The feeling of being erased... For no soul in this lifeless world would even notice. Nothing stands in front of me except fear, it's splashes of crimson blood upon my blank face. I am feared by none other than the ones that are, that believe that life is reflected upon the shining glass of the world.
Mirrors.
But every shining star will fall upon the ground with a deafening crash that no soul will even bother to listen for. It's darkness will engulf the world, and only one thing will follow.
Death.
You must wonder which one is speaking to you in such manner. I shall tell you the story of I, but I only beg of you to listen, watch, and stay away from the shining glass.
"You must have heard!" Delilah said, eyes widened with disbelief. I shook my head. The story she was telling me, it brought no remembrance to me.
"Oh, Cora, StarCat has come back! She took a girl with her! Luna Vanessence!" Delilah seemed like she would have died then and there, no questions asked.
"That's nice." I didn't believe in that load of rubbish. I wasn't scared of anything, but then, I didn't give much emotion to much of anything either.
"Nice!" Delilah exclaimed. "It's awful! Apparently she and her family were killed! Or at least, I think Luna was killed. They never found her body though."
"Interesting," I said, not paying much attention. I didn't know Luna Vanessence, although I saw her in school sometimes. She seemed normal, I guess.
"I guess we should just try and have fun while summer is still here," Delilah mumbled. She seemed upset that her best friend was not paying attention to her news.
I gave a curt nod. "It's getting late, though. Let's hang out tomorrow, your house." This seemed to please Delilah. She smiled, nodded, and bolted off, heading toward her house.
I turned around, my purple flip flops scraping on the tar of the sidewalk where we had met. I slowly walked home, my eyes fixed upon the lifeless space ahead of me.
Soon, the familiar dirt driveway came into view, and I walked down its long pathway. I walked inside, greeted my mother, and sat down in my room. I turned, my shining green eyes reflecting in the mirror on my back wall.
My long dark brown hair twisted around my thin body. I had a pale, angled face and thick eyebrows. I was covered by a purple tee shirt and jean shorts. My skin was pale even though it was summer. I didn't really care though.
Suddenly, as I am gazing at myself, I notice a slight flicker of movement behind me. I whip around, but see nothing. Shrugging, I looked away. I must have been hallucinating, from exhaustion maybe. I check the clock. 10:36 p.m. it reads. I get into bed, and within moments, I am drowned in a darkening pool of sleep.
The next day, I begin walking to Delilah's house in the morning. A thick blanket of fog shrouds the land from a heavy rain last night. My parents were at work, so I was free to do what I pleased today. Delilah's house is only a short walk from mine, and her house for some reason always seems more comfortable than mine.
As I walk up their pale white porch, a strange stillness creeps over me. A quiet whisper, so quiet it could have been mistaken for wind, blows past my ears. I whip around, but the space around me is empty.
I knock on the door, but suddenly, the door creaks open. I slowly walk inside.
"Hello!" I call, waiting for Delilah's friendly welcome, or her mother's frets of how thin I am and must be fed. But not a single word echoed through the house except mine.
Puzzled, I walk upstairs to Delilah's room. Her pink covers are folded neatly over her bed, and everything is organized. Not a single speck of dust seemed to be in her room.
Suddenly, I see a tiny slip of white crumpled paper. I unfold it and begin to read the writing.
ᏣΦЯА,
ᎦТaΥ ΑωΑλ FяᎾΜ τΗε ΜιяяΘя!
ᎠཇᏝιᏝαH
It was written in strange handwriting. Too strange, since Delilah's handwriting was very neat. I turn around, but then gasp in shock.
Delilah is standing right in front of me, no more than a few inches away. Her normal blonde hair was dull and almost colorless, and she starred at me with unblinking gray eyes. She looked pale and dreary, as if she hasn't slept for weeks.
"Delilah! What's going on?" My voice comes out in a hoarse whisper.
She ignores my comment. "You must leave, Cora!" Her voice sounds quiet and echoing, strange for her usual warm voice. "They will take you!"
"What do you mean?"
"Just like me!" She looked like she was about to sob. "I have..." She started at me with horror. "I have been erased!"
"Delilah." I place a hand on her shoulder in comfort. She must be terribly sick. But to my horror, my hand slips right through her flesh, as if going through icy water.
Delilah lets out a scream that I am sure would have made my ears bleed. It sounds full of pain, and it just made me want to run away and curl into a ball. Blood begins spewing out her eyes in thick crimson tears. Her eyes seemed to roll inside of her head, only showing the pale whites. With a flash, she disappeared.
For the first time in my life, I had felt fear. It was true fear. The feeling of loss and grief and terror. It felt like it was taking over my body, controlling it. Flashes of my true senses were brief, and my only thoughts were of staying away from Delilah and her house and...
Mirrors.
I spent the next week in my room, not even going outside for the most important of needs. The only one who I would let come near me is my cat, Jade. She was curled up on my chest in a heap of white fur as I lay on my bed. I shifted, and her pale green eyes fixed me with a look of annoyance. Jade didn't like anyone interrupting her sleep. A sudden thought came to me, but I found myself contradicting the thought.
"You wouldn't have happened to have met StarCat before?" I asked Jade. She blinked, her eyes sparkling, before tucking her nose under her paws.
"I take that as a yes." I grinned, pulling up my laptop, and decided to search up this strange character.
Many pictures came up, one looking frighteningly real. It was a picture of a teenage girl in a blood dripping navy blue hoodie and splattered black pants. She was crouched on the ground, her brown hair covering her face. But through her hair, you could see a pair of glowing blue cat eyes.
Startled, I shut my laptop. Feelings of fear were coming back, and I would rather not experience them.
