Obsidian Mirror, pt. 4

I walk with the couple re-clothed in extra garments they had with them. They were old hippies that were on a long camping trip out in their cabin. They offered to feed and clothe me for a few nights, or until I can figure out what happened to me lat night.

It's evening and we arrive at the cabin and tie up the horses outside. We enter and I promptly fall onto the couch, exhausted. Sunshine (the wife) goes to the kitchen and begins boiling a pot of something and Northwind (not his real name, I'm sure) takes a seat next to me.

"So then, Zee, was it?" says Northwind, "What is the last thing you remember?"

"Going to sleep in my prison cell last night," I answer quietly.

"Where were you imprisoned?"

"I forget the name of the place. Somewhere right near Seattle."

"Seattle?" he says, shocked. "Are you sure about that?"

"Positive, why?" I ask, puzzled.

"You were about twenty miles off of the central Oregon coast when we found you."

I feel light headed. I slouch down into the couch, wide-eyed and dizzy. How can this be possible? All that distance in one night! And I don't remember any of it!

"How... I... I don't know what to say..."

Sunshine enters the room with a mug of tea for me, which I sip, hoping that it will calm my nerves. It doesn't.

"Can you get any news here? I need to see if there was any sort of incident at the prison last night. Give me some idea of how I escaped in the first place."

"Afraid not," Northwind answers. "No internet, TV or radio. The only outside contact is the phone, which only works for emergency calls."

"Damn..." I put my elbows on my knees and hold my face in my hands. I start sobbing uncontrollably, tears running down my forearms, cheeks and neck. "Why is this happening to me? What's happening to my life?"

"Now, now," Sunshine says gently patting my shoulder. "Why don't you get some sleep? We'll take good care of you, Zee."

She stands me up and leads me to a small bedroom in the back corner of the cabin and shuts the blinds. I sit on the bed and thank her. She simply tells me to rest and leaves me in peace in the room, where I cry myself to sleep.

The next morning:

I sit up slowly from under the covers and look around the room. There's a small dresser to my right, and a square window on that wall. The door is straight ahead. To my left there's a mirror.

"Good morning, sleepy head," says the man in the reflection.

"Shut up."

"Not a morning person? That's alright. I'm sure you'll be cheerier when you see the present I left for you outside," he says darkly.

"You're a voice in my head," I say. "What could you possibly have done?"

"I told you," he replies mockingly, "it's a surprise."

I get out of bed and walk quickly to the bedroom door in my boxers. I turn the knob and pull.

As the door opens, the mutilated bodies of Sunshine and Northwind fall into the room and hit the floor with a sickening, lifeless thud.

I hold back an urge to vomit.

"How did you do this? What are you?" I scream at the mirror. "It was you who killed my neighbors too, wasn't it?"

"I also broke you out of prison," he says, "but apparently you only care about 'bad' stuff."

"How are you doing these things?" I ask, desperately holding on to what elusive wisps of sanity that I still have.

"We both know the answer to that. You're just too afraid to admit it to yourself."

I step over the bodies and walk through the cabin to the telephone on the living room wall. I pick it up and dial nine-one-one.

"Hello?" I say into the receiver. "I think I just killed two people."