~The Mirror Has Two Faces~
Another pathetic story by Tiarra.
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He ran into the darkness, looking for a handle to grab, or a crevice to hide in. The horror behind him was inescapable, or so he thought. Tumbling, nearly falling, his sleeve caught an old brass handle. What luck, to find an escape from the bleak, light-less hallway. Turning the knob with a creak, he hurriedly escaped into the room.
The room the man entered was even darker than the hallway which he had fled from, and from the resounding creak-thud he heard when the door closed behind him, it was also very large. Groping blindly on the walls, the man searched for a light switch, hoping and praying that there was one nearby.
The man pulled his hand back, his expression twisting itself into one of disgust. The walls were covered with some kind of sticky, slimy substance. Sighing, the man squeezed his eyes shut and continued to grope along the wall, not wanting to be trapped in the darkness any longer.
Success! With a hasty motion, he flipped on the light switch his hands discovered. With a slow creak, a panel in the ceiling slid open, and ever so slowly, a group of well-lit spotlights lowered themselves into view.
Rubbing his eyes, allowing them to adjust to the darkness, the man looked around the room. What he saw was horridly disgusting, yet, at the same time, incredibly intriguing. Apparently, this room had been used as a torture chamber, or so devices in the room told him. Thankfully, this place had not been visited in a while, he noted, spying the thin film of dust across the stretching rack and wall shackles, and the rust on the blade of the guillotine he stood before.
Spying a basket lying on an old, wooden casket, the man approached the center of the room. What he saw inside repulsed him, beyond anything else he had ever seen. The basket was filled, nearly to the top, with different human appendages. Feet, hands, ears, noses, and even a human heart, which was still covered with fresh blood.
Reeling from what he had just seen, the man clambered back, stopping when he found himself in a dark corner. How odd, he thought, that the bright spotlights would illuminate all of the room but this small. Reaching towards the wall, his hand immediately found another light switch, and the man flipped it. Another small spotlight appeared, illuminating the corner-- and the most horrifying thing that he had come across that night. He stared, intently, straight into the evil that he saw.
Falling backwards after a moment, and bursting into tears, the man scrambled away from the corner, and towards the door he had originally escaped through. Even the horrors that were outside did not compare to the demonic object in the corner of this room. Fleeing through the door, and running down the hallway, the man cried out, wanting to escape this night, to never remember it again. But, he would never forget what he saw in that corner. Never.
Seeing a light at the end of the hallway, the man ran faster, until finally he reached the torch he saw, which guarded an open door. Without hesitation, he ran through. He was outside now, basking in the intensely bright light of the moon. He wouldn't stop though, not until he was as far away from what he saw as he possibly could be. The man ran all night, and into the morning, towards the rising sun and a small town.
The man looked around at the people in the town with utter distaste. Didn't they know what was around them? Didn't they see what awaited them? Didn't they know that what was in that dark corner was coming for all of them? Perhaps it was too late for them. Perhaps, the man thought, it was too late for everyone else, too.