A Mirror Tells All

Another drunk night without a meaning; he probably was turning into an alcoholic after entering what he referred to as Hell. He wondered how many drinks he had that night though. Five? No, the number had to have been higher with how he was feeling. 

Footsteps heavy, legs dragging like limp noodles behind his body towards anything he could rest on.

Two steps.

One.

The mirror. Better yet, the stand under the mirror.

His hands gripped the sides of the rickety wooden stand. He thought of how shitty the thing was, even thought maybe it was time for him to toss it out. Yea he could always out something else under that mirror.

"Heyya there, buddy boy." His head shot up as the voice rang out through his head over and over. The thing was, he was staring at himself.

"W-Whose there?" He whispered. He had drank alone that night so there was no way that anyone was inside his house... unless someone broke in. "Listen...take the tv. That's the most expensive thing I've got!"

"Aww, Mally's spooked now, ain't he?" While his eyes searched around he saw the reflection in the mirror staring right at him with a small smile. 

"I'm not spooked...who the hell says spooked anymore?" He snorted, leaning back against the air; gravity being the only thing to hold him up.

"You used to." The smile grew, the grin was wide. Side to side, ear to ear. Inhuman and completely black; a void.

Mallory couldn't think straight. Clearly the alcohol was getting to him, but he had never experienced something like this at all and at this point he was getting either terrified or stressed. No, it was both. His pulse was quickening by the second and his hands could barely stay still as his grip on the stand tightened. Who was in the room with him?

"Me."

"Who is me?"

"You."

"Who are you?" 

"I?"

"Who am...I?" Bells, like when an game show question was answered rang out all around him.

"We have a winner~" A thin, pale, bandaged hand came and tapped on the mirror as if it was merely a window between the two of them. "My other half." The other hand looked different. The fingernails were clipped completely down to that light dusty bed. Fingertips completely gone as if they were rubbed off; scratches and broken wood stuck in them. "My better self. How much envy I hold towards you."

Mallory took a step back as a low rumble in his throat erupted into a loud scream. He was completely terrified. The fear he felt only made the deadly smile widen until the black covered even the red tips of the being's ears. The thoughts all gone as the hands shot out of the mirror, the glass breaking miniscule compared to the shouts for someone that came more as a beg than anything else.

"I watch you every day, Mally boy." One hand tugged Mallory's arm back while the other wrapped tight around his neck; wood sticking in through fragile skin as if slipping through an open fence to widen its gap. "Ahh...the feeling of such beautiful flesh...Augh Mally boy, let me take it. Let me use it but just one day." Splinters breaking off inside his flesh made his gasps and groans deep, intense, desperate.

"S-someone...s-save me..."

"Save you? You couldn't save yourself for years, Mally boy! You never could save me! I was so alone! I'll come for you." The grip tightened, the other hand slithering up Mallory's arm like a white serpent until it joined its other half around his neck. "I'll save you."

Mallory took a step back, thinking if he could back up enough he could get away. He could run away to someone else's home and be free from this nightmare. 

Glass was breaking. Glass was being smashed under something. It was breaking free.

"I'll always be here for you, Mally boy."

No.

No.

No.

"But yes~" A leg popped out of the mirror as the glass from the growing hole was crushed under its weight. There was almost no mass to the leg; bone with a thin strip of paper stretched around until barely covered. "I haven't eaten in months....just like back then....you're trappin' me like they did, Mally boy." 

"I-I...no I....I couldn't ever....I never...Please l-let...let me go..." He had no nails, nothing to scratch the hand with...his fingers dug into what felt like sand, black sand. It felt worse though... It felt like tar. He couldn't break his hands free no matter how much he pulled. He was getting engulfed.

"You'll feed me, won't ya? Just a small feast." Bodies pressed together, faces so close they could be almost touching. Mallory was the fly in the black widow's trap. 

"N-No..."

"Thank you for the meal~" The mouth opened wide like a cobra, Mamba, a python about to swallow the baby bird whole still inside its egg. Everything went black.

His mind shut down.

Eyes stopped working.

Ears refused to open up for any hint of sound that he knew gave way in that old house of his.

Mouth almost forced completely open as the tar slipped through his mouth and through his body. He was going numb.

"Numb, huh?" Yes, numb. "Interesting."

xXx

A blood curdling scream danced throughout the entire room as Mallory sank to the ground gripping his neck tight as he scratched at it, internally begging for the air to escape, feeling lightheaded as his screams were the only thing that were allowed to roam freely, and roam they did. Dancing around like balls of darkness and emptiness as in his mind's eye the tar slipped past his lips like a snake's.

"Mal." Who was that? "Mallory?" He was scared. Was it another being coming to hurt him? He just wanted to be left alone.

"Go away!" Words were allowed now? No only those.

The door opened, and the gentle sound of it being shut was heard above his own screaming. Dammit. He was fucked. They would be hurt like how he was. He was terrified. "M-Mal!?

"G-Go away!!" He cried out, backing against the wall, hands covering the blood that barely trickled down his neck. "Please just....go away....I'm begging you...." He felt seething wet run down his cheeks, and upon seeing that they were as clear as ever he let himself break further so they could fall faster.

"Oh...okay?" The door once again opened and closed, and Mallory felt free. He was free... wasn't he? He got up and stalked through his own home to make sure no one was inside, and went to the bathroom to clean up his wounds. Passing by the broken mirror and destroyed wooden stand.

Scratches, small holes that imitated that of broken slivers of wood were noticed. Bright red hand prints that barely fit around his neck all but brushed against the other's fingertips in a woeful farewell.

"You sent your savior away, Mally boy." He didn't respond, just wrapped bandages around his neck as the bandaged hand slipped once more through another mirror and cupped his cheek. It was so warm for how cold he felt. "Now we match." 

"Now...now we match..." Their grins, the bandages around their neck, the tattered black shirt that he refused to get rid of. All of it was the same as the hands slowly vanished from sight. "We match...you...you are me...I am you..." His footsteps were light as he turned off the bathroom light. "Goodnight...Mallory..."

A wicked grin that grew with the darkness that spread through the small room. "Goodnight, Mally boy."