Mirror on the wall

look at me while

I tell you tomorrow 

you want to know 

who will it be

then search no more

I will be your guide.’

The ominous song woke Chidi from her sleep. It was 12 AM on the dot and the night was chilly and silent. Despite the cold, perspiration still donned her forehead. It was the second time she was being woken by this same song and the last time she was, someone close to her died; her childhood friend.

But that was a month ago. Now, she needed to know what would happen next. Like one under a spell, her sleepy eyes trailed to the mirror hung on her wall where her make up kit was. The room was dark, but the full moon outside shone through her glass window and rested on the mirror to reveal the reflection of the next victim.

Her eyes were transfixed on the mirror and she was devoid of her willpower to avoid staring at it. Then it started morphing into images. It shifted from Lynda’s image to Ameera’s then to Chuks; her boyfriend. Then the scene began to play…

Chuks and Chidi had been dating for the six months now and Chuks was cheating on her with Ameera. She hadn’t the faintest idea. Even if she did, she wouldn’t have believed, so it was the mirror’s duty to play it for her via the images.

The images on the mirror had Chuks and Ameera giggling and circling the garden at the park. Then Chuks said, “…and that fool will think I truly love her. She doesn’t know that I’m after her father’s wealth. She will continue to supply the money while I take good care of my baby.” He winked at her with a sly smile.

She blushed, “Poor girl, I really feel for her. Each time I see her, I feel like crying for her, she doesn’t know that it requires more to keep a man….things like being good in bed.”

And with that, they erupted in uproarious laughter. The images faded and another began to play where Chuks and Ameera were kissing. That too faded and another began. This time, it was where they were having intense sex.
They both were on the bed; Ameera was on top of him, her back turned to Chuks who was lying supine on the bed; his hands cupped her bare breasts, his fingers caressing her hard nipples while soft moans of pleasure escaped her mouth.

She was bouncing wildly on his dick. It was evident she was reaching climax, “Oh fuck me!” she moaned, “I’m cumming baby, I’m cumming, fuck, I’m cumming!”

The erupting magma in her exploded and sent her into torrents of jolts. She later relaxed and collapsed on him, “You are a monster, baby,” she teased.

“I haven’t even started,” he teased back and turned her sideways and began pounding her with all his strength, “I’m going to make you cum again for me, baby. I love it when you let out that juice, how it wets my dick, it gives me a certain kind of joy. Cum for me, baby.”

Just then a loud bang on the door sent their door crashing against the wall. Standing in the doorway was a sad Chidi and a sharp knife.
Then the image faded and this time, it didn’t come up again and she got hold of herself and wondered what the images meant.
***

Later that day she went to see Chuks. She had called his phone and couldn’t get through. ‘Maybe the network is bad,’ she had thought to herself and decided to go see him at his home which she was paying the rent. She had lied to her father that she needed the money for a project in school, and as usual, her father didn’t question her and signed her the cheque.

She had secured the house for their rendezvous because her father denied her living in the school hostel or off campus, “You will be given a car to go to school with from home. You’re not living outside this house,” he had told her when she got admission. That was two years ago.

Now, she stood before the door that led to Chuks’ house. The main door that led to the sitting room was ajar. The door curtains was missing. She called out his name but no one answered. She strode to the bedroom, the door was ajar too. She fearfully tiptoed in to see Chuks’ lifeless body on the bed, his hands clutched his still bleeding balls. His lips were parted in an agonising manner. His eyes wide open, staring at nothingness.

She let out a scream and tried to run back before she realised that she had unwanted visitors.

“Don’t even think about it!” the voice of a burly policeman froze her to a stop. It was inspector Musa, some other policemen and Ameera, still bleeding from her right arm as she spoke, “Inspector, that’s her. She’s the murderer!”

Chidi was confused at the present predicament. Policemen…Ameera…Murderer… she couldn’t fathom what was going on. She trembled and spoke, “Excuse me, inspector, what’s going on here?”

“You’d explain that when we get to the station,” Inspector Musa chipped, “boys, arrest her!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I mean, you can’t come into my house and have me arrested for nothing! I will call my lawyer!”

“Stop faking innocence, murderer!” Ameera blurted while clutching her bleeding arm. “You killed Chuks, stabbed my arm, bloody murderer!”

Just then the gothic scene replayed in Ameera’s head.

The door had crashed against the bedroom wall and before them, Ameera and Chuks, was Chidi with a sharp knife. They were perplexed at her sight. Before they could move a muscle, she was flying towards them with a feral rage that burned every reasoning in her.

She went for his balls with the knife but missed it by an inch. The knife stabbed his inner thigh, leaving him at her mercy. Ameera pulled from Chuks’ hold and darted towards the door.

