Mirrors

We all went to House of Mirrors in Czech Republic for my 13th birthday. On April 17th 2008 me, my parents and little sister approach the doors of a huge castle like place. The battlements were old and worn but the door and some of the surrounding bricks were brand new, probably because of recent renovation. The bricks were a mix of old brownish and grey stones and brand new, perfectly rectangular orange-red bricks. As we entered there was a short reception with some more huge doors behind it. Two of the large doors were within and arched doorframe with the signs “Entrance” on the right side of each door. One of the other doors was fairly large but shaped like any regular modern door, with the sign “Private” on it which I assumed was a storage room of some sort since the final door to the far left said “Staff” on the front. At the desk was a young lady wearing a black suit and a brown ponytail with red framed glasses hanging on to the edge of her nose. We had booked the entire house for nearly half the day from 10:00 to 2:00 and I was certain that it would be a blast. Besides that Jenny, my sister, was easily scared so it would be a lot of fun to jump out at her.

She has a fear of surprises which astounds me. She would even get scared when we yelled surprise on her birthday. At one point it was so bad that she nearly fell down the stairs after jumping a few inches in the air from us all gathered at the bottom yelling “SURPRISE!”. Dad was easily scared too which was much more hilarious. He was a high ranking employee of Tesco but I didn’t know exactly what he did. Whenever he would explain it to me I would hear the phrase “Human Resources” but I never knew what he meant and I could never be bothered hearing him explain it to me. All I knew was that his job would stop him from escaping his desk  and so it was rare that we got the chance to do family stuff. But I was real happy he came over just for my birthday. My parents never really got along at all with each other since the divorce but getting together once in awhile was good for us and they both seemed to put differences aside to get together a few times a year. It was good for Jen too, since all she needs is to see us all together and being happy every so often.

So, after dealing with the receptionist who seemed to have a significant distaste for her job, we proceeded into the house of mirrors and I can definitely say I was not disappointed. The whole room was made entirely out of glass and seemed to sparkle as I looked around. I had to spend a few moments to stare at my surroundings and take in the shining beauty of it all. I took out my iPhone and shone my LED torchlight on to one of the mirrors and it reflected everywhere, bouncing off one mirror and to another way ahead. It was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen. However, I began to understand why people got annoyed by these places as I couldn't stop walking into my own reflection. Sometimes I would reach out toward a reflection to see if it is a mirror and almost fall over trying to grab thin air.

It was most illuminating and yet very disorienting. Walking toward the maze and seeing numerous amounts of me looking right back at me as well as looking around with me. There were moments when I would mistake one of them for another person staring back at me and I would freeze for a few seconds, feeling my heart stop as the surprise swelled through me.

But the moment I was truly excited about was the opportunity to scare the living hell out of my sister and Dad. Growing up I always enjoyed scaring people. Something about the hilarious face they pull and the primal scream they make that sounds like a gorilla celebrating Christmas that made me laugh until I died. However, I have to say that I more enjoyed being the victim of a good scare. After a good jump scare you’re propelled into the air after some kind of innate instinct to leap away, then the swelling feeling of fear, anxiety, shock and many more negative feelings and then, soon afterwards, the relief of coming to terms with what just happened. I loved experiencing that. So I figured I had a great experience ahead of me.

Although, I have to admit, the mirrors were slightly unsettling at the same time. Sometimes, when walking through the halls, it felt as if the reflections were more than they seemed. As if they were aware of every move you would make whilst they mirrored it perfectly. Almost as if they were somehow alive, like they were studying every move you make and just waiting. They would just follow and wait. But I knew that was silly, these things couldn’t exist. In my experience as a horror fan and avid scare master, I knew there was no such thing as ghosts, ghouls, vampires, werewolves or any of that crap. Dad always told me I was too smart to indulge weird fantasies like that. Anything I did happen to see was either a reflection or one of my family members.

The day was progressing and the mirrors were getting rather boring and somewhat consistent. Time passed swiftly and the hilarity of walking into my reflection was running thin. After a lot of posing in front of various mirrors like a has been Hollywood diva and scaring the life out of my sister I decided it was time to move onwards. I figured I’d give everyone else another 15 to 20 minutes to have their fun before I went on my journey to find them all and end the festivities.

Suddenly, there was a blood freezing scream that echoed throughout the silver halls. It sounded like the scream of a banshee that could break every single mirror in here. There was only four of us there so I deduced that it was either my mum or Jen. The scream was then accompanied by a sound similar to that of a smashed window. I ran as fast as my terrified legs could carry me, frantically traversing the maze to find the source of the scream. As he mirrors shot past me I saw a glimpse of my reflection which caught me by surprise. I don’t know what I think I saw but it looked like my reflection was taller than me. Tall, lanky and anorexic. I could see bones with my skin strapped tightly to them. I couldn’t dwell on this since I needed to find who screamed. I then heard crying sounds coming from the right, it was definitely Jen. I ran faster than I had ever ran before, bumping into various mirrors as I sprinted. On the last passageway I ran head first into one of the mirrors, landing in a passage next to mine.

