Mirror man

John had been sitting there on the ground for about 4 minutes now, or at least he thought so. He didn’t have a watch and the bathroom was without a clock. Although now all he cared about was getting out of there. If he really had seen what he thought he saw then he wouldn’t want to go near that bathroom mirror again, or any mirror for that matter, for awhile.
He couldn’t believe that what he had seen happened, but he had to because he had seen it. He didn’t have any way to confirm it, but maybe if he had a camera.
“No, no that wouldn’t work” he said, great now he was talking to himself. He had gone from playing his Xbox to clinically insane bathroom dweller within the past 8 minutes.
He reached into his pocket and grabbed a pen and a sheet of paper from his pocket (he was someone who believed that you should always have something to write with and write on) and began to write.
I was just a normal boy…
No, No, that was just plain stupid, I was just a normal boy, he wasn’t writing a novel for gods sake he was writing this just so that he couldn’t brush it off as a dream or a slight nervous breakdown.
Here I am, at the end of my rope...
No, now it sounded like a suicide note, why couldn’t he think of something, and why did it matter so much, he was sure that even if it was real, it couldn’t hurt him. Could It?
All right, here’s the story…
There we go, that was okay at least, not Stephen King or J.K. Rowling material but it also wasn’t supposed to be.
He took a deep breath, leaned up against the bathtub, took one more glance at the mirror and began writing.

All right, here’s the story. I don’t want this to be too long and I don’t plan on writing my life story and I don’t think anyone wants to hear it. But if you do there are a few reliable family members you could talk to if it came to that, and by that I mean my death.
Before I got here, in the bathroom, I was 100% positive about my sanity, and even now I still feel like I’m at a nice 45-50%, but likely nobody would believe me if you read this. I can right now here footsteps right outside the door, and it is only about 3 feet away, but the mirror spans almost the whole wall from here to there, I suppose I could crawl but regardless of what I may think, I don’t plan on coming out of this bathroom without looking in that mirror again.
And by the way, my name is John Patterson.
I got up today, about 8 and went directly to the bathroom, no problems there, this morning it was just a bathroom, a bathroom with a normal, everyday mirror. You would look in, see yourself and what was behind you and would walk away, no harm done. Now I wonder if when you look in the mirror if you really do see just yourself, or is it somebody else. But I’ll get to that later.
I then went to school, hung out, and came back home. I ate dinner, played Xbox, and naturally needed to go to the bathroom. I ran up to the bathroom and shut the door behind. I took care of my business and walked over to the sink still happy with my sanity.
I began washing and noticed something on my mouth. I leaned in and took a closer look, I wiped it off and stood back up looking into the mirror and I winked.
But I didn’t wink. I didn’t wink on my side of the mirror, but whoever or whatever was on the other side did wink.
I moved backwards and managed to fall into the bathtub. When I began falling backwards so did the person on the other side of the mirror, but it seemed like he stayed up for second longer, maybe he managed to compose himself for a second, maybe he tried to break free of whatever linked him to me, whatever made him do what I do, maybe, he was trying to get out.
I was in the bathtub for about 2 minutes when I finally managed pull my self out. I sat down below the mirror leaning against the counter below it. I lifted my hand up slowly and stopped just before it would become visible in the mirror.
I leaned out so I could see and stuck my hand up in front of the mirror.
Another hand popped on the other side of the mirror,I almost sighed with relief after I brought my hand down. Before I could though, before I was even allowed to breath again the hand on the other side of the mirror came back up, reached towards the mirror and knocked, I may have been able to handle this with more ease if the hand had made any sound at all, but it didn’t. There was no sound except for my ragged breathing and now the sound of a door closing somewhere in the house.
A couple ideas went through my mind, my first though was that on the other side of the mirror, there was a house just like mine with a person who does exactly what I do, and that maybe he was just as afraid as I was, maybe he winked and I didn’t and he was just as afraid as me, this was just one of my more prominent thoughts.
But now, now I have a different idea, which was very much the same thought I had as I fell into the bathtub. There was something that on the other side of the mirror, and he has to do what I do, and maybe that’s what it’s like for everybody. Then I took it a step further, maybe these people have the same personalities as there governing bodies. Then I formed my current hypothesis, maybe my reflection, my identical twin in the land of the mirror, doesn’t like me, maybe he doesn’t like what I do, he would prefer to take over.
Perhaps if he wanted badly enough to break free, he could.