Suddenly, an idea came to mind. Summoning up my courage, I slowly turned my head towards my large dusty mirror. I expected to see something, and sure enough, I did.
Jade's pale green eyes were replaced with icy blue ones, identical to StarCat's. I yelped and turned to Jade. But her eyes were normal and green, half closed with exhaustion. I looked back in the mirror, and Jade again looked normal.
You must be too tired, Cora, I thought to myself. Sighing, I closed my eyes.
When my eyes opened again, the sky was black, and the air was full of silence. I turned around to check the clock. 12:00 exactly. "How strange," I whispered, shrugging. I turned to Jade, who lay at my side, to pat her head in reassuring comfort. As my hand passed over her soft fur, her head whipped around, and I screamed in terror.
Her once green eyes were now as black as the night sky. The fur on her face was mangled, looking as if she has just fought a dog. Trickles of blood were coming out of her mouth, and she hissed. It shook me from every hair to every toe. It sounded as if a thousand cats were hissing at me, low and terrifying. I leaped out of the bed, and as I did, Jade vanished.
And the worst part was, another note lay where my once beautiful cat was.
ᎢᎤ ᎷᎩ ᏂᏌᎷᎪᏁ,
ᎢᏂᎬᎩ ᏂᎪᏙᎬ ᎢᎪᏦᎬᏁ ᎷᎬ. ᎩᎾᏌ ᎷᏌᎦᎿ ᎡᏌᏁ!
ᎫᎪᎠᎬ
The handwriting reminded me of Delilah's note, but it wasn't totally the same.
I turned around, getting ready to yell at whoever or whatever was writing these crazy letters, but something stopped me.
There was something in the mirror.
I didn't know what it was. To me, it looked like a shadow, hanging over me and watching me like a hawk. But as I slowly moved toward, a great big pair of flashing red eyes bore down on me.
I wanted to scream, I wanted to run, I wanted to leave and never return, but I didn't.
"What did you do to my friend?! And my cat?!"
Suddenly, my room became encased in a cloak of shadow. My lamp sparked, and suddenly, went black.
"Answer me!" I screamed, but I could not tell whether it was out of anger or fear.
Infuriating pain struck my arms like a blow. I looked down to see that gushes of blood had appeared on my elbows and were trickling down onto the floor.
Movement coursed near me. I heard a screech, but it was not mine. Then, I fell into a pool of death and darkness. No one heard it, the deafening crash of the falling star, the screams of the lost souls, the sinking of life, the death.
Finally, I woke up. Death had not taken me, though I would guess he would find me soon. I looked around, expecting to see the shadowy creature looming over me, but all was still and lifeless.
Dread covered me when I noticed another note on a piece of bloody parchment. Slowly, I reached forward and reluctantly read it.
ТᏂᎧy Αяэ Ꭿs GφφD @Ꭶ ᎠཇᎯᎠ! ᏢяεᏢаяཇ т༠ Fེφιιφψ τhεiིя вᏝོ༠༠Ꭰyེ sτεpཏིོེུ༄
࿂Ꭶτяικཇя࿂
Striker... What a strange name. It sounded odd, like a forgotten nightmare.
Pain struck my arms. I remembered how they had been heavily bleeding, and hesitantly looked down.
My arms were as clean and normal looking as a the arms of a newborn baby. But pain still prickled through my arms.
Suddenly, I did notice something rather unusual about my elbows. Scars, so light, they were hard to notice, laced around my elbow like a wad of bracelets. It had almost looked like I had received stitches in my elbow.
That's when I realized it; the shadow by my door. I stared at it, waiting for it to move, preparing for my death. It was tall, covering my wall and a corner of my ceiling. It looked like the shadow of an abnormal armless human.
Then, it had opened them. It's gruesome, blood red eyes. No life or light shown upon them, only the screams of lost souls it had taken.
I screamed. I knew my death was coming, but I had not known it would be so soon.
My room become cloaked in shadowing darkness. It felt darker than before, more lifeless, more terrifying. I felt like the world was coming to an end, and I was the last human left upon this planet. And then, I felt it. Excruciating pain, hatred, and fear. Then, nothing. No emotion ran through me. I would have been better off dead. Huge splatters of blood poured out of my flesh, but I felt no pain, nor did I care. Suddenly, my vision failed, and I was again plunged into a black pool of death.
I woke up in a strange, gray room. No light shown through the windows, nor was there any light in the room. But as I looked around, I realized that it looked a lot like my room.
A sudden shiver ran down my body as a terrible screeching noise sounded behind me. That was when I realized that it was the scream of Delilah, and I whipped around.
I did not find myself gazing into the welcoming eyes of Delilah. Instead, it was the shadowy creature. It stared at me with it's beady scarlet eyes, before slowly moving away.
And in it's place, was a mirror. I now looked at the one that stood before me in the reflective glass. I knew at once that it was me, but I did not know how.
My skin was probably paler and whiter than fresh snow. My once green eyes were now coal black and gray. My long brown hair was now ragged and black. I stared at myself for a while. It felt strange, but again, no feeling crept through my body. I had looked nothing more than a corpse. I no longer shown with the brightness of life.
Icy cold hands rested upon my shoulders, and I heard a low, non human voice speak in my ear.
"How does it feel?"
"To be dead?"
"No, puny girl. You are now no longer alive, nor dead. You are...erased."
It all made sense. The loss of feeling, the loss of life, the feeling of darkness swelling deep within my body, it was not death I felt.
"Why?!" I turned to the creature, but it was gone, the only thing left was a small puddle of dark scarlet blood. I was alone, forever, not even with the company of my own conscience. For the truth came to me, and I was truly gone.
I was erased.