Chapter Three

Matt climbed out of the shower stall. There was one towel round his waist, and he was using another to towel dry his wet hair. The mirror over the sink was steamed up, so he used the towel to wipe it clear. He stared at himself. He was wet. He dragged his hands across his face, watching the movement reflected back at him. He dropped his hands, but the mirror image kept his in the air. “What the-?” Matt gaped at the mirror. What was going on? The Matt in the mirror was staring at him.

“Get out.”

Matt jerked round as the image spoke. Was someone standing behind him?! No-one. He turned back to the mirror. It had gone back to normal. Matt stared at it for a couple seconds. “Nothing. You imagined it…” He looked down at the sink, “You’re being paranoid. You sensed a presence so now you’re hallucinating about dead girl ghosts and enchanted mirrors…” He glanced up at the mirror again to be sure. There was a man he didn’t know now in the mirror. He twisted round; no-one. He turned back to the mirror.

The man was still there, surveying him with interest. He had a delicate looking face, with light blue eyes and his hair was longish and blond, with a black streak near the front. “You shouldn’t be here…” he said in an Essex based accent. “Have you not heard the stories that surround this place?”

“I’m sorry. What?”

A look of realization dawned on the man’s features, “Oh… You’re not from here… Well, that explains it…” He leaned forward slightly, so that if he were standing behind Matt, his chin would probably be resting on the brunette’s shoulder, “Do you have any family?”

This struck Matt as a bizarre question. Then again, he was the one having a conversation with a mirror. “Yeah…”

“Shame.”

*****

That night, Matt lay in bed for ages, staring up at the ceiling. Surely he was going mad… No way could have seen what he’d seen. It was beyond the realms of possibility…

But what exactly were ‘the realms of possibility’?

No! No way! He was not considering the realty of this. It wasn’t happening. He wasn’t seeing a guy in the mirror, nor was there a girl within the locked room. He picked up his pillow and rolled over onto his stomach, jamming the pillow down over his head.