Hope this fits the criteria.
That image is still burned onto the templates of my mind, that woman, the scream...it was mine, I was dying...again. I remember that night as perfectly as if it were happening now, I can hardly bare the memory without bursting into violent tremors.
"Ley, why have you returned here? Do you not know that this place shall be your demise if you stay?"
"Yes, I know. But I also know that I've never been one to back down or take kindly to threats." I must admit, I feared for my life, but I fought like crazy to never reveal it. She's an animal at heart, she can sense it.
"Oh, but my dear...this is a promise!"
My body shakes, I can feel the blood coursing through my veins, searching endlessly for an opening until somehow or another it reaches the wound. My wound reopens upon every instance of the memory. I'd swear it were all a hallucination, swear I was crazy if not for the physical scars it left behind with every passing blow.
"I could watch you drown in your own commodities, hear your cries for mercy when I rip you from your pedestal, feel your heart in my hands Ley and then it'd be too late for apologies."
"Is that so? And just HOW would you do THAT? I don't think you have enough power to bring down the Berlin Wall let alone an Army like myself Aniasis."
"Like this!"
She rushed me so fast, like a shadow of a lion, her hand encircling my throat. I could feel my body being raised from the ground, my airway closing, the blood coursing through my body, my lungs begging for air. I kept fighting, I never gave up, I couldn't, it wasn't the type of person I was back then. I've changed now.
"So Ley, what was it you were saying?"
"I-said-I-will-kick-your-a..."
I don't remember how I got here, back home, sprawled out on this floor before my bed. I reached for my neck and pushed my chest to catch my breath. Maybe she wanted to save me after all, I can never know, but I know I'll be back. Trying to stand might result in busting my butt because my legs feel like jelly. Ah, my head is pounding, but I need to move. Somehow I manage to get to my feet and the diziness subsides after a moment of trembles. I stare at my hand, at that blazing star she’d left imprinted upon my hand, watched the blood piercing through my skin and trickling down my to my fingertips. Drips of blood at my feet, a trail left behind as I retreat to my corner of my room.
Every time I peer into the mirror, I see the woman's face staring back at me. That long dark hair, those piercing black eyes that burn me to my core. Her pale skin like powder condensing before me, she is like an undead form of Alexandra Cabot, I’d swear but no one knows of whom I speak. But she is not supposed to exist any longer, not in my world, not in hers, she belongs nowhere now but gone, hidden from the boys who are out to get her. Witness protection my butt, they just wanted to take her from me, just like they took everything else, just like they took…my soul. My lover is now my hatred, my fear, my aggression. I need desperately to be relinquished. The faces transform back and forth from her face to mine, quickening with every exchange, every other glance my own. I watch my face morphing, mutating, watch as I die, trapped inside the glass. I know I’m not physically dying, but watching the evil magic that mirror bestows forces me to release all hope of a future. I am gone, I am no longer Leyanna. I am no one; no one but a slave to my own reflection. If looks could kill I'd be in the seventh ring of hell by now.
Every time I look into that glass it’s a different scenario: gunned down in the line of duty; held up against a sweating perp who’s knife is slowly ripping the flesh from my neck; running to get to my mother who is quickly dying in front of me, only to see her lifeless figure sprawled out upon the pavement; all I can do is watch. I feel helpless, I can’t do anything to save her, to save myself. Finally I decide that I get to choose my own fate.
I sit here alone in the confinements of my room, waiting to play the game of my demise. Moving to my comfortless bed I search throughout the darkness with grogginess heavy on my mind; the only light daring to invade this gruesome fog, cascading through my window in an endless beam of moonlight. The air is still, the night itself is without charm...this would be a good night to expire. Consciousness sets in, the weight of the icy cold steel forcing my weak hands to cling tighter. Finally strength, and with it comes doubt. I must do this now or I might lose my nerve. I raise the revolver slowly, inching towards the ceiling. The shadow flickers on the wall as the moonlight filters through my window. I slide the steel across my cheek, flinching at its touch and slightly pulling it away. So cold, chills tingling down my spine in an effort to keep my resolve.
So many nights I have lied awake wondering why I've bothered to stay, why my mother let me live instead of casting me aside. Why did she keep this constant reminder of her doom? Now she is gone and it is my destiny to follow suit. Never a drunk was I, but always a fool nonetheless...how could I be such a fool?
"Now or Never" I whisper to myself, knowing I have only one chance. If I die I die, if I live I walk away and never speak of this. Who would miss me anyway? Spinning the barrel, it flies around again and again, I can feel the sweat creeping down my forehead, images flashing through my pulsating brain. My mother deep beneath the ground I so often bled on, my father squeezing the breath out of my mother and forcing himself on her, and my one true source of light in this dark, cruel life...Alex, my lover with those crystal blue eyes that take my breath away and her beautiful smile now lost upon me...kissing my best friend, my partner. That woman, that mysterious figure invading my night terrors only to make them a reality.
How could this happen to me? The only family I had left in this world and now they were my betrayal. I finally find peace, then with a single piece of glass I find destruction. How could something so fragile be so evil? I cringe at the thoughts as they flash faster and faster in my mind, teasing and taunting me...PULL!!!
My finger commands the trigger to obey its request, the click echoes through the night...
darkness...
empty.
I open my eyes and sigh at the atrocious object lingering near my temple and drop it to my side opposite the mirror. I see my hand, it still drips with blood and I circle the glass with a "O" then dotting the mirror at its core.
"Bullseye..."
c**k. Aim. Fire. Bam! And that's all she wrote, but not for this mirror, this glass, this heathen was impervious to my attempts at justice. I wondered hopelessly if I'd ever escape these horrors, I must be a fool, still a slave to my reflection. I walk in silence to my drawer and return my stalkers back into hiding. Tonight I live, tomorrow...
