Excerpt: The Murmuring Mirrors

He lifted his chin and his head tilted backwards, a great crack resounded as he did so and Lia put her hand over her mouth. She could see his face now, a pure, dead white. There was something odd about his eyes; they were closed but his eyelids were rumpled like a blanket just slept underneath. Lia saw why when he opened his lids--all she saw underneath was a black void. It wasn’t that his eyes had gone black, it was that his eyes were absent. With his neck back this way, the jagged hole in his neck came apart, strands of congealing blood threaded across the gap.

Lia’s stomach turned, seeing her brother like this. One look at his chest told her he wasn’t breathing, so he was certainly dead, and yet he was moving. What was the purpose of this vision? Maybe he was trying to tell her something.

Steadying herself mentally, she took a few more steps towards the apparition of her brother until she was near enough to touch the mirror. With one hand she touched it, the surface of the glass frozen. “Reeve?” she whispered.

Pops and cracks filled her ears as the Reeve righted its head to face her, resting unsteadily on its wasted spinal cord. He slowly raised his left hand to touch Lia’s right, and for a moment she felt cool skin against her fingertips.

And then his head fell back again and his mouth fell open, revealing more of the black void that had consumed his eyes. Reeve’s hands shot out and took Lia by the neck. She choked and moved her hands to his. Reeve’s arms had stretched to more than their normal length, and she felt sharp nails digging dagger-like into her skin. She tried to cry out, but nothing more than a dry croak escaped her throat as Reeve tightened his grip. She felt wet drops of blood drip down her neck and collarbone, catching on her collar and dripping down over her chest. She pulled at his hands, but they were like iron and she couldn’t budge them. Gasping for air, she moved her hand to the mirror to break it, but her palm hit the glass feebly; she hadn’t the energy even to make a fist and try again. Choking she went to her knees, but the apparition of Reeve descended with her and tightened its grip. Lia’s vision began to go dark. Reeve’s nails pierced her neck more deeply and the blood flowed freely to her collar now as she felt her throat being crushed. Her eyes widened involuntarily as she tried desperately to just take one breath so that she could break that fucking mirror and then maybe everything would be fine.