The Attic

by Sara Bourgeois

  She helped him as gently as possible get to the floor. Sammy grabbed her phone, put it on speaker phone, and laid it next to them after dialing 911. The dispatcher picked up, and Sammy told her the address and that she had someone having a heart attack in her house.

  Sammy checked his vital signs and confirmed that Hank was in cardiac arrest. She stayed on the phone with the dispatcher while giving him CPR until the paramedics arrived.

  This was the second time in two days that someone almost died in her presence. Lucy was dead, but Hank was still alive when the EMTs took him. They told her that she'd saved his life. Had the man had his heart attack anywhere else besides in the presence of a nurse, he probably wouldn't have made it.

  But, Sammy couldn't shake the feeling that being in her house, and around the mirror, was the reason he'd fallen ill. Hank might have been right. Something about the mirror wasn't what she'd thought.

  Sammy grabbed a blanket and threw it over the mirror. She shivered as the temperature in the house dropped. That was probably just from the temperature outside dropping, she told herself. It had to be the weather. People weren't oppressed by demons and haunted by mirrors in the same lifetime.

  Right?

  Chapter Ten

  Sammy called John and told him about Hank having a heart attack. When she said that her patient had also died the night before, he insisted on coming home immediately.

  When John told his supervisor what had happened, he told John to go home. "You can make up hours this weekend. We're running a skeleton crew every Saturday and Sunday this month. I'll put you on the list."

  "Thank you," John said and took off for his truck.

  There hadn't been any rain in the forecast, but the clouds that had blown into the area opened up. The fat, heavy drops blasted the windshield of the truck until John couldn't see anymore.

  He pulled over to the side of the road and texted Sammy to let her know it would take him a while to return home. She said that she was fine and was sitting out on the porch watching the storm.

  Are you hungry? John texted while he waited. He wasn't sure if Sammy had been eating properly.

  Very. I feel like I haven't eaten for days.

  John wondered if that was because she hadn't. I'll stop on the way home and get tacos.

  Okay. Love you. I'm sorry.

  John was going to tell her that he loved her too and ask why she was sorry, but the rain relented. He thought about sitting there for a few more minutes, but John thought it would be better if he just got himself home.

  It was after the lunch rush when John pulled into the taco place. He decided to use the drive-through since the sky looked as though it could've opened up again at any time.

  He ordered a few tacos, two sides of rice, and two large drinks. While John waited at the window, something in the rearview mirror caught his attention. A man stood behind his truck facing the car behind him.

  John kept his eye on the man because it seemed so peculiar. Why was this man standing in the drive-through lane? Eventually, the man got into the car behind him. John could see the man and the woman behind the wheel arguing. It must have been a domestic dispute. He was glad when the window opened, and the girl inside handed him his food and drinks.

  He was thankful that he'd gotten out of there before the kerfuffle in the car behind him got worse. The last thing John wanted to deal with was having to break up a fight in the drive-through lane.

  As soon as John pulled out of the restaurant parking lot, the rain started again. It wasn't as bad, though, so he kept driving home. After hydroplaning once, John slowed his speed considerably.

  When he was less than a mile from home, a loud, black sports car came roaring up behind the truck. John got the sense that it was tailgating him, and when he looked into the rearview mirror to judge the distance between himself and the car, he saw a woman with dark hair sitting in the back seat of the truck.

  She'd been looking down, but when John glanced back, her head lifted. The woman's gaze was nothing but two black holes, and her smile bore a double row of sharp teeth. He blinked in the hopes that his imagination was playing tricks on him, but when he opened his eyes after the split second, the woman was reaching for him with hands tipped in black sharp nails.

  John couldn't slam on the brakes because the sports car was still riding his bumper. He could feel the fetid breath of the woman on the back of his neck. He panicked and jerked the wheel toward the shoulder of the road.

