“Did you see that?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man before me was a horror. It\u2019s pale face was twisted in anguish like a Halloween mask held to the fire. It scratched at it\u2019s scalp, at the visible, glistening wounds that ran like muddy rivulets between tuffs of matted hair. It\u2019s eyes, milky and dull, were set deep into it\u2019s skull. It\u2019s jaw hung slack. Teeth haphazardly stacked like a tombstone lying abandoned upon a vandalised grave. A monster. Always watching. I hated it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What was it\u2019s intentions? <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Mary approached from across the room. She was wearing a smile and lavender perfume. She had tied her hair up into a bun. Her plastic gloves hissed as they brushed against her scrubs whilst she walked. She peered over my shoulder and inspected the man with narrowed eyes. Then, she shook her head, convinced by it\u2019s disguise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sorry, Mr Rosenthorpe,” Mary said with a shrug. Her hand pressed against my back. A touch as brief as a breath. “I don’t know what you\u2019re seeing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re seeing mine own death.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n “My reflection,” I said\u2014the ghoul now raised a gnarled finger\u2014\u201cit isn’t quite right.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fleeting darkness in Mary’s face was a cloud passing over the sun. Then a smile, pressed up high into her cheeks, revealing every one of her teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Have you taken your\u2014”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Yes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Okay.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “There!” I said, pointing again. “Look at the eyes. Those liar\u2019s eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary frowned at the mirror. “I\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Just watch,” I said, “wait for me to blink.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Why?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Just do it. Please.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary’s eyes snapped down to the floor. She blew out a sigh, then withdrew and turned to the door. “I’m sorry, Mr Rosenthorpe. I\u2019ll ask the doctor to see you again.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “No,” I said, making a grab for her, then, upon seeing the whites of her eyes, the grimace tug at her mouth, I wilted like a flower clipped at the stem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary walked away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course she couldn\u2019t see it. She hadn\u2019t the practice. Hours spent inspecting the mirror, watching it learn and improve. It rarely made mistakes. Too quick, too cunning. An expert at knowing when to reveal itself. Usually when I was at my worst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I turned back to the man, closed my eyes and rolled them against my lids to get them good and wet. I opened them again and fixed the mirror with an unwavering stare. I didn\u2019t need Mary to see. I saw it and that was all that mattered. I saw on behalf of everyone. My eyes were the world\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I leaned in until my cornea pressed against the cold glass. The black of it\u2019s pupil was all I could see. This was my challenge. I was ready to resist until the very end. I\u2019d save myself, save everyone\u2014the world, even. If I was relentless in my resolve, I could be a goddamned hero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I just had to catch it out. Wait for another mistake. This was it. I wouldn’t blink until it did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Did you see that?” The man before me was a horror. It\u2019s pale face was twisted in anguish like a Halloween mask held to the fire. It scratched at it\u2019s scalp, at the visible, glistening wounds that ran like muddy rivulets between tuffs of matted hair. It\u2019s eyes, milky and dull, were set deep into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1490,1646],"tags":[1649,750,751,7,167,116,31,123,13,12,9,170,1648,14,11],"class_list":["post-2433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1490","category-the-mirror","tag-blink","tag-eyes","tag-face","tag-her","tag-into","tag-like","tag-man","tag-mary","tag-me","tag-my","tag-said","tag-see","tag-seeing","tag-she","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sbrNJE-blink","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2434,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2433\/revisions\/2434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}