Hallucination

That was rare; the mirror was filled with bright silvery stars shimmering like diamonds. Kristine had been under the care of the angels for quite a long time already but that had only happened thrice. On most nights, the mirror will have either one or two stars shining dimly or a red moon. Sometimes when the angels give her a lighter dosage of tranquiller, the monsters would crawl out of the mirror. Luckily, the angels always come to her rescue on time. The monsters were not the kind of monsters that hide under children’s bed; they were real and dangerous. There were ones with multiple heads and missing limbs. A lot of them were a mixture of the scariest beasts on earth. However, all those were not the scariest or most revolting of their kind; the worst of them all were the ones that steal the form of humans and alter it. They looked like humans but they had twisted hearts, any human would be able to tell that they were not of the same kind. Every single one of them challenged Kristine’s previous recognition of disgusting; whenever Kristine thought that it was not possible for a creature to be even more revolting, something worse will appear. They enjoyed torturing their victims almost as much as killing them. As time went by, Kristine realised that things will never end.

Kristine’s first encounter with the monsters was on her thirteenth birthday. Her mother served as her private chauffeur for the day to celebrate her first step into being a teenager and her elder brother, Kristopher tagged along to be her “tutor” in being a teenager. Kristine did not mind; Kristopher was a doting brother.
“Is that my present?” Kristine asked pointing at the large black rectangular package that Kristopher placed at the back of the lorry. Kristopher requested that they make a trip to Ikea before going home to collect something that he ordered which turned out to be a package that was half his height.
“Dream on. That’s for my room. Don’t you dare touch it! I did not get anything for you this year since Mom is giving you such a big present.” Kristopher replied with a sly grin. “Best brother of the century not giving her sister her birth…” their mother’s sentence faltered as the lorry swerved wildly towards the right to avoid hitting the figure that darted in front of them out of nowhere. There was a high pitched screech and for a moment, the world was spinning. Kristine heard a crash and the next thing she saw was a sticky red liquid that had a metallic smell; blood. The lorry crashed into the curb. Her head felt heavy and she had a strong urge to sleep, both Kristopher and her mother had already succumbed to the sleep; there was no reason for her to resist. A pack of monsters stood outside the lorry looking at them. The human-like one was the leader. He placed a phone on the floor, out of reach from Kristine and said, “Call for an ambulance yourself. If you can reach it you are saved, good luck.” And with that he turned around and walked away. “Help us!” Kristine tried to shout but it came out as a groan, and the next thing Kristine saw was darkness.

“Christine! We found this in the lorry. You just turned thirteen didn’t you? Happy birthday! I think your brother wanted you to have this. It’s amazing that it’s still intact.” the doctor, Joyce, walked into the ward, holding a large rectangular package, smiling at Kristine warmly. All the adults were the same. They pretend that everything was okay but whisper about her whenever they think she was not paying attention.
“Kristopher? He did not buy me anything for my birthday, he said so himself. He would not lie to me.” Kristine replied with a rare show of interest. She had been like that ever since Joyce told her about her family’s death, only showing interest when Kristopher’s name is mentioned. “When is Kristopher coming to visit me? He always stayed by my side when I’m sick. Why is he not here? Where’s Mom?” Kristine pressed on. “Oh yeah, they died.” she spoke her words in a deadpan manner, “Give that to me, I’ll open it myself. And by the way, it’s Kristine.” Kristine reached over for the package. Slowly, Kristine tore off the tape and unfolded the black wrapping paper around the package, revealing a shiny black box with a silvery ribbon tied on it. “Quick! Open it!” Joyce urged her on. Trembling, Kristine untied the ribbon gently and lifted the lid. Inside the box were layers of tissue, protecting whatever that was laying in the middle. Just when she thought that the box was empty, she saw a mirror nestled in tissue paper. The mirror was beautiful. The glass was lightly tinted green, giving everything that it reflected a green shimmer. Surrounding the beautiful green glass was an elegant black border that looked as if it was made from spun glass. Little red angel shaped sun catchers were pasted on the black border, giving it a cheerful look. “It’s beautiful.” Joyce sighed, “He took effort to keep it safe.” she continued, gesturing towards the pile of tissue paper Kristine removed. Kristine let a squeal which cause Joyce’s heart skip a beat. “What happened?” she asked, worried that Kristine was having another one of her tantrums. “He left a card!” Kristine exclaimed, beaming brightly, pointing to the back of the mirror. “I’ll read it for you.” Joyce offered, curious of the content. In a cheery voice she read, “To my most beloved sister, happy birthday! You are officially a teenage girl now so you will definitely care about your appearance more, that’s why I, your brother, bought you a mirror with all my savings. You better be grateful! Be careful with this present, it cost me a fortune. I’ll break you if you break...”
“I want to rest. Can you leave?” Kristine interrupted abruptly, reverting back to her zombie-like state.
“Okay. Rest well.” Joyce placed the card on the bedside table before leaving. It was strange for Kristine to not want to know the content of the card.
Kristine stared into the beautiful green glass of the mirror; everything looked enchanting, even the boring white hospital ward looked fit to be a pixie princess’ bedroom when reflected in it. “Kristopher, I’ll never break...” the hospital ward inside the mirror started spinning, the room was melting away.

“Monsters killed them. Monsters killed Mom and Kristopher. They wanted us to die. They left us there to die. They hated us. Monsters killed Kristopher. They were...” Kristine chanted on and on, hugging onto her birthday present from her brother.
“Kristine, you know that monsters don’t exist. Your family died in an accident.” one of the angels was trying to convince her.
“...hated us. Monsters killed Kristopher. Monsters killed Mom and Kristopher. They wanted us to die. They left us there to die...” Kristine never noticed that any of them were there. She was in a nightmare full of monsters. The angel turned to Joyce and let out a sigh, “I don’t know what to do anymore. Every time we lessen her dosage she gets these fits! It’s been months and there’s no improvement. She prefers to believe that monsters were the one that ignore them then acknowledge human’s cruelty. ” Why are they talking about human’s cruelty? Monsters are the one to blame! Kristine traced the outline of one of the red angels on the mirror, one of the few things that calmed her down, “Kristopher, even though your mirror lets out scary monsters, I will never break it. I love you.” she whispered.