  The car behind him blared its horn but did not slow. As John's truck turned to the side to exit the road, the front of the car bumped into the rear panel of the truck and sent it spinning off the road.

  John slid for a hundred feet until he hit the spot where the shoulder dropped off. The truck hit the decline just right, and it went rolling down into the ditch. Tacos, rice and drinks went flying all over the cab of the truck.

  After several rotations, the truck came to rest upside down off the side of the road. The sound of sirens woke John. His eyes slowly came into focus as his head spun from being upside down.

  He reached down and unbuckled his seatbelt. One hand extended above his head kept John from falling onto the roof of the truck. He lowered himself down as gently as he could, but even though he didn't exactly fall, he still thumped down.

  Pain shot through his knees and shoulders. His head swooned as he had to fight back the urge to get sick. As the sound of blaring sirens got closer, John crawled out of the truck's window.

  He winced as the small chunks of glass cut into his palms. Hot shocks of discomfort shot from his knees to his back as the shards sliced his knees as well. Once he was clear of the wreckage, John sat on the pavement and held his head in his hands.

  One siren came up behind John's truck. The police car came to a stop, and an officer stepped out.

  "Are you okay?"

  John lifted his head as much as he could and nodded yes, but it wasn't true. He couldn't focus his eyes, and his head and neck throbbed intensely. Without realizing it, John had rubbed blood from his hands all over his face.

  From across the road, the man driving the black sports car began to spew obscenities about John. He was accusing John of causing the accident on purpose. The officer told him to calm down and that someone would be along shortly to take his statement.

  "Are you injured?" The policeman asked as the other driver began to cross the street. "If you're not injured, I'm going to need you to wait by your vehicle, sir."

  The man kept coming.

  "Sir, go back to your car and wait or I'm going to cuff you and put you in the back of my cruiser."

  With that, the other driver relented and went back to his car. The policeman turned his attention back to John. When John tried to stand up, and the world began to spin, the officer helped guide him down to the pavement.

  Minutes later, an ambulance pulled up. John was loaded up on a stretcher after the EMTs put a neck brace on him. Once he was in the back, the emergency transport peeled out and raced toward the hospital.

  The rest was a blur for John. He could remember the moment the morphine kicked in and the pain melted away but not much else. Doctors and nurses worked calmly and quietly around him.

  John thought it peculiar that the real emergency room was nothing like what he'd seen in the movies and television. He eventually drifted off as the drugs made him overwhelmingly drowsy.

  He woke to the sound of beeping and distant voices. Sammy sat next to the bed, and once he came to, John felt her hand holding his. She pushed a strand of hair away from his face and smiled.

  "I'm glad you're okay." She said and squeezed his hand. "You had me scared for a moment."

  "I'm sorry, baby. You've been through enough. You didn't need this." John said in a gravelly voice.

  "Oh, John. You shouldn't be worried about me." She said and chuckled. "That's so much like you. Worry about me when you were the one in an accident."

  "I am sorry about the tacos." John laughed, and it made hi
m cough.

  "It's okay. You've been out for a while. They had nachos in the cafeteria, so I got some food while they were trying to save you."

  "Seriously?" John asked and cocked his head to the side.

  "No." As if to confirm, Sammy's stomach growled.

  "I saw something in the truck's rearview mirror. It tried to attack me." John said suddenly and gravely.

  "What?"

  "It's that mirror we found in the attic, Sammy. It's let something into our lives." John whispered. "I'm so tired."

  He drifted back into unconsciousness.

  A nurse came through the door. "He's going to be in and out for a while. You should go get something to eat. We could hear your stomach growling in the hallway."

  She didn't want to leave him, but Sammy figured she could take the opportunity to find out what was going on with the mirror. If whatever was in it had attacked John in his truck, just removing it from their entryway wouldn't be enough.

  Sammy had to get to the bottom of it before the entity claimed anyone else.