And soon enough I believed this.
To you, this will likely sound like the essay of a madman, and I don’t blame you.
Denial is the first step right?
Well, I think you know enough, and now I’m going to put this nice yellow business paper under the trash can, and if I make it out of here I’ll put it in the trash, and if I don’t, hopefully someone will find it soon.
I bid you good-day.

I bid you good-day.
He thought it was pretty good. Not too fancy, not too long either, just right.
He lifted the small white trash bucket and slipped the small yellow sheet of paper under it.
“All right, here we go” he took in a deep breath. By now he had been in the bathroom for a good 10 minutes and someone would likely be wondering what was taking him so long. My make up he thought and laughed at that.
That laugh gave him the extra little jolt that he needed.
“Okay, alright, on the count of three” he got into a better position.
“One” he said and grabbed onto the counter.
“Two” he breathed out and got ready to jump up.
A knock on the door startled him and he fell back against the toilet.
“John, what are you doing in there”, it was his mom.
“My…” then he stopped, he had almost said my make up but luckily caught himself, “uhh, the toilet clogged up” he said and sighed.
“Oh, um, okay, just hurry up and take care of that, I kind of need to use the restroom” she said and he heard her head off down the hallway.
What the heck, he thought, why did she have to knock right then, perfect timing mom, if you wanted me to crack my head open so that you could have some toilet time, and he laughed at that as well.
“Okay, lets try this again” he said and was in higher spirits, maybe everything would turn out fine.
“One” he got back into his position.
“Two” he grabbed onto the counter.
“Three” he said and jumped up and stared at himself in the mirror.
It was him, just him. No parlor tricks or smoke and mirrors (ha ha), just him standing there. He fell back against the wall and put his hand on his forehead out of impulse, and so did the guy in the mirror. He stood back up straight and noticed something. He had brought his right hand up, but in the mirror man’s left hand it looked like he was holding something. He looked down at his left hand and then looked at his left hand. There was definitely something in his hand. John turned and looked at his reflection’s face, and he smiled.
His reflection smiled and John knew he hadn’t because he felt about as far from smiling as you can get. The mirror man’s grin appeared to get wider, and wider, until it reached what seemed to be his limit.
He looked down at his left hand and looked back at John. He then commenced to bring up his arm. John then began to feel his own arm rise with the mirror man’s arm.
He tried to pull away and managed to break loose. He saw now what the other John was holding. It was a rock. Now John knew what he was planning, and now he knew that he was right all along, the mirror man was trying to escape and by the looks of what he had done with John’s arm, he might succeed.
The other John leaned towards the mirror and John felt himself being pulled towards the mirror with him. The mirror man looked him in the eyes and said something that John would not have been able to understand if his mouth hadn’t moved with the mirror man’s.
“I’m getting out”, he felt a sudden chill go down his spine.
The other man pulled up his arm and slammed it against the mirror, taking Johns hand with it. John wasn’t holding a rock and his fingers slammed into the mirror at about the speed you would throw a baseball, it made a loud smacking sound against the mirror and he could feel his fingers tingling
He tried to yell, and then he tried to scream but he found that he had no control over what he did anymore; the mirror man was calling the shots.
He continued slamming his hand against the mirror until small cracks began appearing on mirror. The mirror was shaking with each hit and John hoped that it would fall, fall and shatter so that the mirror man could not escape. His parents had begun knocking at the door.
“John, John, what are you doing in there” that was his mom.
“John, you stop that and get out of there this instant”, and that was his dad.
“Just a second” he said and now he knew that he didn’t even have control over his own voice anymore. He cursed himself for not just leaving, why couldn’t he have just left it alone.
“No just a second” his dad yelled at him, “you get out here right now”
“Just a second” he said, and now he felt his arm fall to the table.
He was losing his power, John thought, oh my god I’m gonna be okay. He looked up at the mirror and found out why he was no longer being controlled.
The mirror man was reaching through the crack in the glass, actually reaching through. He could see his fingers poking through. John tried to run but found that he still couldn’t move his legs. Then he tried to speak and found that he still couldn’t make the words. He found that the mirror man was still very much in control.
He looked around and saw the toilet plunger just close enough for him to reach as long as he had control of his right hand, a toilet plunger, he supposed that weirder weapons had been used in times of crisis. He reached over glad to know that he now had complete control over his torso. He grabbed it and without thinking slammed it into the hand of his other self.
