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“Where are you going?”
Raz turned around back to the campfire. Sitting on a nearby log was Lizzie. With one hand, she held onto a stick skewered through a marshmallow, slowly roasting it over the campfire. On the other side of the log circle was Sam, with chocolate and marshmallow stains on both of her cheeks.
“The bathroom,” Raz replied.
“The bathroom? ” Lizzie parroted. Her eyes went wide, and she shook her head. “I say you just go in the bushes.”
Raz grimaced and reeled back. “Why?”
Lizzie pointed upwards with her free hand. Raz looked towards the sky. Above them, past the pine needles and leaves overhead, the full moon shone bright and clear in a cloudless sky. Raz raised an eyebrow and tilted his head slightly.
“Around these parts, people say that demons live in mirrors,” Lizzie continued. A smirk crossed her face. “During the full moon, they can come out by possessing your reflection.”
Raz shook his head, then dropped it and turned back around to the forest.
“If anything, I’m more afraid that a squirrel has made its home in the toilet,” Raz replied. Both the Green Needle Witch and the Aquato family curse had turned out to be little more than legends. Now he was supposed to be worried about his own reflection trying to strangle him?
“The Galahad family does not live in toilets, ” Sam shot back, mumbling through a mouthful of S’mores. “Plus, she’s right. Mom doesn’t let us have any mirrors in the house cuz’ of ghosts.”
“Demons,” Lizzie replied.
Raz shrugged. “I’ll take my chances.”
Lizzie waved at Raz with her free hand. “Well, it was nice knowing you.” She chuckled, and Sam passed her a worried look.
Fallen leaves and branches brushed at Raz’s feet as he walked down the thin dirt paths of the Questionable Area. In the distance, the dark shadow of the bathroom emerged from the trees. As Raz approached, the smell of mold, old sewage, and stormwater hit his nostrils. He grit his teeth together, briefly contemplating if he should tuck his nose into his sweater. As Raz reached the entrance to the men’s side of the bathroom, he swallowed down a lump forming in his throat and headed inside.
Shadows filled the old bathroom. Besides a few broken windows, the only light inside came from a bare, flickering yellow bulb in the corner of the room. Footsteps echoed out from cracked tiles as Raz made his way towards the stalls. In the corner of his eye, he noticed the shine and flicker of the bathroom mirror above a row of sinks. He stopped and turned towards the mirror. A fine layer of dirt, dust, and grime covered the glass. But Raz could still see himself in the mirror- frizzled ginger hair, bags under his eyes, and everything else.
Raz eyed himself in the mirror and stuck his tongue out. “Psh.” Lizzie’s just trying to get back to me after being proven wrong about the Green Needle Witch, he thought to himself. … What if she was right, though? another thought asked.
After a moment, Raz blinked. I didn’t think that… did I? Yes I did.
Raz took a step closer towards the mirror and narrowed his eyes at his reflection. Carefully, he leaned his head in, getting one eye closer to the mirror. Then, he raised a finger and poked his reflection in the eye.
“Ow!” his reflection cried out. It stumbled backwards, cupping one hand over its eye.
Raz scrambled away from the mirror, and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. “Get out of my head!” Raz yelled at his reflection.
The reflection rolled its open eye. “I mean, I guess I could .” But why would I? I’m you, after all. The reflection pulled back its lips in a half smile, half grimace, like the smile of a hungry shark.
Raz shook his head. “No, you’re not me. You're just… some other… thing possessing my reflection,” Raz retorted.
If I'm not you, then who do you think I am?
"I don’t know."
Do you want to see?
“Not really-”
Before Raz could finish, an unseen force tightened around his throat. Holding out one hand, his reflection levitated him off the ground. Raz thrashed in midair, choking and wheezing. He wrenched his eyes shut, and a bolt of psychic energy leaped from his head.
As the Psi-Blast hit the mirror, the sound of shattering filled Raz's ears. The grip on his throat released, and he fell back to the floor. He doubled over, wheezing and gasping for air. Once he could breathe again, he stood up. Shards of glass were scattered across the countertop, sparkling in the flickering light.
Raz brushed his hands together, then turned back towards the stalls. "Don't need another little brother to clean up after."
"That's right; you need more!" a chorus of tiny voices yelled back.
Raz whipped around on his heel. Crawling out of the mirror shards were a gang of Raz clones, each one only a few inches tall. They chattered amongst each other, helping each other out of the shards and picking up sharp splinters of glass.
Raz's eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open. "What the hell."
One of the tiny clones hurled a chunk of brick at Raz with telekinesis, hitting him square in the forehead. Raz collapsed and crumpled onto the dirty tiles, out cold.
"Wow," the clone said. "I really didn't think that would work."
"Well, it did, so now what do we do?" another one chimed in. It climbed off the countertop, dropped to the floor, and walked over to the now unconscious Raz. The rest of the group followed, beginning to babble as they gathered next to him.
"Serve him in a stew!"
"Tie him up!"
"Skewer him with thumbtacks!"
The group's suggestions turned to arguing, with each of the clone's voices growing louder as they talked over one another and cut each other off. Their voices roused Raz out of his brief nap and he stirred slightly. Holding his tongue, he opened one eye to look at them. They continued to bicker.
"-roast him on an open fire-"
"-that's stupid-"
"-pluck his eyeballs out-"
Raz balled his hand opposite the gang of clones into a fist. Then, he rolled over, swinging his arm overhead and his fist down upon the clones. As Raz's fist slammed into the floor, it was followed by a hard crunch, the same crunch that cockroaches made when crushed underfoot. Blood splattered across the tiles and onto Raz's face.
"Gotcha!"
"Run away!!" The clones that had dodged Raz's attack fled in all directions, both into the darkness of the bathroom and into the forest outside.
Raz fell slack, collapsed back against the tiles, and sighed. "This is going to take a while."