A man and his mirror

A project I came up with to relieve me of the writer's block. Also serves to practise my horror-creating skill.

Ruben glared at his swollen reflection in the house's only mirror, not quite satisfied at the outcome of his life. He had a thick black beard, long sweaty hair and large beady eyes of brown. That man had managed to ruin all of his opportunities, squander all of his dreams, and leave him with a handful of money, a job in the local factory and no friends to speak of. The man in the mirror glared back, holding a curved semi-smile on his blistered lips. Even they managed to look like someone had given them a few good punches.

Ruben turned away from the mirror, knowing that the image would not go away before he did. He walked over to the fridge, grabbed a banana and settled down to eat it. He needed to relax. People said that you wanted to think about happy things and remember your happiest memories in order to relax, but it had never worked for him. In fact, thinking about those things usually just made him angrier. Just like looking at himself in the mirror. But he still did it each morning, perhaps just to remind himself about it.

Sitting by the table, Ruben could see into the living room. The mirror hung on the right, its borders decorated with beautiful markings; it was about the only beautiful thing in his house. The borders made the mirror appear robust, almost menacing, though the latter could've been a consequence of the massive shadow it cast on the floor. It sometimes felt almost wicked to him.

He threw the banana's empty shell on the floor and placed his head onto the table. Its surface felt cool against the side of his head, but he didn't mind it at all. In fact, it felt quite comfortable. He began to feel himself getting carried away, and impulsively gave the living room one last parting glance. The last image his brain registered was a twitch of movement in the mirror, like branches playing in the wind. Dead, dry branches.

Ruben opened his eyes slowly and blinked a couple of times to make sure that he was awake. It was turning evening, and he realized that had just taken a nap in the middle of the day. All of his precious hours were gone now. Rather stupid, when you ponder about it; you can't even take any time off, but every moment, every "now", must be scheduled to some certain activity. He didn't understand it.

He raised his head from the table, white just like the walls, and rubbed his eyes awake. Ruben felt something new inside him, a wave of something he had never experienced before. He felt refreshed, even. The sun had climbed high up in the sky, almost high enough to leave the living room in complete darkness by that point, though it wasn't quite the time yet. Ruben realized this well enough. He was used to it. Turning on the lights came naturally to him, and having done that, he walked over to the mirror.

Ruben gazed into the mirror and found his image waiting in there. Both of them wore a confident smile, both of them seemed full of new life. The mirror, though, seemed almost dark in comparison. Now the borders appeared almost devoid of any life, the markings he had before described as beautiful too damp, bland, unimaginative, crude. Ruben looked up again, saw his image just like before, confident. There was nothing more to see there, he realized. The terror of the image was gone. He turned back to the fridge for a proper breakfast, grabbed a bowl of stew. Then he feasted.

When Ruben finally managed to fall asleep, he entered into a strange dream. In it, he was looking into the mirror again. He had no mirror image, but when he glanced sideways, he saw another man standing by him. The man looked at Ruben without a trace of emotion in his eyes. And then he woke up. His palms and forehead were sweating like no tomorrow.

Ruben jumped in front of the mirror in a miraculously fluid movement, considering his respectable girth, and smiled at his reflection. It smiled back to him, not worried in the slightest, almost as if to mock him: there had always seemed to be a purpose behind those dark-brown eyes, something leering, something lurking in the dark corners of that man's psyche; it had seldom occurred to him this way, yet he still knew that something deliberate, something darker was hiding behind that expression. It smiled now, but it was only a mask; a cowardly mask, hiding the smiling joker who never realized his own futility. Ruben stopped to think, still gazing at his reflection but staring as if he had forgotten it long ago. The reflection answered his gaze, but now there was something different in it. As if it hadn't been a reflection, but a man gazing back at him. Then its eyes began to bulge. Move.

Author's Note

I favor lengthy reviews over one-liner comments such as "great!" or "great work!". If you review this, please take some time to point out some fallacies and suggest a thing or two - whatever to make your review useful.

Writer's comment: I managed to scare myself while writing this. I have good ideas for the future, and I haven't even begun to write down the scariest bits as I haven't yet found a way to put them to words. So take this as a little preview...

Reviews

[Solar]

The story comes across as a psychological double-take, as the protagonist confronts a mirror-image seemingly with a mind of its own.

A minor point, which didn't work for me was this sentence 'His palms and forehead were sweating like no tomorrow' should it be instead 'like there was no tomorrow'?

I like the way time is used in the story, to juxtapose images and heighten the contrasts as well as the shadowy areas [ the noon-high sun and the dark room], the little details of stew for breakfast -makes one think if the man is disorientated by night-shifts in the factory mentioned earlier - a Machinist who is losing his mind?

Hope this review is helpful - I did enjoy its atmospheric quality.

[Mikael Malmberg]

Thanks for the review!

With the benefit of hindsight and a few more years of experience, I don't think that this story is particularly successful in that it doesn't convey the feelings I meant it to convey. Thank you for the analysis, though: I'm sure at least a part of that was going through my subconscious (or so I hope!) as I was writing this piece.

You seem to be quite an insightful reviewer. If you don't mind, I'd like to hear even more from you! Naturally, I'll return the favor.

[Solar]

Thank you. I look forward to reading and reviewing your other writings.

[CreativeStroke]

I agree with the review below about that particular section. It felt out of place to me as well. Maybe include some other scenario to incorporate it? Or perhaps remove it altogether? You are the writer though so it is ultimately up to you what you do with it.

I thought the story was well thought out and written well. If you have time you could probably even expand it a little more to include more detail and just add more to the story overall. It was very good though and there is nothing major (other than the above mentioned part) that I would fix.
Thank you for sharing this story.

[Mikael Malmberg]

Thank you, and I will make sure to write more stories to come, hopefully with them in a far more polished state than this one! Before I get my hands on proper horror, though, it might be hard for me to accurately 'create horror' - for me, so perhaps it isn't the right genre for me - but I'll keep trying until I get it right.

[Nienor Niniel]

This is a nice story to create, especially when you're wrestling with writer's block, though I didn't find it scary. I may be a bad judge, however; I don't often think literature to be frightening.

The story does make a good point. Circumstances often look better after a good night's sleep (or a nap, as in this case).

If I could make a couple of suggestions:

"Rather stupid, when you ponder about it; you can't even take any time off, but every moment, every "now", must be scheduled to some certain activity. He didn't understand it."

This sounds almost out of place. It interrupts the story for a short philosophical musing. And it shouldn't be "ponder about it". "Ponder it", instead, or "think about it".

[Mikael Malmberg]

Thank you for the review! I remember writing that section down, I was thinking that I must include something philosophical in it! Later when I reread it that turned out to be an unsound idea after all.

Thanks for pointing out the grammar mistake out as well!