THE GIRL IN THE MIRRORS

DARKNESS

"Hello, is anyone there?" Nelly had been screaming herself hoarse for the last three hours. She was weak from all the banging and the scratching. The dark tiny space was getting unbearable by the moment she was hungry, thirsty and not even her could stand the stench coming from her body. She made one last attempt to turn but there was no space to do so. She felt dizzy. She felt death creeping up to her slowly but surely. Her worst fear was being realized right before her eyes. As she shut her eyes with the thought of her never seeing the light ever again ringing on his mind, she remembered how this minute came to be. The events of that previous morning played on her mind like a bad written film.

She remembered walking to her car, then there was the hand that held her neck from behind. She struggled for over three minutes before everything finally went dark. She came around three hours later and found herself tied to a chair. Her mouth was stuffed with her own dirty sock, her arms were strapped to the chair with duct tape and so were her legs. Her nose was bleeding from the heavy punch that woke her from her fainting spell. She took her time to look around and she realized she was all alone. She tried to free herself but the tape was too tight. She tried to push the sock out of her mouth with her tongue but the damn thing lodged itself even deeper. Her attempts were later cut short by the approaching footsteps. A masked dude walked into the tiny room and slowly made his way towards herm She could tell from the look on his face that he was about to do something really bad to her. She wanted to scream but the sock stopped her. As he approached her and started running his fingers through het face, a cold sweat broke off her forehead. Her heart was pounding like a diesel engine. She felt something twitch in the pit of her stomach. It was the stench coming from him that made it all worse. She felt sick. "Now princess, I am going to take this off, you scream...well you will just scream...see, we are deep, deep in the no mans land which means no one will hear you," he laughed for a bit then went on to take the sock out of her mouth.

"Please, let me go...I swear I will tell you anything you want me to but please don't hurt me..." she just couldn't stop herself. She was at that point crying her eyes out and her maskara was all ruined but she didn't seem to care. " That is the plan sweetheart...see, the people who hired me wants answers and so, I will give them answers. The only problem is that I don't have any but I suspect you do. Don't you worry, if you tell me what I want to know, you will walk out of here with every part of your body..." he started. "What if I don't have the answers you are looking for?" Nelly asked innocently. "Then sweetheart, you will make a call to someone who does," he laughed again. He then went on ahead to pull a chair closer to her and made himself comfortable. He reached into his pocket and took out a photo which he showed to her. Her eyes twitched a little and the guy smiled brightly. "There, you know who they are, don't you," it was more of a statement than it was a question.

"I know the but I can't help you. I haven't seen him for over five years and she, she died four years ago," she was now visibly shaking as she had an idea what was coming next. The slap was as hot as it was painful. "I thought you were ready to cooperate? I didn't want to hurt your pretty little face but you are pushing me. I saw you walking into the hospital, you were there all night and I know you were there with him. Also, how can she be dead when this picture was taken just five days ago?" he asked putting the photo even closer to her face. "You don't get it, the person I have been with through the night my brother, not this brother, the other one," she said. Mr Smelly man as she would later call him gazed into the space for a moment, he wasn't the smartest person around and it took him a couple of minutes to get it. "So, where is he? Where is the twin?" he asked later. She looked at him and tears started to flow down her face. She had no idea where he was. He was like a ghost. She also knew he would never take 'I don't know' for an answer. He was her brother after all. "For the last time, where is he?" he roared and the whole building vibrated She opened her mouth ready to answer but an idea went through her mind. "Why do you want him?" she asked. "Well, I want him because someone paid me to look for him but from what I gathered, your brother here did something to upset some really big fish, they are going to boil him alive," he said. Her face darkened. She had hoped for a better answer. An answer that could explain why Junior had earlier said that Joram was in trouble that only he could help him out of. "Your time is up sweetheart, now tell me what I want to know," he yelled yet again. Nelly had no other choice than to tell him what she knew. As it turned out, she was not helpful and the next thing she heard was him saying it was time for plan B.

She had no clue what that meant but from the look on his face, she knew it was not something she would like. Mr smelly reached for his radio phone and made a call to one of the most popular radio stations. He somehow knew it would go through. Before saying what he had to say, he laughed out loud for a second. "Hello hello, just me, you can call me mr T. I am looking for a guy named Junior. I have no idea where he is but I know he will be bringing himself to me after this. Junior, I here with me is a pretty lady whose name is Nelly. Of you want her unharmed, call me on the number 254748070151...the sooner the better," he said and then went on to hang up the phone. He then turned on the radio to listen to the panicked female presenter. Three minutes later, his phone rang, a lengthy conversation followed after which he angrily hanging up the phone. "So, your stupid brother doesn't give a damn about you?" he asked her. The insane look on his face was replaced by raw anger. He was about to do something really bad. "Stupid me, the police will trace that damn call and will be down here in say half an hour. That gives me just about enough time to get out of here..." he started packing and in the process, his mask fell off just as Nelly was looking at him. "Oh no, you are one unlucky girl aren't you?" she knew what he meant.

