Page 97 - Musings 2021

when she entered her home outside the city, something immediately felt off. But paying it no
mind, she proceeded to go about as normal. It didn’t catch her eye at first but when it did she
couldn’t take her eyes off of it. A new message had appeared on the mirror in the evening but
that wasn’t even the most unusual thing about it. It looked like it was scribbled onto the
mirror in a hurry in red ink. No. No, it was blood. And only a single word: RUN . In a
handwriting that she could never not recognize - her own. She froze for a minute - her mind
processing why, where and from whom to run. Why had this message been relayed in such an
unusual way? Why was she writing it? The text made no sense but she had learned to trust
the mirror with her life. She sprang to action and rushed to the living room. Snatching the
keys and her phone from the table, she ran with all her might out of her house and to the car.
Luck, it seemed, was not on her side that day. The car refused to start and after a few tries,
she decided to make a break for it.

She ran as fast as she could, not even stopping to look back, not even pausing to take a
breath. She had been running away for what felt like an hour now. Her legs were about to
buckle but she decided she had to put some more distance between her and whatever it was
that was chasing her. Hours passed but nothing came for her. Going without food or water for
hours had exhausted her completely. She decided that for the first time in her life, the mirror
was wrong. But even then she couldn’t shake off the image of the word “Run” written in
blood from her mind.

It must have been near midnight when finally having decided to go back, she started on the
long walk to her destination. It was almost dawn when her house came into view. Hungry,
thirsty and incredibly tired, with sore muscles aching in all parts of her body, she decided to
take a bath and get some rest. Still unnerved by the experience of the night but set upon
facing her fears, she finally took a look at the mirror. It still showed the same message. But it
slowly started to fade. No sooner than Olivia breathed a sigh of relief, did she hear the creak
of the main door followed by the sound of it opening and closing. A horrifying realisation
dawned on her. Completely tired and shaken, she had forgotten to lock the front door. Her
heart started pounding and her hands started shaking when she saw that a new message had
appeared on the mirror, with the same style as the one it replaced but much, much larger in
size. She was fixed to the spot upon seeing it. There was no time. The footsteps increased in
volume and stopped when their owner reached the bathroom. The message on the mirror was
just a single word again: HIDE .

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