The dark mirror, attached to my dresser, stared hauntingly back at me. For something so stupid, I was scared to death. Sweat slid down my forehead as I blinked. It was petrifyingly dark… if I was going to do it, it had to be now. My lips parted, but no sound escaped. I swallowed hard. It would never work. Things like that just didn’t happen…so why was I so scared?

    “Ave--” I shuddered as the foreign word rolled off my tongue. “Ave…Maria…” I whispered. I waited… and nothing. God didn’t strike me down, Mary didn’t appear in my mirror, and it was all a big joke… just like Gerard had promised. With fresh confidence, I began again. “Ave… Maria.” I rolled, a little stronger. “Ave Maria!” I shouted the Latin, just as my window flew open.

    A wicked gust of wind forced its way into my room, capturing loose papers and scattering them. My blood ran cold. I whipped around to see my curtains blowing wildly, dancing in the cool night air.

    “Hear the sound…” my radio suddenly began, “the angels,”

    With a quick glance at the scratchy radio, I turned back to the mirror, eyes widened.

    “Come screaming,”

    Another face was staring back at me. Two dark eyes pierced mine as the next, gritty word was shouted.

    “DOWN!” Gerard’s voice on the radio had disappeared and the face in the mirror was where the harsh voice had come from.

    I took a nervous step back, my arms extended slightly at my sides. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be real. Things like this just didn’t… exist.

    “Shannon…” I whispered harshly, shaking my head, but completely maintaining eye contact with the face in the mirror, which was rapidly coming closer and closer to the glass. I swallowed hard. “Shannon, get a hold of yourself… you’re seeing things…” I whispered through tears, trying to make myself believe.

    The face in the mirror was staring at me… staring into my eyes. Then the mouth opened. The lips trembled, as if sound was being made, but nothing was coming out. Until…

    Tears began streaming down my face as the horrifyingly scary sound of backmasking filled my room… then the sound of pigs squealing… and then…

    The mouth began to form words. They came out in slurs.

    “Our father… thou art in Heaven… hallowed… be… be… be… thy name… thy king…dom… come…”

    I started to scream, but no sound would come from my lips. I tried to run, but it was as if my feet were glued to the floor. Tears still flooding down my face, my breathing stopped… I could feel my pupils dilating, my pulse racing… and then I literally felt it all stop…

    …just as Mary stepped out of the mirror.