Sunday 4 May 2014

Horror Bites - Reflection

The Horror Bites photo prompt for the fortnightly challenge hosted by Laura Jamez over on her site Office Mango was a bit spooky this week. This is what I came up with.

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Emily could easily admire the lady in the reflection of the train window without being caught staring. She pretended to peer out at the world going by, but she was more interested in the woman’s face. She’d never seen so much make-up on anyone before; the caked-on foundation enhanced her old-age wrinkles, and the think black pencilled in eyebrows gave her a sinister expression with their arched peaks. 

Emily never understood why women did that, it seemed crazy to shave them off and draw them in again when you already had a perfectly good pair that grew naturally. Emily ran a finger over her own viewing them in the reflection. She wondered if they got bushier with age, although as her mum kept saying, she was only eight, she had plenty of time yet. But she couldn’t imagine shaving them off – or plucking them, like her mother did - that looked painful!

Emily glanced over her shoulder at her mother sitting next to her. She was staring out of the window too, but when she saw Emily she smiled at her and squeezed her leg. Emily smiled back before returning to the reflection.

Now she inspected the woman’s lips, all puckered up, the lipstick slightly over the line of the lips. It made her shudder; they looked all gooey. She licked her lips and looked up at the woman’s eyes, and then froze when she found her staring back.

Emily flicked her eyes back to her own reflection, noticing how wide they’d become, then took a tentative peek at her mother, who was reading a magazine and hadn’t noticed anything.

It wouldn’t be so bad, but she’d assumed the Lady couldn’t see her – being that she didn’t exist, well not in the flesh anyway, the seats opposite were unoccupied. 

299 Words

2 comments :

  1. Starts off so innocently (I look at people through the reflection too) but that last line sent shivers. Well done Chick. xxx

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  2. You have a way with pacing a story, moving things along, only revealing what you need to when it's time. Like this one. :)

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