Reflection
an excerpt

INSIDE
INTRODUCTION

‘Twas many years ago. One century and one, to be precise.
The season was autumn.
I had been courting him for months now. We did not see each other every day.
When we did, we dared not speak of marriage. But we implied it.
His grandmother hated me. I would go to his home and bring her flowers and pastries, and still she despised me. In her words, I was a witch. An evil, horrendous witch. She claimed time after time that I had charmed her grandson, and would kill him. I fought her words but nevertheless they overcame me.
A few times I left with tears in my eyes and rage boiling in my mind.
I pleaded with the old woman to stop her accusations of me. He intervened sometimes and tried to convince her he loved me, but she screamed and shouted again that I had hypnotized him. We would leave her then. He would take me away before I could hear her next words.
At night it was impossible to sleep. She was the witch. And she called herself his grandmother. She had cast her spell on me, and there was no doubt in my mind she would not hesitate to slaughter me in front of him.
I went to bed at sundown, arose before dawn, tried to doze in a forest but did not succeed; nowhere would allow me sleep. I would never sleep peacefully again, as long as I lived.
Little did I know how long I would actually live.
Finally came the day when he asked me calmly to be his wife.
I gave it much thought in a short time but came to the conclusion of my heart: yes. Grandmother or not, I would be her granddaughter.
We were to wed in two months. This was a busy time. We spent hours preparing, inviting, and spreading the news. Everyone had been expecting it. Even his grandmother.
The day came. It was raining.
She did not attend, to my joy.
I walked down the aisle of the church with a smile on my face, my eyes never leaving him. We both knelt in front of the priest.
Then she entered.
The two doors flung wide open and dull sunlight streamed into the room. Her silver hair drifted down, and her sunken eyes and hollow cheeks made me want to let out a bloodcurdling scream. But I did not.
She shouted that I was nothing but wickedness and would kill him.
I stood up in a rush of fury and glared at her fiercely. She did not back down, but stared directly back at me without flinching. She continued to let the screeching of her voice haunt the room that, without her, would have been filled with pleasure in mere minutes.
But it was not that way. The day was ruined.
Her last words drifted from her mouth like poison.
“This vile witch shall be banished from the world we know!”
And with this she dropped to the floor, dead.
I quickly left the church, tears streaming down my cheeks. Of course, the wedding was postponed until after her funeral.
That night I stood in my room, looking at my myself in the mirror. The old woman’s words suddenly filled the room as if she were there.
“Vile witch…”
Lightning struck. It came into the room. I moved quickly, and it bounced off my mirror and hit me. I cannot recall what happened then, except agonizing pain.
And so I was banished to the mirror. Where no one would ever think to search for me.