The Girl in the Mirror

 

The Girl in the Mirror

Joe walks out of the house while her mother is screaming at her from inside the house. “You fucking dumb ass, how dare you burn my breakfast....That’s right you’d better leave, and don’t ever come back you retard...”. Joe, no longer fazed by her mother's berating, goes for a walk through town. With her dropping out of school her new routine became quite simple with spending about five hours in the library reading and then later on grabbing something to eat from the dinner. Unfazed by the people staring at her she continued on walking. On the other side of town, she comes across some abandoned houses. One of them is a plantation house that looked like it had been there the longest, possibly built in the 17th century based on the architecture.

Intrigued, she attempts to go inside. At first, the door wouldn't budge. It was either jammed or locked but Joe had to give it one more push. This time she put her shoulder into it, knocking it right open. As soon as she stepped inside she felt a shiver down her spine with the heavy weight of someone watching her. Despite this feeling she continued to look around, the rooms were empty except for shards of glass everywhere from broken bottles. As she got halfway through the house she heard a huge slam causing her to jump. Her heart jolted into a race. She convinced herself that it was just the wind, and continued to look around.

As she worked her way back to the front of the house she noticed a room that she had missed and walked in, finding a mirror hanging on the wall. As she got closer, she found that she didn't even see her own reflection, instead, she saw a girl with long, dark hair wearing a light pink dress and she had blood trickling down her neck starting from the back of her neck. The girl screams making the glass shatter, causing Joe to jump and run to the door, finding it jammed shut when she pulls on the door knob. Joe screams!

She quickly realized that there was nobody nearby. So, she quickly grabs for something to throw. Right when she is about to break a window the door just swings open. Not wanting to stay for another second, and bolted out the door, Joe ran through town with no notice that the sun had just gone down. A Police officer in her late 40s saw how terrified she was and followed her. “Hey, hey! Girl, are you OK?” Terrified, Joe keeps running. When she gets home, she bolts for the backyard. The Police officer sees this becomes Suspicious and knocks on the front door. Joe’s mother answers the door saying “Yes, may I help you?”. “I’m sorry to bother you so late, I am Officer Mason. I just wanted to let you know that a girl just ran into your backyard. She seemed very scared. Could she be yours?” The officer asked. “Yeah, she is mine,” stated Joe's mother firmly. Officer Mason continues “She is not in trouble. I just wanted to know that she is OK. She looked terrified of something.” “I’ll be sure to look into it. Thank you officer.”, says Joe's mother firmly then closes the door with a firm click of the latch.

Joe climbs through her bedroom window. She quickly locks her bedroom door and window to make sure no one comes in. She then sits in a corner, rocking back and forth. “Hey, you piece of shit. What did you do that caused a Police officer to come asking for you?” her mother asks while slamming her fist into the door repetitively causing the door to vibrate on its hinges and Joe to flinch with every strike as she curls up on the floor while covering her ears. “Lucky for you I told her that you were too stupid to do anything like run around at night.” bang, bang, bang “Maybe next time I’ll just let you get arrested for coming in so late and not making me dinner. For that, you get nothing to eat you peace of shit.” Joe stays curled up on the floor covering her ears.

Joe finds herself waking up the next morning in the same spot and quickly gets up off of the floor. Grabbing her bag, she then climbs back out of the window suspecting that her mother is passed out drunk at her bedroom door. As her usual routine, she went to the library after stopping for Ice Cream, using a food stamp that she kept stashed from her mother to pay for it. Instead of her usual reading corner, she goes to a computer. Determined to find out who that girl in the mirror is, she looks up the history of the house. She eventually comes across an article stating that it once belonged to the Franklin Family. Joe finds a photo of the Family and sees that they have a daughter who looks just like the girl in the Mirror. Her name was Julia Franklin. One day she had disappeared and was never found. Her parents moved out a year later. Joe then prints out the information and then goes to the house to face Julia Franklin.

Joe goes into the house and calls out to Julia Franklin as she walks towards the mirror, “Julia Franklin”... still nothing. “Hey...” Before she could finish a largely invisible pulse pushes right into her with such force that her heart stops for a second as she thrusts into the air, flying backward, she feels something hard on the back of her head knocking the wind out of her, causing everything to go black.

