Monster

I look in the mirror and see a monster.

He's been here a long time, sneering as he mocks me.

I am the monster...

He looked exactly like me. Wilder hair and evil eyes, but same dark complexion. We always wear the same thing. He follows me everywhere like some kind of deranged shadow, but I can only see him when I look at myself.

Am I really the monster?

I know he's done bad things. I can see it in his eyes; the lies he's told, the crimes he's commited, all the henious acts he's preformed. He doesn't try to hide it. He wants me to see.

I don't want to be a monster.

Today I spend hours looking at him

looking at me.

I stare into the glass, concentrating hard. He is not me. He is not me. I am me.

He is me.

I widen my eyes; the monster does the same. I stick out my tongue. So does the monster. I raise my left hand, and the monster's hand raises steadily with mine.

I am the monster.

I pull on my skin, twisting my face into one with a wide mouth and droopy eyes. The monster looks silly, but copies me again.

The monster.

Me.

I make more faces, all of which the monster copies perfectly. I wrap my hands around my throat, cross my eyes and stick out my tongue, pretending to choke myself.

The monster doesn't do it.

Not me, not me, not me!

He laughs instead.

Get out, runaway!

My hands tighten of their own accord. I can't pull them away. They squeeze my neck, cutting of my oxygen. They squeeze tighter and tighter until the world goes black.

"Who's the monster?"

I open my eyes and breath again. Oops, pardon me. For the first time.

I look at the child in the mirror. He's banging on the glass fruitlessly, yelling his head off.

"No! You're the reflection!"

I lean closer to the mirror, inspecting a stray tuff of hair. As I watch, the child slowly conforms to my position, threading his fingers into his own hair and grinning.

"No, my dear. You are."

I lean back, watching my reflection do the same.

I am a monster.

I give the child a mocking little wave before I go. He returns it, smiling as maliciously as me.

There's a monster.

I leave my reflection now. He is weaker. I don't need him.

I am the monster...

I flip off the lights as I walk out the door.

The monster...