"Please, I won't tell anyone...my mouth is sealed...I promise," she tried to beg but his mind was pretty much made up. "You know where we are? Of course you don't. Allow me to show you," he cut her free and asked her to get up. Nelly thought she had found a golden opportunity as she made a run for it. She heard him laugh out loud and in a seconds, she knew why. They were in the middle of the infamous Lost Maumau cemetery. A place with only one gate that served as both the entrance and the exit. Mr Smelly knew his way around but she didn't. She now knew who he was and that was how she knew there was no walking out of that one. Since she was a little girl, she heard the stories about the smelly cemetery keeper who was believed to be nonhuman. Rumors had it that he smelled the way he did from eating the bodies of the dead people. Those stories made everyone fear him and thus stay away from the cemetery. Now she had come.face to face with him. She knew that she was his food and there was no way he was gonna let her. There was no point of running as she had no idea where she would run to. Instead, she stood there shaking like a leaf. "Please, don't eat me," was the only words that came from.her mouth the moment he caught up with her. "Eat you? Ooh the stories... sweetheart, I don't eat people, I find them but you, you I planned to kill," he said then looked at his watch. There was no time to waste.

He held her by the neck ready to kill her but he heard the sirens. The police knee where he was and he had no time to do everything. He dragged her towards one of the open graves. He had a casket ready and she had stopped struggling. He was sure she was not dead but he had no time to kill her after all, she would die soon enough anyway. She threw her into the casket and quickly pushed it into the gaping hole. He then went up the excavator and quickly filled it all up. He took his time to place some flowers before making a run for it. Nelly woke up shortly after to find herself lying on her stomach in a super tight space. She had a clue where she was but she didn't want to believe. A few minutes later, she heard the sirens from a far. She knew she wasn't buried that deep in the ground so she started to call out for help while at the same time, she was trying to turn around. She had been yelling herself crazy but no one heard her. She had no idea whether the police were still there and she would never know as she blacked out from all the yelling and fatigue. All her life, she had feared death by drowning or being buried alive. She knew now why she was scared of the later. Her life flashed infront of her eyes until it was nothing more than darkness and silence.

"Nelly, Nelly!" a female voice called. Nelly jolted to life. "Wow are you an angel? Wait do angels wear black?" she was almost certain that this was the afterlife. "Hahaaa! that is just fatigue talking. No, I am not an angel, I have no idea what angels wear and I certainly know that you are still here on earth with us...in a casket, in a whole but pretty much alive," the pretty girl said. "You, you are pretty," Nelly found herself saying as the girl slowly lifted her from the shallow grave. "Some people like your brother call me the pretty girl in the mirrors, but others just call me Abby. I came here to save your brother from the people after me and Junior," she slowly explained as she could tell that Nelly was in no position to remember anything. "You are the girl in black dress that Joram keeps talking about?" she asked. "Yes, I am the girl trying to keep Joram alive while trying to trace Junior who got himself mixed up with very bad people. You have to understand that the only thing I am here is to make sure you and Joram are safe..." Abby added as she filled a syringe with a clear fluid. "What is that? please don't kill me..." Nelly found herself begging once more. "Come on, I didn't save you just to kill you. This is just something to make sure you don't remember this conversation dear. You will be just fine," Nelly saw the smile on Abby's face. The deep dimple on her cheek was the one thing she knew she would never forget. She blacked out soon after just to wake up in the hospital an hour later.

Next to her, were three heavily armed police officers. Nelly's first thought was to run but the three her mother assured her that they were there to protect her and her brother who was peacefully sleeping on the bed besides hers. She had an urge to put her hand in her pocket but her mother was quick to talk to stop her. "I cleaned up but I am sure you are looking for this," she said as she handed her a note. "Please, tell your brother the girl in the mirror wants him to stop looking. You may not remember anything but I promise you we agreed on that one" the note had no writer's name on it but it had a signature from the girl in the mirror. She had no memory of ever talking to het but she had a compelling urge to trust the note. She was glad to be alive, she glad that she was no longer in the tight place. However, she had an overwhelming feeling that she was supposed to do something. She sat down on the bed and asked for her computer and even though her mother was all about rest, she totally ignored her and turned on the laptop. She went on to type "Mirror Me Enterprises." She hit enter and waited for a second. Normally, the screen would light up with headlines and articles about the so called Mirror me enterprise or at least anything related to whatever that was but instead, a computer code appeared on the screen and it kept on typing and typing until the screen turned black. The laptop became so damn hot to a point that Nelly couldn't hold it anymore so she dropped it on the floor. A few seconds later, the damn thing caught on fire and one of the police men had to throw it in the tab. The room fell silent for a while as everyone was trying to male sense of what had just happened. "Computers don't just blow up by themselves...it must have something to do with with the Mirror Me Enterprise command," Nelly was thinking just about when one of the police officers phone rang. He received it with a hello as usual but that was all he said before handing it over to Nelly. "Don't you go digging into places you don't know Neney..." the voice came from the other side even before she could open her mouth. She knew that voice, it was Junior's and besides, he was the only one who called her Neney.