The Cracked Reflection.

Dear Readers,

Welcome to My Wayward Musings

You’ve just stumbled into a tale from the darker corners of my imagination.

This is a slightly longer read. Feel free to enjoy it in parts if you're short on time — but do come back to finish it. Some mirrors don’t like being ignored... 😉🪞

The Cracked Reflection

Genre: Supernatural Horror

By Sharon Lasrado

---

It was 2:50 a.m. when 15 years old Rhea woke up suddenly. Her room was lit by the warm orange glow of her night lamp. The pretty pink walls, the bookshelf filled with her favorite novels, and the faint scent of lavender from her aroma sticks made it all feel cozy and calm.

But nature called.

Rhea half-heartedly, stretched, and dragged her bare feet across the floor to the washroom in her bright yellow night suit with little black hearts.

Flick.
The light clicked on in the bathroom. The bathroom was clean with mild lemon scent, pink towels kept rolled

Rhea looked at the cracked mirror above the sink. Just a week ago, a shampoo bottle had fallen and chipped the glass. Her mother had warned her, “Throw it away, Rhea. A broken mirror is bad luck.”

But Rhea chose not to listen “It’s fine, Ma. I’ll change it once the new one arrives.”

She stared at her adolescence reflection. Oily skin, faint pimples, tired eyes, and to make it worse,—a moustache and beard her brother Aditya had drawn with a marker to tease her.

“What a jerk!” she thought and wiped them off with a tissue.

She turned the tap on, bent down, closed her eyes and washed her face well with the lemon facewash.
Booong! Booong! Booong!
She could hear the deep gongs of their grandfather clock downstairs striking 3 a.m.

She opened her eyes to see the mirror and froze.

The mirror showed the bathroom... but not her.

And the room around her—it had changed.

Gone the lemon facewash smell and pink towels. Now, the tiles were cracked, the walls had mould creeping up them, and thick cobwebs dangled like warning signs. Even the air felt heavier, darker. Cold. The cracked mirror on the wall looked the same… but the crack seemed darker. Almost alive.

Rhea's heart started to thump. She backed away in panic.

"Ow!"
She pinched herself.

Not a dream.

She rushed out—only to find that her once warm bedroom was now was hauntingly different. Her mattress was covered with ash. Her walls were black. Her bookshelf looked crumbled.

“Ma?” she whispered. “Papa?”

No answer.

Tears welled in her eyes. Every sound she made echoed in the empty house, too loud, too hollow—like shouting in a cave.

She stepped slowly down the stairs. Each creak of the wood made her heart beat faster.

The living room was filled with soot. Broken glass lay on the floor like shattered teeth.

And then... she saw her.

Standing by the grandfather clock.

A girl.
Her exact face. Her exact night suit.
But the eyes were all wrong—deep black pits, empty and terrifying.

The girl tilted her head… and smiled.

Fear stabbed through Rhea.
Who is she? Where am I?

The girl stepped closer.

And the house swallowed Rhea’s scream.

---

Rhea regained consciousness—lying on the dusty floor near the grandfather clock.

Her head throbbed. The girl was gone.

She looked at her watch.

1.00. o'clock

“I’ve been unconscious this long?” she wondered aloud.

Then she noticed something else—her clothes had changed. She was now wearing a grey track pant and a black t-shirt.
Her eyes widened. “I’m definitely losing it… this can’t be real,” she murmured as sat there, still, scared, confused, and feeling completely alone.

The dark, cold house felt alive. Like it was watching her. Time passed by.

After a while she decided to go back to her room—whatever was left of it. At least it was the only place she knew.

She stood up—

“Rheaaaa...”

A voice came from behind.

She felt the chills down her spine.

She turned and saw... it was her mother!.

But not really.

Blackened teeth. Hollow black eyes. Teeth rotting and sharp. Blistered face crawling with cracked veins. Her voice too was wrong.

“So glad to meet my daughter from the other side,” the woman whispered.

Before Rhea could react, the woman hugged her tight. Rhea trembled. This woman smelled nothing like her mom. This one smelled rotten.

 In the glass of the grandfather clock, Rhea saw what she didn’t want to see.

The woman had Fangs! 

Her mouth inches away from Rhea's neck. Rhea pushed her with all her strength. and started to run up the stairs.

The woman gave out an evil laugh.

“Papa will be thrilled to meet you my dear!”   It shrieked behind her. “There’s no escape from your new family!”

Rhea stopped at the stairs, breathless.

“What do you want from me?!”

“Oh, nothing much,” the creature grinned.

 “You came into our world. Now our Rhea will destroy yours. She’ll rot everything—slowly. Like poison.”

Rhea ran to her bedroom.

The latch was broken.

She ran into the bathroom, locked it.

She gasped looking at the mirror.

