I had lodge in a room in a weird and isolated motel on my way travelling by road. I had decided to pause my journey when night came upon me. Not only was the receptionist who was an old lady weird, I had a rather strange feeling when around her and the way she stared at me as she gave me my room key, made me feel a chill run down my spine. “Ignore whatever you hear while in there. I’d hate to have to take your belongings too.” She had told me as I walked away towards the stairs that would lead up to my room.
Too tired to ask questions and in dire need of sleep, I ignored her warning and went in search of my room. The motel was old and seemed to be falling apart. Not only was it substandard in every way, it also was also in need of serious renovation and I couldn’t be more wary. Within me, I prayed that it didn’t collapse on me while I was asleep and if at all the structure was going to buckle, I wanted to have kept enough distance from me and it as far as possible.
Anyway, I settled in the little room that looked dark and gloomy and sitting on the foot of the bed, I observed the room and noticed that the most significant object in the room was a wall-length standing mirror. The frame and glass was so clean that it seemed as if it was dusted and cleaned every hour. I walked to the mirror and stared at my reflection on it but a strange feeling enveloped me as if I was being watched from the other side of it.
Shaking off whatever feeling I have, I moved back to bed and called it a night as I tucked myself into bed and soon drifted into sleep. In the middle of the night, I heard a whisper of my name “Jane.” At first, I turned I had imagined it but the voice came again in the dark room in a sing-song tone this time. “Jannneee…” Propping on an elbow, I looked around, wondering where the voice was coming from and that was when I saw a reflection of me in the mirror.
Unlike I who was lying on the bed, propped on an elbow, the reflection of me was seated on a bed in a different dress with her legs folded in front of her. She looked so pale and her lips were dry and cracked. Jolting up to a sitting position, I wiped a hand over my eyes to get rid of whatever hallucination this was but when I looked again, my reflection was still there but with a sinister smile on her face.
“Mirror mirror, who’s the purest between us?” My evil reflection said with that eerie smile still plastered on her face. “I have been expecting you. I knew you’d come.
““Who are you?” I asked.
“I’m you and you are me.” She answered. “And I have come to take from you which I don’t have, your soul.”
I swallowed hard then scoffed. This must be a prank. Yes it was, it must be that old crone at the reception trying to scare me out of her wits. “know what?” I began as I scooted off the bed and grabbed my jacket and my backpack while her eyes followed me. “This was all a bad idea, I’m sleeping in the car.”I said and started for the door but as I reached for the handle, crawling plants rapidly appeared on the door and wrapped around my wrist.
With a yelp, I tore my hand away, panting in fear as I spun around to look at my reflection on the mirror who was laughing sinisterly. “Once you are in, no one gets out. This room is called the judgment room. All who come in here are trapped forever.”As she said the words, something crawled put from the bottom of the mirror.
When I took a closer look, I realized that it was a Baby and it was crawling towards me. Another baby popped put, another and then another until they filled the floor of the tiny motel room, crawling towards me, giggling and chanting “Mama, mama, mama!”I was shocked, I recoiled from them and flattened my back against the wall.
I couldn’t believe that all this was happening. As each baby clung to me, they gave me a flirting image of who they were. Some were the babies I had aborted while I was in high school and college and others were the ones I had illegally aborted during my nurse career for teenagers and freshmen until I was discovered and fired and all my past had come to hunt me.
The babies clamoured around me and in as much as I tried to get them off me, they clung to me and soon began to drag me towards the mirror. I screamed, I begged, I fought, I cried but they wouldn’t stop. I clawed on the wooden flaw to get a grip but I was pulled into the mirror.
Now I wander aimlessly in the oblivion of a world in the mirror, seeking escape, begging for mercy but there’s no way out for in it I found thousands of wandering souls who are also trapped and my angusih was just beginning.From the mirror, I saw the old receptionist come into the room, pick my bag and took it to the basement which was already filled with thousands of bags each belonging to every occupant who had ever lodged in that room. Three days later, I saw couple walk in, they were junkies and had committed several crimes, I screamed through the mirror and tried to warn them but they were oblivious to my presence as they smooched and fell on the bed.
Now in despair, I hang around the other door of the mirror, hoping that the portal would weaken and I can escape.
Oh well, it has been twenty nine years now and I’m stll trapped in the MIRROR with my reflection hanging around my neck and following me everywhere I go. What a burden!#horror
#guilt
#penalty
#motelAngela Okoduwa
