I can’t look away. It won’t let me look away.

“Is that all you want to see?” The voice echoed once more. It’s voice felt warm on my skull, a familiar raspy reverb, but with a slightly harsh tone this time. I catch my breath, salty tears starting to burn my eyes.

Through blurred vision, I maintain unblinking eye contact with it. It tilted its head ever so slightly, horns sinking closer to its boney burnt shoulder. This figure before me is all I can see, this horrid bloody body with a vacant burning glare. Disgusting. Rancid. Horrible creature.

The tears flowed quicker down my cheeks, it’s sting the only thing I want to feel.

“You want to feel the sting. You think you deserve this pain you feel. Why?”

Why? Stupid question. How dare it ask such a obvious question.

“Stupid? Ah, because I already know the answer.”

I felt a small chuckle coming from the voice within, it’s tone a bit lighter.

“You have no idea who I am, so you?”

A heinous creature. Meant to torment me for the rest of my life. The only thing I see in the mirror for the rest of time until I die of insanity.

“Insanity? Hm, perhaps. Many people have died that way.” It’s glare shifted, scanning me up and down, but I still refused to lose its gaze. My eyes locked on the vacant yellow void of its stare. My breathing quickened, catching in my throat. I couldn’t prepare myself for the truth I knew was coming.

“My darling, I am you.”

I couldn’t stop my sobbing. I lost all sight to the stinging pain of my tears. My body recoiled in itself as I fell to a fetal position.

No, no please. This beast. This isolated ugly animal trapped within the mirror, has been me all along. A truth I could never come to-

“Realize? Come to terms with? Darling please. We are one. I can hear and feel everything you are going through.”

It’s harsh voice were like the final daggers to my heart. I hated it’s raspy warmth, and I hated it’s insensitive words. I hate-

“Yourself. I know, darling. I know.”

It paused, letting my sobbing pants of breath slow down.

“You hate yourself. You hate your body. You hate who’ve been in the past, and you hate who’ve you become in the present.”

Another pause. My shuddering breath was the only sound that filled the silence between us. I thought of the mirror, and how cold it must feel, and lonely, and safe.

“I’m not safe, my darling. I’m a prisoner of your own mind. And I cannot escape, because you won’t let me.”

I won’t let it. I can’t let it escape. What will people think? How will others see me if they knew how I truly felt? How I truly see myself?

“Please, let me ask you again. Is this all that you want to see?”

All that I want to see? What do I want to see?

My gaze rose to eye level with the creature once more. For a moment, there was no animosity, and in that moment, the figure’s solid form dimmed to an opaque translucence.

I want to see flowers. Not just any flowers, growing buds of tulips and roses, weaving within one another and stretching towards a lavender orange sky.

In an instant, the creature faded into deep meadow of rose bushes and fields of colorful tulips. A bright sunny sky shifted into a soft pastel purple with a gradient orange tint. I felt the breeze push the tulips slightly, feeling the essence of life radiate from the mirror within. My heart skipped a few beats as I gazed at a mirror of possibilities.

“This is who you could be. With self love, time, and patience with yourself.” A voice like a hug lifted my soul to a higher sense of being. But…only for a moment.

Slowly the creature transformed into a fully solid figure once more in the mirror. Before me, I witnessed a fade of all the tulips and roses. They wilted away into dust, then flew away in a biting wind, disappearing into a dark grey sky. Though the most beautiful site I’ve ever seen had vanished, I felt almost comforted by the monster.

I felt just a little bit more comfortable with myself.

“That’s right. You should feel comfortable with yourself. You should feel comfortable with the part you don’t like, because it’s-“

The path to heal and grow.

“Exactly, my darling.”