*I combined both parts into part one*
It was going to be our first house. We had saved for the past five years to put a down payment on the perfect place. It had 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms, a front porch, and a fenced-in backyard. We drove up with a trailer packed with all our belongings, excitement bubbling over as we parked in the driveway ready to start our new lives together.
We walked inside the front door carrying the first boxes. The house should have smelled like fresh paint, but there was something off about it—a faint, heavy stillness that made the air feel thick. As we stepped into the living room, it appeared to be empty except for what seemed to be a large mirror bolted to the wall. It was completely covered with a sheet, the corners taped down securely to hold it in place.
We slowly set the boxes down on the floor with a soft thud. I glanced over at my husband and then back towards the sheet, stepping a little closer as I felt a bit uneasy. I noticed a small folded piece of paper taped to the left hand corner of it and with trembling hands I opened it. Greg looked over my shoulder as we both slowly read it “ Do not uncover. Do not touch the glass.” He tried to laugh it off but there was uncertainty in his voice. “Laura, get the real estate agent's card from your purse and we can give her a call.” I stepped back hesitating for a moment before I disappeared out the front door to retrieve my purse from the car, returning with the card and his cell phone. He quickly dialed the number, his eyebrows raising as he quickly hit the call end and looked at his wife, his face a mixture of confusion and concern. “It says the number has been disconnected.”
“There must be a misprint in the number ”I replied but even my voice was a little bit shaky. Perhaps our next door neighbor would have some information on the house and the previous owners. Stepping out onto the front porch we glanced towards the house on the left, noticing the curtains moving as if someone had been watching. They crossed the front yard and up onto the neighbors porch and knocked repeatedly on the front door but no one answered. It seemed clear that we were not going to get any help so we returned to our home and stepped back inside but this time the air felt different, almost heavier.
Greg paced and forth while rubbing his hands over his face while I glanced around the room then stared at the sheet once more, a short gasp escaping my lips as I thought I caught a flicker of movement in the sheet as if it had slowly exhaled, forcing a ripple in the fabric. “Greg” she barely whispered “ the sheet…it just moved” he looked at me like I had grown another head. “ That's not possible, it must have been a draft. It is an older house.” He walked towards the mirror and held his hand close to it, trying to feel for an explanation for what I might have seen. That is when it happened again…this time there was an almost inaudible sound as the sheet moved once more.
Terrified but also curious, Greg leaned in closer to his left ear merely inches from the material as he listened but he did not expect to hear anything. For a moment there was nothing but silence then changed to a quiet slow thumping like the sound of a heartbeat before there was a whisper that only he could hear “You shouldn't have bought the house” The color completely drained from his face as he staggered back, his eyes wide now in complete terror. He looked at me but the words were frozen in his throat. The sheet on the mirror began to take shape, not a complete figure but it appeared to have hands pushing out from inside, the pieces of tape securing the edges slowly snapping. We thought about running out the front door and pretending we had never bought the house but the slam of the front door made us both jump. As the sheet began to fall off the glass we held on tight to each other and closed our eyes expecting that it was going to reveal a monster that was going to grab them. After a few minutes of absolute silence slowly opened our eyes and saw…nothing. There was simply a mirror with black glass which had to mean we were tired from the move and were imagining all of it. Greg took a breath as he started piecing things together. First there was the note, the disconnected number, the neighbor watching but refusing to answer the door, the movement behind the sheet and the front door slamming shut. Now there was nothing. There was no curse. The note was not left by the previous owner, it was left by whatever was inside the mirror. It was hoping to get someone curious enough to touch the glass.
It was waiting...
Greg slowly sat down on one of the boxes we had set on the floor, his mind racing as he tried to figure out what was going on. First the disconnected call…he remembered the face of the agent as she told them about the house in her office, her smile that looked a bit too bright, her eyes that did not seem to blink as she looked at them, how crisp her suit looked. He thought her eyes were darker than usual and were devoid of any emotion. He opened google maps and typed in the address of the agency only to find that it showed a vacant lot overgrown by weeds and trash people had tossed onto it. How was that even possible because they had visited there to sign papers only days ago.
Trembling, he looked towards me and spoke in a quiet voice”show me the papers” I reached into my purse and pulled out the folded papers, my hands trembling as I handed them to him. He carefully opened them up but again nothing came out as he tried to speak so all he could do was turn them so I could see. The words began to swirl then slowly disappeared till the page was blank.Moments after new words began to appear but just two of them simply read “Welcome home”.
The silence was deafening till it was broken by the sound of the deadbolt of the front door being slid into place. I grabbed his arm and screamed”move” tugging at him as I headed for the front door. We both tugged at it but it would not budge. Greg grabbed the iron poker from the fireplace and ran towards the living room window and swung it expecting the glass to shatter but it rippled as if the glass absorbed the shock of the hit and morphed back into place as if it had not been touched. He swung at the glass again and again but his attempts were futile. He ran through the house to the back door and banged on it over and over but it was like pounding on a brick wall.
Neither of us knew what to do but we knew they were trapped with no escape. Who or what was keeping us captive in the house and why. Just when we thought that things could not get any worse his phone began to ring. He looked at me before he turned it over and looked at the caller ID and froze. The name on the screen said Agent. He debated not answering it but he had to know, we both did. In a trembling voice he said “hello.” The voice on the other end was very bright but a bit distorted.” The other people did not want to stay but we think you will fit in perfectly.” “What do you want from us?” Greg screamed into the phone. “Why did you take our money?”There was a cynical sort of laughter that erupted as the voice responded” We did not want your money, it was never important to us. We needed to find someone who would love the house so much that they would become a part of it, making the foundation stronger.” He hits the call end on the phone and looks at me and I can see the pure terror in his eyes.
The thumping sound he once quietly heard from the mirror earlier was now louder and coming from within the walls and felt like the house was closing in around us. Perhaps if we covered the mirror with the sheet once more, we could make all of it go away. We rushed forward, each of us grabbing a piece of the fabric desperately trying to cover the mirror but in our rush we touched the glass. In what felt like a split second everything went black and we felt ourselves being pulled into the darkness of the mirror, our screams now muffled. We were now trapped inside of the mirror and there was no way out.
Once our eyes adjusted we could see the inside of the living room and hear the front door open. In walked the very same agent who had sold us the house and we tried to get her attention but it was like she already knew and did not care. She stepped up to the mirror, a blank look on her face before a slow smile crossed her lips. She reached down and picked up the sheet and hung it back over the mirror, muttering something about till next time before taping the corners in place. She then stepped back and let out a laugh that would send chills into the bones of anyone hearing it before her footsteps could be heard heading out the front door and the click of the lock.
It was still waiting.
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