It hit what was now the mirror mans arm reaching through and it bounced off harmlessly. The mirror man looked up and waved his right hand. John’s right hand flew up into the air and began shaking the plunger wildly. The mirror man opened his fist and the plunger fell form John’s hand. He then brought it down, positioned it so that Johns hand could grab onto his hand and made him take hold.
Now began what must have been the very awkward process for the mirror man. He began pulling back with his right hand which caused John to do the same thing, and in affect he began pulling the mirror man out of the mirror.
First his shoulder reached the mirror and it began to shrink and stretch. Shrink and stretch until it was the size of the small crack in the mirror. It seemed to him to take at least 20 minutes but when his shoulder was through he let John let go of him. He placed his hand flat against the mirror and pushed himself through, first his head, which, was by far the most chilling part.
His head seemed to John to have the consistency of jelly and it squeezed or oozed its way out. When that was through it was just a matter of getting his other arm through and squirming out.
By the time this was all over, the mirror man was physically exhausted and looked about to collapse.
“Told you so” he said and smiled a devilish grin. He stretched himself out and repeated himself, “told you so”.
“Wasn’t as easy as it looked” he said and laughed, “but, you’ll get to see how hard it is soon enough”.
He sat on the counter and looked at John, “Let’s settle this like men” he said and smacked his hand on the table. John collapsed onto the ground.
“Ow” he said as he landed on his wrist.
“Oh, look at that” he said, “you didn’t much like not having control of your self did you” he said still with that same grin.
John looked up and the mirror man who offered his hand, “go ahead, grab it, I told you, we’re gonna settle this like men”.
John sat there and stared. “I said take it” he said and moved his left arm up, taking control of Johns arm too. John’s hand grabbed the mirror man’s hand the helped John up.
“See, that wasn’t so hard was it” he said and gave John a pat on the shoulder.
“So.., so what are we gonna do” John asked him.
“Well, what do you think were gonna do, were gonna duke it out old buddy, god knows you play enough video games, by now you should be able to hold your own pretty good shouldn’t you” he said and walked towards the door.
“And what if, what if I don’t want to” John said to the mirror man who was leaning up against the door now.
“I don’t care what you want to do” he said chuckling, “your going to fight”.
“And if I win” said John beginning to regain his composure.
“What do you think” said the mirror man, and charged.

“Honey, what do you think he’s doing in there” Jill asked her husband, John had begun making odd sounds and sounded like he was fighting someone.
“I don’t know” he said, “but were gonna wait until he comes out and then let him have it”.
They heard the door knob shaking and stood up straight from their previous spots of leaning against the wall. The door knob stopped shaking and then began turning slowly.
John stepped out of the bathroom, he had a bruised cheek it looked like he had just suffered a bloody nose.
“Oh honey” Jill said stepping towards her son, “what happened”?
“Nothing mom, I fell and hit my head on the toilet”
“What was all that banging going on in there son” her husband asked, trying to remain calm.
“Nothing, after I hit my head I got frustrated and started hitting the mirror, I think I broke it” he said not looking at either of them.
“Why were you so frustrated about hitting your head” Jill asked slightly confused about her sons behavior.
“I don’t know, I guess I just didn’t quite feel like myself after hitting my head, scrambled my head a little” he said and smiled.
“Okay, fine, that’ll work for now, but tomorrow morning I’m gonna need a better explanation” said her husband.
“Alright” he said taking his hands out from behind his back where they had been. There was a yellow slip of paper in his hand, “but I don’t know what I’m gonna tell you”.
“What’s that” asked Jill.
“Oh, just a piece of paper I found under the trash can” he said grinning.
“Well, why don’t you just throw it away” his dad asked him curiously.
“Nah, I think I’ll read what it has to say, I’m kind of curious to know”
“Ok” Jill said and looked into the bathroom, “looks like we need to get a new mirror”.
“Yeah maybe” said John and he started to walk towards his room.
“You aren’t gonna play video games now are your” his mom asked him.
“Nah, I don’t really feel like playing video games, I don’t think I will for awhile” he said and went into his room.
“Well, I guess hitting his head may not have been such a bad thing after all” her husband said and kind of chuckled.
“Yeah” Jill said sounding like she was far away, “ I guess I may like this new John a little better, if he stays this way”.
Just then the large mirror in the bathroom began to shake and fell to the floor