  Chapter Eleven

  Sammy didn't want to leave John alone, but she needed a computer. The idea of going back to the house filled her with dread. There was no going back there until she knew how to get rid of the entity in the mirror.

  Her stomach was still protesting the lack of food, so Sammy decided to kill two birds with one stone. The university she'd graduated from had a cafeteria that would've still been open, and she could use a computer in the library.

  But, where would she start? That's when she realized she had to go home. Sammy needed a picture of the mirror. She reasoned with herself that she could go home, snap a picture of it, and grab her laptop. Then, she'd be able to go back to the hospital.

  The cafeteria at the hospital was open until at least one in the morning. Sammy steeled herself for the trip home. She didn't dare look in the rearview mirror while she drove but the sensation of someone sitting in the back seat right behind her was with her the entire way.

  Once she pulled into the driveway, Sammy bolted from the car. She stood in the front yard and thought about where her laptop sat. It was important that she make the trip into the house as short as possible.

  She'd left the laptop sitting next to her bed on the nightstand. So, she'd had to run up the stairs and grab it. Sammy had her phone ready as she came down the stairs and she only stopped long enough to snap a couple of pictures.

  Her heart almost jumped up and out of her throat when her reflection appeared to reach out to her. It was as if the dark-haired Sammy wanted to grab the phone. She almost made it back to her car when it dawned on her that she'd have to come back to the house later.

  "No." She said to herself.

  Sammy put her laptop in the car and went back into the house through the back door. All she needed was clothes, and there were some in the laundry room off the kitchen. She knew she'd be able to grab those without passing the mirror again.

  It took about two minutes for Sammy to grab a change of clothes and a clean uniform from the laundry basket on the dryer. The entire time, she heard a scratching sound coming from the front entryway, and she could swear it sounded as if the mirror was rattling too.

  Something tried to get out.

  Sammy booked it out the door and into the car. She turned the rearview mirror up so that even if she had accidentally looked, there was no way she'd be able to see anything in the reflection.

  After dinner and research, Sammy had every intention of staying in a hotel near the hospital. She reasoned that it would put her closer to John.

  She'd been right about the nachos. The cafeteria had a nacho bar, and Sammy piled her plate high with tons of seasoned ground beef and three scoops of queso. An embarrassingly huge dollop of sour cream and a mound of black olives topped it all off. Sammy accepted that she was soothing herself with food and paid for her nacho mountain. She was sure the cafeteria workers saw a lot of that type of thing day in and day out. She reasoned with herself that as long as she didn't do it often, it wasn't a problem.

  These were extraordinary circumstances, and who could she turn to for help? Who would believe that she was dealing with a haunted mirror? Even the friends that had seen the demonic activity she'd dealt with would probably think she was off her rocker on this one.

  Before she dug into her food, Sammy sent the picture of the mirror to her email. She downloaded the picture from there and then ran a google image search. While she waited for the results, Sammy shoved a nacho dripping with queso into her mouth.

  The hot, slightly spicy cheese instantly soothed her nerves. The crunch of the chips relaxed her jaw, and Sammy took her first deep breath of the day. She understood how people got heavy and vowed to be less judgmental. As a mental health professional, she'd never been terribly critical of obese people, but a small part of her had doubted that food addiction existed. As she shoveled two big chips into her mouth and felt her spirits lift, all of that doubt disappeared.

  Before she could ponder it further, Sammy got a Google hit on the mirror. The name that came up in conjunction with photographs of the mirror in what appeared to be a mansion gave her chills.

  The estate belonged to the father of the man who'd donated the money for the new wing at the mental health center. That made him the grandfather of the patient rumored to be the reason they'd built the high-security ward.

  When she'd finished her food, Sammy went to John's room. He was still asleep, and the nurse told her to go get some rest.

  "He's going to be fine." His night nurse told Sammy. "But, his body is tired. Go get some sleep. I'll call you if anything happens, but I guess he'll be discharged tomorrow. We stitch ‘em up and ship ‘em out fast around here. I don't like it, but what can I do?" She said with a shrug.