On the other side, she saw her real bathroom—clean, bright, colorful.

In it stood another Rhea. The fake one. The evil one. But she looked identical like her this time.
Smiling.

And behind her—her real Maa holding a new mirror. Rhea saw her beautiful mother and started to cry.

“Maa! Maaaa! I’m here maa! I’m trapped! Stay away from her…She is Evil!!” Rhea screamed, tapping on the glass.

But only Evil Rhea saw her.

“Rhea…,” her mother said,

Rhea for a second was thrilled that her mother can see her

“let’s replace this cracked mirror since new one’s arrived.” She was talking to the evil one who was with her

Rhea turned to Maa and said sweetly, “Sure, Ma. Please let Adi do it. I have to read some notes.”

Then she turned back to the mirror.

Her smile twisted. Her eyes darkened.

“Welcome to my world, Rhea. Stay bad.”

---

All were now outside the bathroom, Rhea could hear them:

“Aditya, take down the cracked mirror. Give it to the scrap guy downstairs.”

Aditya replied, “When did Rhea fracture her skeleton fingers? So delicate…”

“Oh Adi! I miss him so much. I even miss his dumb jokes,” Rhea whispered from the dark side. “Adi, please… get me back.”

Aditya enters the bathroom to remove the mirror from the wall.

“Oh! No-No! Don’t take it away! Please! Adi! HELP ME!”

Just then there is a bang on the toilet door "Rheeeaa beta. " It was husky sound of male. Rhea had no interest in seeing her handsome dad's face in the most horrific way.  She covers her face with both hands and starts to cry loudly helplessly.

Feeling  tired and dizzy, she realised she has lost the battle. She sat on the dusty floor of the bathroom, hugging her folded legs. She had no strength left even to cry.
The only way for her to see her world, her dear family, the mirror- is gone.

While sitting in the dark bathroom floor Rhea heard her mom’s voice echo faintly through the mirror. She realised Aditya has not yet taken it off. 

“Rhea, did you like the mirror you chose?”

The Rhea replied, “Yes, Ma. It’s perfect. I’ll go to the living room for a bit.”

The bathroom door in the ruined house shook violently. While Rhea sat there… helpless

“Adi! Stop your madness and handover the cracked mirror to the dump van guy right now!” her mom said sternly.

“Okay, Ma!” Aditya shouted back.

Just then Rhea heard the grandfather clock...., the clock struck again.

BONG. BONG. BONG.

Three gongs.
3 p.m.

She remembered something she’d read in a blog by Shelly Weaver-Cather.

3 a.m. was called the demonic hour—when the veil between worlds is thinnest. But 3 p.m. was its opposite. A time to reverse what was wrongly done. If both Rheas looked into the mirror at 3 p.m., maybe… just maybe…

Rhea gathered her strength and stood up and stared into the mirror again.

On the other side, Aditya was—drawing on the mirror again. A moustache. A beard, hair, mole

“Oh! Adi Not Now!!!” she shouted. “Please try to see me!”

She watched helplessly as Adi took the cracked mirror off the wall and carried it down.

Just then—the bathroom door behind her burst open.

Her demonic father stood there.

His face was like the rest of his family. His eyes were deadly black. His mouth twisted into a cruel smile. How she hated to see her parents faces in this way.

He charged on her.

Rhea gave a stressful cry looking at him.

At the exact same time—

Aditya ran down the stairs held the mirror behind Rhea and tried one of his usual jokes,
“Mirror, mirror in my hand, who’s the ugliest in the land?”

The evil Rhea laughed—then turned toward him.

Rhea on the dark side looked into the mirror.

Their eyes met.
Real Rhea.
Evil Rhea.
3 p.m.

The mirror cracked into pieces.

CRASH!

A scream.

---

Rhea opened her eyes.

She was lying on her bed, back in her warm room.

Her mother sat beside her.
“Beta... are you okay?”

Her father looked worried.
“Aditya, you’re grounded!”

“What?! Papa, it was just a joke! I’ve done this a hundred times. She is acting!”

Rhea sat up and saw her real room. Warm. Safe. Familiar.

She got up and hugged Aditya tightly.

“You’re the best brother in the world. I love you so much.”

He looked at her, shocked. “What? Did you fall and crack your head too?”

“Enough, both of you,” her mother said, trying to hide a smile.

Rhea couldn’t speak anymore. She just smiled through her tears.

---

The next few days were a blur.

Rhea had a high fever. She said strange things in her sleep. Her parents thought she was just hallucinating due to fever.

But only she knew the truth.

She never spoke about that night.
She never looked into mirrors the same way again.

Sometimes looking in the mirror… she’d wonder…

If the new mirror had appeared in the other world too.
And if that other Rhea...
was still watching.

And waiting.

---

THE END.
🪞
Or is it?