As she wakes up she finds a woman; the same woman in the photo that she saw at the library, with her hair tied up into a bun, dressed in a white long-sleeve blouse with a lacy collar rising up her neck and a long, black skirt that wrapped around her waist sweeping along the floor as she hustled into the room, hissing at her “Get up child, get up he will be here any minute now” As she begins to get up she finds that she too was dressed in a similar fashion as the woman except with pink flowers and that she was laying on a couch with a wooden frame velvet fabric. The woman continues to fuss. Come on child, fix your hair, and For sake hide that book. As she reaches up she finds that her hair was also fashioned into a bun. She then looks into the mirror behind her. It's the same mirror as in the abandoned house but the face was not her own. Julia come on child what is with you today? The woman continued to fuss. Julia? How on earth? Not fully understanding what's going on Joe decides to go with the flow. She quickly fixes her hair as if he has done so 100 times places the book back on the shelf and follows the woman. The woman turns around and says “Wait here”. “Yes mother,” says Joe as Julia. She then notices that even her voice has a different pitch. Her mother walks back into the room followed by two gentlemen one of them her father.

The other, tall dark stranger. “Dr. McKalister this is my daughter Julia”. Julia attempts to speak up but finds herself lost for words so she nods and looks down sheepishly at her feet. The two men remain standing there as if still awaiting a response. Her mother then cuts into the awkwardness like a knife, “Forgive her the child doesn't get out much” then glares at her daughter, her eyes and voice as sharp as a knife. “Please let us go to the sitting room and I will get us some tea.” The three walk out of the library. Not feeling welcomed Julia remains in the library and goes back to reading her book. After a while, Julia hears them out in the hall. As she looks up from her book she sees that the shadows in the room have shifted. She then hears the door open and Dr. Mckalister's southern drawl “ Thank you very much for having me over, it was a real pleasure”. “the pleasure is all ours” she hears her father respond back. The door closes with a loud click. She then hears short quick knocking of heels rushing to the door. Julia slams her book shut and hustles to the bookshelf. Just as she places the book in its empty spot the door bursts open. Julia whips her head around and looks over her shoulder and finds her mother shrieking at her, “How dare you embarrass us like that in front of a guest and a suitor no less. How on earth are we to get you married if you don't even act your age. You are 18 for the sake and not 12.” Julia feels her pulse throbbing through her body along with her muscles locking up. She feels book bindings pressing against her back as her mother standing right against her still shrieking. She then shoves Julia causing her head to jerk back. Julia feels a piercing pain in the back of her head just as everything goes black.

Joe's eyes burst open as she gasped for air. Her pulse raced through and her body petrified on the floor.“Hey, kid you OK?”Joe hears a muffled voice. “Hey kid you OK?” voice repeats. It took her a few minutes to realize that she was herself again. Her body is soaked with sweat yet feels like ice. Too exhausted to move she slowly turns her head to find a policewoman squatting down next to her. “11-41, 11-41,” says Officer Mason urgently on her radio. “what is your 20? says another voice responding back through the radio. “ it's the abandoned house at the end of town just off of Rosemary street”

“10-4 on our way”.

Joe then begins to cough and with the little strength she has left manages to roll over to her side to cough to the floor. Once she manages to get air back to her lungs she looks back over to Officer Mason, “Who are you?”

“Wow! Take it easy. I called an ambulance. They are on their way. I am Officer Mason”

“I don’t want you to handcuff me says Joe while staring at the floor. “what?” says Officer Mason baffled by Joe's plead. “No handcuffs” repeats Joe now on the floor curling up into her knees. I am not going to handcuff you. I am however going to take you to the station and call your mother. “No, don’t please, Mother hates me” Joe cries out in tears. Officer Mason aghast by Joe's fear gently places her hand on Joe's Shoulder. “Hey, it's going to be OK You are now under my protection.

Come with me to the station so that I can help you.”The ambulance arrives, and seeing that Joe is still lying on the floor Officer Mason walks to the door to show them the way to her. As she comes back two medics follow her with a gurney They slide Joe onto the gurney and carry her to the ambulance. As they set her down Joe begins to sit up. At first, the medics attempt to push her back down but Joe shoves them away “No, no, let me sit up” says Joe while looking down. “Allow us to do a once over just to make sure,” says one of the medics reassuringly. Joe nods her head. They then run through a series of questions such as “What happened?”; where does it hurt?; What's your name?; Date of birth? Joe tells them everything, runs through the entire story as they shine a light in her eyes and they give her a bottle of water.

Joe could see that they were in fact listening but also had a hard time believing her full story. So basically you fell back and hit your head? Asks one of the medics. Joe nods her head. “Is there anywhere else that hurts?” “My body feels like it's been bruised all over but that's my every day”, Joe replies as she continues to look down.