  Sammy thanked the woman and went to the hotel to check in. She wasn't in the room for more than a few minutes before dark shadows began to dance in the mirror. When Sammy made the mistake of looking into it, a sinister version of her face sneered back at her.

  She bolted from the room and stayed in the hotel's business center surfing the web for funny cat pictures until she couldn't keep her eyes open any more. Sammy wandered the hotel for a while until she found a seating area off the breakfast room that had a large sofa and cushioned ottoman. No one was around, so Sammy sunk into it and let herself fall asleep.

  "Ma'am." A sweet voice roused Sammy from her slumber. "Ma'am, you fell asleep in the reading room. Breakfast is about to start. People are going to be filing through here looking for food in a few minutes. You can stay here if you want, but you might want to go back to your room."

  Sammy sat up and rubbed her eyes. It actually hadn't been a terrible night's sleep. She felt refreshed if not still a bit groggy. "Coffee?"

  "Oh, yes. I've got coffee on the bar. There are five varieties and decaf." The breakfast lady said. "Normally you have to wait until breakfast starts, but go ahead." She said with a smile.

  "I've got to go. Thanks for waking me." Sammy said when she looked up and realized that the back of the coffee bar was lined with a giant mirror. No one seemed to notice when Sammy's reflection winked at her from across the room.

  Chapter Twelve

  "Don't go home," Sammy said to John. "I have to take care of this thing. Once they release you, go to a friend's house or something. I'm sorry you'll have to take a cab. I can't let this go on any longer."

  She took a sip of the raspberry latte she'd bought at the Starbucks in the hospital lobby. John took a drink of his mocha and narrowed his eyes. He didn't want her trying to solve the problem alone. At least with the demon, she'd had Cameron to help.

  "I don't think that's a good idea," John said, but his voice lacked conviction.

  Sammy laughed. "I don't think it's a good idea either, baby. But, I don't have any choice. We can't go anywhere with mirrors until I find a way to put a stop to this. That thing, whatever it is, isn't confined to the mirror at the house anymore. I can't let anyone else get h
urt or die."

  John nodded his head reluctantly. Sammy bent down and kissed his forehead before giving his hand a squeeze.

  What she had to do next would seem unethical to many in her profession and might have been illegal too. Not wanting to drive to the mental health center alone, Sammy left her car at the hotel and called a cab.

  At least in a taxi, she'd have another person with her, and Sammy figured she could angle her body just right in the back seat so that she couldn't see the rearview mirrors.

  The cab arrived ten minutes later, and she told the driver to take her to the mental health center. While she rode there, Sammy used the time to think of what she'd tell the staff.

  She needed to talk to Henrik Amsberg about a haunted mirror, and she'd been told to take the day off. There had to be a way to work this where she could have a conversation with him and not lose her job.

  Once she'd arrived, Sammy'd decided to use paperwork as an excuse for being on the ward. She would sit at the nurse's station working on something until she saw an opportunity to speak with Henrik.

  Luckily, there was lots of paperwork that needed to be caught up, and nobody wanted to do it. So, no one argued with Sammy when she sat down at the desk and began working. The center's administration was busy dealing with the fallout from Lucy's suicide, and they rarely came onto the wards anyway.

  She tried not to watch Henrik's door too much. He didn't come out often, but even the mysterious serial killer couldn't stay in there all day by himself. Sammy knew that he'd eventually leave his room.

  A couple of hours into her paperwork, Sammy got her wish. She was so into her work, clicking away at the computer, that she'd almost missed him. Fortunately, it was as if he knew she'd been waiting for him.

  "Samantha, can you assist me with something in the day room?" Henrik asked after he'd sidled up to the counter.

  "Sure, Henrik. I'm not on shift today, but I'd be happy to help you. I've got to go soon, though. So, we'll have to make it quick."