The Dream

            I could hear the wood creaking. I was in a long hallway. A black silhouette was approaching. My temples throbbed, my heart raced. Where was I? Sweat dripped down my neck and on my back.

            The silhouette came closer and I realized that it was a bruised and beaten-up doll. She had an eerie grin. As she strolled further, I noticed people appearing at the side of the hallway. Pale, lifeless ghosts. I would call them that. They slowly started bowing as they passed her.

            As she waltzed towards me, I saw dried blood on her shoes. My heart thumped inside my chest. I panicked. The hallway started closing in on me. My knees became wobbly and weak. I backed behind but it was just a dead end. Finally some words managed to escape my mouth, “Help!” I then realized that there was nobody else there and there was no point of shouting.

            After I said that, the doll started pacing up. There was a cold chill in my spine. Closer. More closer. She pulled a shiny dagger out from nowhere. I didn’t know what to do so I just followed the rest of the spirits. I bowed down. She walked closer and slashed my neck. As I felt the blood splatter and realization kicked in, I found my self slipping away, farther and farther away…

            I sprung out from my bed. “What a dream!” I thought to myself. My clothes were drenched in sweat. I felt relieved. I pulled my hair up from my neck into a bun. Only, I felt a bloody and deep cut on my neck. And I knew for a fact that it wasn’t there before…

Mona

            “What was that?” Mona thought to herself when she heard a muffled scuttle. A pungent, musty smell wafted into the room. She brushed it off thinking that it was just her imagination. The wind was blowing mercilessly that strands of hair were all over her face, but she knew not to complain as she was standing on a 40-feet high bell tower of the old St. Germain’s Church.

She heard wood creaking and immediately turned around. Her heart raced. Nothing.

There were too many stories about this place surrounding this church but Mona was determined to keep her mind clear. The locals say that the church was once full of worshippers and on Sundays, after church, families would gather to picnic by the fields. Ever since Pastor Kingston’s body was found hanging from the bell tower with multiple stab wounds, and the words “LEAVE THIS PLACE” was scribbled on the church wall with his blood, the locals stopped coming to the church.

Bearing this in mind, Mona still came here hoping to find solace. She needed a break from her maddening parents and the world. She couldn’t take it anymore.

She took a deep breath and from the corner of her eye she saw an imperceptible dark figure watching her every move. It was then that she felt her skin tingling and somebody breathing down her neck. She realized that she was not alone but there was something familiar about this presence, as if it was someone she knew. Mona often went to church and had chattered with Pastor Kingston quite frequently.

Pastor Kingston’s image appeared right in front of her like a plume of smoke and his face looked distressed. “Leave. Leave now, he’s here,” he uttered those words and vanished.

At the corner of her eye, Mona saw the dark figure approaching her…

Mirror of Avigdor

For centuries, The Mirror of Avigdor has been lying on the Pacific Ocean’s seabed. It last belonged to Lady Jemimah who decided to cast it away for good and threw it into the ocean. She felt that was the only way humanity would be shielded from Cleopatra’s cursed mirror.

Jaxon and his crew were wiped out after two exhausting weeks of fishing in the ocean with little luck. They decided to haul their nets before heading home and that was when they set eyes upon The Mirror of Avigdor. It was tangled up amongst clumps of seaweed and starfish.

“Hey, Captain, I think you might want to check this out!” one of Jaxon’s crew members shouted out to him.

Jaxon inspected the peculiar looking mirror. There were inscriptions in hieroglyphics and the handle was engraved with odd patterns. He wiped the mirror and stared at it for a moment, not knowing that it bestowed one blessing and one curse each time a person gazes upon it.

Almost immediately, his crew from the other end of the boat shouted, “Captain! We’re rich, look!” They had hauled up a big chest overflowing with precious stones, jewellery and gold coins.

Everyone started jumping in excitement, celebrating their catch but failing to realize that one of Jaxon’s men had fallen overboard. By the time they had all settled down, it was too late. They saw his lifeless body floating.

Puzzled, everyone sailed back solemnly.

Jaxon told his wife what happened that day. He gave her the chest and the mirror to be kept safely in the basement. They went to bed. In the middle of the night, his wife was too curious and went to inspect the mirror.

Little did she know that curiosity killed the cat… and her too.