The sky was dark, the clouds were grey, and the car roughly pulled into the driveway. The house was wooden and rotting, every window hinges squeaking. The car engine shut off and all five passengers filed out of the vehicle. One was the father, one was the mother, followed by two daughters and a son. The five stood before the house, unphased, and approached the front door, each with a flashlight in hand.
The father climbed the rickety steps first, followed by the mother and children. He inserted the key and the door screeched open with a shove. In, they all went. The lights of the flashlights danced over the walls lined with mirrors of different shapes and sizes. Every wall space was adorned with a mirror, very little space between each one. The father tried to flick on the lights, but none worked.
The front room was the living room. A sofa covered the lower end of the wall by the door and the wall next to it. Mirrors covered the top half of each wall. The dining room was across from the living room, connected to the kitchen. Two small bedrooms were placed opposite the living room.
The youngest daughter approached the closest wall of mirrors as the others spread out around the house. The eldest daughter approached the nearest bedroom, but turned and ran back to the living room at the sound of a scream. She returned to find her younger sister missing and only her reflection remaining, staring at her from one of the mirrors and banging on the glass. Upon making eye contact with her sister, the eldest found herself in the younger’s place. Her sister was now on the outside of the mirror while she was trapped on the inside.
She banged on the glass. Nothing happened. She could not hear her own voice scream as she wailed. As she made eye contact with her brother, she once again found herself on the outside of the mirror while he was now the victim trapped inside. She looked around to see her father missing and made eye contact with him in the mirror next to her brother who was visibly changing places with her mother in the mirror as their eyes met.
The eldest daughter was once again inside the mirror while her father was now free on the other side, approaching the wall of mirrors alongside her brother and sister. The three on the outside were careful not to make eye contact with her as they smashed the mirrors next to her with their flashlights. The sound of the glass shattering sounded farther away than it should have. When they ceased their smashing, she met the eyes of her father and found herself on the outside.
She heard glass breaking next to her and jumped, turning to see her mother free of the mirror she had been trapped in which was now shattered glass on the floor. She looked up to see the mirror she had been trapped in was shattered as well and her father was standing before her, facing toward the mirror frames with a challenge resting on his shoulders.
“We need to leave,” her father decided. “Now.” Everyone nodded in return and dashed to the front door. The son opened the door, and they all ran out to the car, piling into the vehicle as quickly as they could. With all parties buckling their seatbelts, the father started the engine, the lights turned on, and he pulled them out of the driveway. They took off down the road as the eldest looked back at the house from the rearview window.