When I look in the mirror, who is looking back at me? I don’t recognise the person in my reflection. I don’t know if I ever have, but sometimes I wonder if I ever will. She has horns where her hair should be, no heart, and when you look into her soul, a black abyss looks back. When she looks back at me through the mirror she looks like a stranger, but there is also something in her that I recognise, that I know.

We both look left. We both look right. We both look up. We both look down. In the reflection of the mirror, I see my mother enter my bedroom from the door behind me. I turn to say hi, but the door behind me remains closed and no one is there. When I look back into the mirror, the horned creature smiles at me and moves its head towards my mother in the reflection to make sure that I notice she is definitely in the room. I watch as the creature stands up and walks over to my mother and hear my mother say, “Hi Anna, don’t forget to get your stuff together for school tomorrow.”

“I will do that now, thanks for reminding me!” The creature says in reply.

I stand up and scream at my mother in the reflection, “Don’t talk to that creature! Can’t you see it’s not me?!” My mother turns and leaves the room as though she didn’t hear a word I said. As the creature turns back to look at me, I turn around and run for the door on the other side of my room. I try to grab the handle to throw the door open and escape this nightmare, but there is no handle. There is no door. It’s just a picture painted onto the wall.

Every day I watch in the mirror as the creature lives my life. Going to school, hanging with friends, talking to my family. How does no one see what I see? How don’t they know it’s not me? The items in my room are there, as they would normally be. The only fake item that I have discovered so far is the door.

I have been here for a long time now, and there has never been any food or drink, but neither have I felt hungry or thirsty.

How do I escape this room? I have tried everything I can think of. I am desperate to be free of this nightmare. My frustration grows as I watch the creature wear my clothes, sleep in my bed, live with my family, go to my school and hang out with my friends.

The anger and the rage builds inside me until I finally snap. I grab the lamp from my bedside table, the creature watching my every move. I scream into the mirror, letting all my anger and frustration explode from my body, and throw the lamp at the mirror causing the glass to shatter and fall all around me. I fall to my knees on the ground, feeling defeated and sob quietly to myself. Will I be stuck here forever?

A hand reaches down to help me up. I take it. I look up and see the creature standing in front of me. “Come with me,” she said. “You’re finally ready to accept the truth.”

“What truth?” I reply.

“That I am you, and you are me. I am your deepest, darkest desires that you don’t want to see. I am the demon inside you.”

THE END