Infinity Mirrors

• Jessie-Marie Rifkin Mccourt, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2022

I hate mirrors, well hate is a strong word but I have strong feelings. The thought that something could be watching from the inside of the mirror, or the other side of the room terrifies me. The mirrors that terrify me the most are the ones in my bathroom, the ones that face each other. I always feel like I’m the dumb protagonist in a horror movie, where the killer appears in the mirror but once the victim turns to face behind them nothing’s there. You can’t do that with infinity mirrors, you know… the ones that face each other. You’re stuck in an endless cycle, stuck in the imaginary mirror world that has been created for you, most likely by you.
Sometimes when I’m washing my hands in front of the sink in my bathroom, I can imagine a little spec hopping over the endless loop of mirrors and it gets closer. I can’t turn away from it because at almost every angle I can see it and I always panic. The creature gets closer and I can make out all the gruesome details on its fleshy face, almost like a big disfigured dog that heaves its way closer ever so quickly. Now I can hear the creature, it’s only about 15 seconds from reaching me. It grunts and pants gasping for breath, reaching for me as if I were some kind of life line. Before it gets to me I always leave the bathroom, but sometimes I wonder what would happen if it got to me. Or if it was ever even real in the first place. My brain’s tricky like that. Sometimes I can hear it thump out of the mirror and slowly scratch on the door, pawing for me, at me. Does it even have paws? What does it want?
I don’t think I’m afraid of mirrors. I think I’m afraid of the unknown. What lies further down the track of the infinite worlds the mirrors take my eyes to? What does the creature represent? What could it do to me? Or for me? Is it because I know I can’t stop it? Like the future. The closer it gets, the more sunken I feel.
I know the creature isn’t real but maybe one day, if I decide to not move, not to run, something may happen. Maybe the creature is good.
Maybe I’m not crazy!
I stare into my bathroom mirror, waiting for something, anything to happen as I stare into the infinite loop. I see a spec and wait in anticipation as it gets bigger. I don’t move. It’s here…
“Gotcha.”