Window Pain by N.D. Graveheart from the DEATHLY AFRAID Collection

Artwork by Breanna Knoth

She combed her long brunette hair in the reflection of her bedroom window from the second floor of her parents’ residence. Beside her in a small trash bin were shards of a broken mirror, a mirror that she had shattered three weeks prior.

Back then, while staring into the bathroom mirror her reflection twisted into something unholy. Gazing back from the polished glass was the terrifying complexion of a stranger. The moment frightened her so badly that she took the backend of her comb and slammed it against the face, breaking the mirror.

So, the window would have to do. Its reflection bleaker, and wilder amongst the sifting of tree branches outside, and the moon at times shining where her right eye would meet the sky. For a while it worked, until one night when she met the stranger again, staring at her from the windowpane.

Eyes glazed, she decided to face this ugly creature, this unknown menace. How it had reached her second-floor window was bewildering. With its crooked teeth along a painful smile, eyes wide and red looking back into hers. She dropped her comb as the horrendous realization sunk her heart.

Lifting her hand towards the window, she realized the monstrosity starring back was her own reflection.

As the years passed with hardship, the reflection she’d seen decades ago became the face she bore today. That glimpse into her future so long ago kept its promise of death for her youth and beauty. A distorted face in every reflection.

Window Pain by N.D. Graveheart from the DEATHLY AFRAID Collection