Chidi instinctively pulled the knife from his thigh and sent it flying towards Ameera, it missed her back as she was about to pass the door and caught her on her right arm. She winced but didn’t stop. She ran out to the sitting room, yanked the curtains to cover her nakedness while she fled for safety and the nearest police station.

“Fuck!” Chidi cursed out aloud. She went towards the small table near the bed, pulled the first drawer and brought out the scissors she once used to cut her hair. She turned to the agonising and helpless Chuks and smiled, “Time to be castrated, baby.”

Presently, Ameera was shocked at her total feign of innocence and wondered what she was still doing here. She hadn’t same clothes, definitely she had gone home and changed, why was she still here? But she didn’t allow the thoughts bother her any further as she watched the policemen place the handcuffs on the struggling Chidi and lead her away.

Inspector Musa went inside the bedroom, picked the scissors with his thumb and index fingers, then produced a nylon bag and had it put inside, “This will go a long way in proving her guilty,” he said to Ameera and they both left the scene. “I will call on the ambulance to come clear his body, and do the necessary tests on his body. The forensic team will have this scissors examined for her fingerprints. But first, get your wound tended to.”

She stood outside the house and watched as their vehicle that had Chidi and the policemen in, thundered away. She flagged a taxi and went home. Then the song began to play in Chidi’s mind;
‘Mirror on the wall…’

***

Ameera got home and headed directly to her bathroom. She had decided to take her bath before going to a chemist shop to have her wound tended. Still wondering why Chidi would do such a thing, she turned the shower cap and cold water streamed down her body. She winced in reaction to the pain she felt when the water touched her wound.

‘There was a different countenance on the face of the angry Chidi and the arrested Chidi. She acted so innocent like she wasn’t the one that attacked us earlier on. Could it be that she was just faking it to prove herself innocent? If it was so, she wouldn’t have returned to the apartment for any reason. What’s really happening?’ she thought to herself then she heard a slight rap on her bathroom door. She remembered locking the main door to her apartment and the key was lying on her table. Who then made it into her apartment? It was only Chuks that had the key to her apartment and he was dead.

“Who’s there?” she called out.

Silence.

“Who’s there?”

Silence.

She shut the shower off, stepped out of it to see the doorknob twisting and the door creaking open. She rushed to shut it but she was a second late. The door had creaked open and before her was a scrawny looking Chidi. She was pale as chalk. Her hair looked like she had been buried for a decade. Tattered. Her eyes were hollow, like that of a skeleton without eyeballs. Varicose veins were all over her face. She wore a white overall cloth that was ragged like one that got crushed by a train.

“Hello,” a hoarse voice spoke, “I’m here to complete what we started.”

Ameera was already jittery. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing before her. Hot streams of urine streamed down her shuddering thighs. Before she could say a word, Chidi had whipped out a knife from behind her and slit her throat, to cut her sentence short. Blood gushed out like water coming out from a water gun. She clutched her throat while choking to death.

***

Back in the moving police vehicle, Chidi who remained calm, staring at nothingness was disturbed by the policeman by her right. “Wetin you de look?” he asked while he tugged at her.

The scene had finished playing on the car’s inner mirror–how she had killed Ameera. Of course, she was the only one that saw it all. But she was oblivious of the fact that she ever did it. Then suddenly a spasm engulfed her. Her skin began to twitch. She started feeling abnormal. Then she spoke. It was a hoarse voice bereft of the voice that was pleading with them earlier on to allow her contact her lawyer.

“I killed them. I killed them all. And you all will soon die.”

Surprised at the strange voice and behaviour, the two men exchanged glances and before they could react, she had broken the handcuff with a single move of her hands and stabbed the right one with the broken cuff.

Agent Musa was still driving when he heard the cry of the stabbed policeman. He stomped the car brake, swiveled to the right and had the car shuddering to a stop on the highway.

The policeman by her left was already trying to exit the car when a speeding truck rammed them from behind and continued the horrendous speed towards a downward slope. Some seconds later, the car was hurtling down the slope and inside the car was filled with screams from inspector Musa and the other policeman. Chidi was now calm. Her body had been returned to normal. She saw the looming danger but it was too late to move, she just watched as the car hurtled down the slope and swiveled left towards the rocky path.

She closed her eyes and the song began to play,

Mirror on the wall

look at me now to be saved

this could be your only chance 

to avert the looming end

all you have to do is open 

your eyes and see me your redemption 

I am here to save you. 

But Chidi never had the time to be saved. As she opened her eyes, she heard clatters and felt tumbling jolts then flames. But the song continued playing;

Mirror… mirror on the wall… 

About the writer 

Augustine Malizu is a lazy reader and writes what his doppelganger whispers to him. They said he’s a graduate and done with his youth service.