Circus Diabolique: Through the Mirror

Coming soon from Siren Publishing

“Rhianna.”

This time her eyes didn’t gaze into the darkness, but they settled on the full length mirror nestled in the corner of the room. She clutched the sheet to her body, wondering why she was not seeing herself in the reflection like she expected too. Instead, a new image greeted her. A man dressed in turn of the century clothes stared back at her. An eerie blue glow emanated around him like a twisted halo. He had dark brown hair and dark eyes. He reachedout to her in the mirror.

I’m dreaming.

“Please help me, Rhianna. Help me, before he comes back.”

Hard core fear kept her frozen in place like a frightened animal. Her gaze slid toward her napping cat who purred was probably dreaming about catnip mice. Snowball was not sensing anything out of the ordinary. Stupid cat. I thought you were supposed to sense spooky stuff like this. Staring at the specter in the glass, she saw the desperation in his eyes and it tugged on her heart strings. Something inside her knew she had to help him and there was something else. An aura of familiarity surrounded him, yet she had never seen him before. Before she knew it, she was kneeling on the edge of the bed not realizing she had moved and reaching out to him as well.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“Who is not important now? You have to free me. Please!”The fear in his tone moved her heart and tears of frustration formed in her eyes.

“I don’t know how. Tell me.”

The apparition looked behind him. Rhianna heard something like a branch breaking or a whip cracking. Outside the calliope music seemed closer.

“Help me. Please!” he pleaded again with her.

“How? Who are you?”

“Beware of the jester. Please. Free me!” The ghost gazed behind him again and then disappeared.

“Wait!” Rhianna leaped off the bed and touched the glass expecting the image to show the stranger again. However, its cool surface reflected only her. She listened for the music again and didn’t hear it. She shook her head and checked outside. No one around for miles. It was what she got for living in the middle of nowhere with only fields, wildlife, and the night to keep her company. Shaking her head, she climbed back into bed. The strange encounter had made her forget her nightmare. It faded into the back of her mind and she couldn’t remember now why she had been so afraid. Fear still made her tremble from the recent encounter. It wasn’t every day a ghost or whatever appear in her mirror. She wasn’t sure the whole thing wasn’t part of a waking dream, but in the back of her mind, Rhianna knew she had experienced something few people did.

What does he want with me? Why me? What the hell is going on here? Is he the reason why all the renters moved out within a couple of months? Why we left when I was just a kid? Rhianna shook her head and tried to settle back onto the pillow and get some sleep. She had a full schedule ahead of her in the morning. Everything on her list was cleaning. There was so much dust she was not surprised another species hadn’t evolved in her house and was now living in the walls. Snowball certainly had fun chasing the dust bunnies.

The next morning, Rhianna opened her eyes to the birds singing and the sun warming her face. It took her a moment for her eyes to adjust, but once she did, she smiled and stretched. Her gaze swept the room looking for her crazy cat that must have gone off in the middle of the night again. Finding nothing, she got up and stared out of the window wondering if he was in a nearby tree. She didn’t see her cat, but what she did see was a very odd sight. Sitting in her gravel driveway was a horse and wagon. The horse she could understand as there were several horse farms along the road and as a child she had seen riders going through the field across from the house. But the wagon looked like it belonged in another century with a circus promoting its side show. The horse was happily munching on grass and underneath the wagon Rhianna saw a pair of legs and heard the echo of metal hitting wood. The sound ricocheted through the field next door and off the windows, making it sound louder then it really was.

Things just keep getting stranger and stranger lately.