Hook

 

Lucy was cleaning the mirror, wiping away streaks with a cloth. She hummed softly, her reflection blurring as the cloth moved across the glass. It was a quiet, ordinary evening—until she caught something strange in the corner of her eye.

A hook. It hung on the wall behind her, just out of reach of the mirror’s edge. She frowned, unsure of when it had appeared. It was old, rusty, almost like something out of place, as if it didn’t belong.

Curious, she turned to look at it directly.

But there was nothing there.

Her brow furrowed. She glanced back at the mirror.

The hook was back... reaching toward her, slowly, as though it had been waiting for her to look.

Lucy’s heart skipped a beat. She turned around quickly again, her breath catching. The wall was empty.

The hook wasn’t there.

She spun back to the mirror. It was still there, closer now, just within reach. The dark, jagged metal gleamed in the dim light. And then she saw it: the faint outline of a hand starting to curl around the hook’s base, the fingers stretching, almost as if they were alive.

Her pulse quickened. She turned again to the wall behind her, but the hook was gone, leaving only bare plaster. She took a shaky breath and looked back at the mirror.

The hand was still there, grasping the hook now, the fingers inching closer to her.

Lucy froze. Her reflection smiled, but she didn’t.

***

243 words.

I love the idea of worlds behind mirrors and thought this was a fun way to explore it. Here's a song I was thinking of while writing: In the Glass by OK Go