They look at her with concern. “Why do you feel bruised every day?”, asks the medic. “My mother hates me,” says Joe in tears. “I have to crawl through my bedroom window to avoid her otherwise she will come after me. Every day she drinks and every day she blames me for her misery.” One of the medics goes over to Officer Mason and tells her Joe's claim. “I have already called child support services. As of right now, I have custody over Joe.” Officer Mason assures them. “In that case, she seemed to have hit her head pretty hard. For the most part, she seems to be OK but we would like to get her to the hospital and do a CAT scan, and an MRI, and have her stay overnight just to stay safe.” “Please do, I'll follow right behind you.” She then goes up to Joe, “These nice people are going to take you to the hospital and I'm going to follow right behind you, OK” Joe nods gets into a seat, and buckles up.

Officer Mason made sure to stay with Joe the entire time in the hospital to make sure that she was OK The only time she did step away was when she spoke to the doctor about retrieving Joe's medical records. As Joe sleeps through the night Officer Mason reads through Joe's medical records. She finds that she is 16 years old. Her mother is an alcoholic and had been raped, and Joe was diagnosed with autism. The next morning they check out and head to the station. On the way, Joe tells Officer Mason what she was doing at the house and about Julia and what she showed her. Not knowing what to think of Joe's story Officer Mason just keeps driving.

As they walk into the break room of the police station Joe sees the vending machine. Realizing that she hasn't eaten in a while Officer Mason turns to Joe “Hey, are you hungry Joanne?” Feeling sharp grumbles in her stomach, Joe nods her head. Officer Mason goes to the vending machine and gets out two Snickers bars. “Here you go. Stay right here for a moment. I have to do some work. I will be at my desk if you need me.” “What about the plantation house?” “Why are you so determined to solve that cold case?” “Because I need to find out what happened. I need to finish it...pleaded Joe.” “OK, I’ll tell you what. I have the day off tomorrow. We will look into it more then. Joe then nods her head. Officer Mason then goes to her to report Joe's situation.

She then looks over towards Joe just to find her mother standing over Joe yelling at her. “How on earth?” says Officer Mason as she runs to Joe's aid. She then sees Joe’s mother grab Joe by the shirt and pulls her out of the seat. “Ma'am, do you realize that you are standing in the middle of a police station?” Officer Mason barks out at the woman. Joe’s mother releases Joe as she turns around to face Officer Mason. “Do I look stupid? Do you realize that I'm her mother and that I have custody over her?” Joe curls up in the chair her face covered in tears. “No Mam, you do not, I do”, says Officer Mason firmly. “Excuse me”, before Joe's mother could even finish a single word she continued on as she began handcuffing her, “You are under arrest for child abuse.” Officer Mason then walks over and handcuffs her “You have the right to remain silent. Whatever you say or do may be used against you in court.”

The next morning Officer Mason drives Joe to her house to pick up her things. Joe uses the back window to get in, then opens the front door for Officer Mason. Officer Mason follows her in. When she gets to Joe’s room Officer Mason sees that Joe never really had much of anything. Just a bed and a fairy tale book. “Well, it looks like we are going to go shopping.” “ But I thought that we were going to go to the plantation house today says Joe confused.” “Don’t worry we are. But first, let me see what you have found so far.” Joe then pulls out the research that she did on the house and hands it to Officer Mason Officer Mason Then flips through the pages. “OK, Here is what we are going to do...We’re going to contact a medium and schedule an appointment for them to walk through the house to find out how to help you and Julia. If she really is still there then they will know how to help, sound good?” Joe nods her head. “Unfortunately this means that there is no need to go today but we will when we have that appointment.” Joe nods her head.

Officer Mason and Joe both pull up to the plantation house with the medium who spends an hour walking through the house. Afterward, Joe then tells her everything that she has found and seen.

Believing every word of Joe's story, they explain that a lot of times spirits just want to be heard and now that she has told her story she is ready to move on, and the best way to help is by burning sage. As they burn the sage through the house Joe sees her waving in the distance and just fades away in this flash of light.

20 years later:

A woman standing in front of a gravestone with the name Samantha Mason. She speaks out with a soft tone, “I will never forget what you did for me”. A car pulls up in the distance and a man in a suit comes walking towards her from the car holding an envelope. “Detective Mason, I have your next assignment,” he says quietly yet firmly as he hands her the envelope. Thank you she says quickly as she glances at him sideways then turns back towards the tombstone as he walks away not saying another word. She glances at the envelope addressed to: Detective Joanne Mason. She then walks to her car with the envelope in hand.