Key turned to easily...
Muskan paused, hand still on the handle of her new house. The doorknob metal feel so cold like it hadn't been touched in the years. A thin air follow as she pushed the door open..... Hollow sound, empty, like the house wants to breathe fresh air who has holding its breath from ages.
She step inside.
The air feel suffocating heavily that it's hard to breathe. Like not unpleasant just old dump like some kind of old page in a book who has long forgotten.
- the living room was simple, pale wall,dusty floor, sunlight falling in from the window.
Everything looked normal.
Which was exactly what muskan wants.
After the breakup she was exhausted inside and wanted some quiet time for herself normal like salvation.
She dropped her bag on the floor " let's be happy," she whispered to the quite room.
There is a silence in room.
But it felt like someone is listening.
She starts to explore her house .slowly, letting herself memories. The house was not big a single bedroom, a small kitchen, a bathroom.
Then she go to main hallway and notice the mirror. It hung on hallway wall- tall, old fashioned, framed in dark wood curved with small vines. Maybe antique, maybe just neglected. She remembers she didn't buy it so where is this thing come from maybe my parents brought.
Then she noticed her reflection.
She stopped.
Not because anything wrong. Just because suddenly felt watched.
She stepped closer and lifted her hand in mirror her reflection also lifted hers. perfectly in sync.
"You are being too dramatic," she muttered her reflection and smile.
Still something bother her. She couldn't understand it. She walked up to exhausted and carried her bag into the bedroom.
But the feeling following her like a quiet shadow.
That night she didn't unpacking her whole bag only get some necessary items and brush her teeth avoiding looking at the bathroom mirror more that she needed to she didn't know but she feels uncomfortable to look at the mirror.
She crawled into bed.but but sleep don't come easily.. maybe the change of environment.
At 1:40 AM , she woke up without knowing why.her heart was racing, she was sweating heavily just awake, sharply and suddenly silence pressed against her ears.
Then she heard it.
A soft sound.
Not footsteps.
Not breathing
More like...... A shallow scrap.
Shhhhk......,.....shhhk.......
Like something brushing lightly against glass.
Muskan sat up on bed.
The sound come again
Shhhk...........shhhk........
From the hallway
Where the mirror was.
Her throat felt tightening. She told herself "everything is fine..... She told herself she was just nervous, alone in a new place."
But she couldn't ignore the sound.
She slowly slide out of bed silently stood on floor. The scrapping stopped. The silence felt heavier now like it was waiting for her.
She silently stepped in to hallway.
And frozen.
The mirror was there , the glass faintly silver in the dark.
Her reflection stood inside it.
Exactly where it should be.
But something was wrong.
Her reflection's chest not moving.
She touched her own chest she was breathing heavily and her chest was like up - down but her reflection was not.
She stared our at her perfect still.
A cold air spread down Muskan's spine.
" No", she whispered, stepping closer.
She leaned in searching the reflection's face for any sign of expression or movement.
Just when she was about to turn her reflection blinked.-
But half a second later.
Muskan stambled back word, hand over her mouth.
Her reflection smiled.
She didn't.
The mirror exhaled a thin fog across the inside of the mirror glass.
Muskan, trembling and wide awake in the dark, felt the unmistakable sensation of something behind the glass breathing on its own.