Glass flew around everywhere as the mirror shattered into a thousand little shards, glistening under the blue light. I picked myself up and wiped the blood away from the cut on my cheek and  as I looked around the hallway I saw my sister sitting on the floor crying with her head down. I stared in terror as I looked at her arm and the broken mirror in front of her. She looked up at me, tears and blood flowing from her eyes. "He tried to take them" she cried. "He wanted my eyes" she enunciated.

Her arm was completely snapped in half from the elbow, her forearm seemed to hang from the joint and I could see a ragged combination of flesh, gristle and broken bone sticking out of where her elbow should be. Blood was pouring out of the hole and running down her arm to form a small puddle beneath her. Her jeans were stained red by the puddle formed. Her arm was massacred, as if the bone and flesh had been torn at by a wild animal. I reached down to try and comfort my sister but I hit my head on glass. I staggered backwards, holding my head and staring into her eyes, blood dripping down over the reflection from where my head got hit. It looked so real. She was right there in front of me. I turned to see if she was opposite the mirror in the space next to me but all I saw was the broken mirror, I looked back and 'she' was gone.

I had never been scared like this before but this time there was no exciting feeling. I was scared for my life. I kept running and running, I didn't care what happened next, I just wanted to get out. I then saw Dad, he turned to me with a face I had never seen before, pure fear. He tried to say something but then turned and faced forward and his face sunk into a pale white. All I heard was him scream run. We ran for what seemed like forever. Eventually me and dad found a corner surrounded by mirrors but we were safe. We looked at each other but couldn’t say anything after all that was happening. Without warning, the mirrors all around us began to break one by one. Glass fell to the floor and down the back of my shirt. We both immediately jumped up and continued the run for our lives.

As we were running glass was smashing everywhere, each mirror we passed would break as soon as we got past it until we both ran into a mirror at the end of the passage we were in. It was solid glass and the combined force of both of our bodies weren’t able to break it. We looked up at the mirror and saw a giant black shadow, almost like a silhouette of someone else. I looked behind us but saw nobody, only a carpet of glass and shattered mirror frames. Its giant black head had two big gaping holes that were bleeding from the bottom and blood spattered across the lower half of its head, representing some kind of mouth. I pulled on Dad’s arm, begging him to keep running but he refused to move. I looked back at the mirror and saw the creature reach out toward his face, as the hand came out of the mirror and dragged my dad back into the mirror with him. I grabbed Dad by the torso, hoping to keep him away but my strength wasn't enough as my dad was ripped in half by the monster. I was thrown back by the sudden tear and I was laying on the floor with my dad's legs and lower torso lying next to me. It was the most horrific and disgusting thing I’d ever seen in my entire life.

Reflected in the bloodstained glass floor were my dad’s  legs and lower intestines sliding out from his wait. I vomited all over the floor from the look and the smell. I wanted to just cry to myself for a while but I knew I had to find Mum and Jen and get out. Jen needed a hospital by now, if the reflection was real. As I kept running through the maze, as a lost lamb would on an endless field I saw my dad’s pale corpse hung up by two giant glass shards on a broken mirror, cuts and gouges all over his chest and face. Various glass pieces sticking out of his torso and mouth. The worst part, though, had to be his face. His eyes had been forcefully torn out of his head and replaced with two jagged pieces of glass covered in blood and flesh. I took a few seconds to silently cry to myself whilst also vomiting all over the floor yet again. I was in a horror story, and there was no escaping it. I had to find everyone else. I had to, before he collected me too.

Mum was gone and Jen was too, I was so scared until looking in a mirror in front of me. They had met the same death as Dad. Both hung from the ceiling by giant glass shards, no eyes to cry from. I couldn't think straight, I was helpless until I saw the door. This was my chance to get out and be free. I sprinted toward the door and tears flowed from my eyes as I got closer and closer. Then my nightmares drew in on me as I crashed at top speed into a giant mirror and hit a wall. A giant glass blade had stuck itself into my torso and blood flowed out of me, on to the floor. I refused to believe it. This couldn't be the end for me, but it was. I turned around and slumped to the floor, holding in my intestines. The dark figure approached through the surrounding mirrors. He came to me and reached for my face. I let out a final scream for my life as I felt my eyeballs being ripped from my head. Everything was darkness.