Moonlit Mirrors

Her part of the cacophony of clicking hesitated, the silence in the air broken by the high singing of a mezzo-soprano in her ears... Amy Lee.

Something was wrong.

The only redhead in the small group of students, perhaps twenty in total, straightened up as if being poked in the spine. Her friends, one Goth-ish girl sitting on either side of her, looked up at her, then at each other, then back at their computer screens. Nothing was different, at least, to them.

Eighteen-year old Asher Kyndale looked around the room, then down into her pockets. Finally, the source of the weird feeling, her cell phone. There was a little message waiting for her on her phone. That was especially odd... she couldn't receive text messages at all!

She opened her phone, hiding it in her lap as she studied the wavering message.

She looked at the message, then closed her phone. Her mind raced as she considered how this could be... it didn't make ANY sense! A low growl left her lips as she pulled her hair,staring intently into the table the computers rested on. This wasn't right... whatever this was wasn't normal, and was probably dangerous.

"Mr George?"

Her tall, balding, and slightly temperamental teacher glared at her. "Yes, Asher?"

She looked at her sandal-clad feet, holding her hands behind her back. She had her trenchcoat on, draped loosely over her shoulders. The middle of November, and she was wearing a trenchcoat. At least the red tank top and black pants looked comfortable. A small gleam of silver shone from just under the material of her shirt, a cross-shaped bit of pure silver.

"I'm not feeling well... Can I go to the nurses office?"

He looked at her through thick glasses, then at the clock. There was only fifteen minutes left in class, and the remainder was meant to be used on writing, but she'd been done for hours.

"Fine, go ahead."

"Thank you, sir" She bowed enough to let her red hair fly a bit, then picked up her bag and slowly left the room. The second she was out of sight she ran for the exit door, about twenty feet away from her room.

"Point of no return" Asher whispered, pushing up her thin metal glasses up her nose with a shaking finger, before using that same hand to pull open the EXIT door, and step out into the world outside of high school, outside of her real life. Outside was an old silver Taurus, with the keys in the ignition. A tiny note left on the passengers seat said "Follow the signs on the dashboard."

"Well, that's odd." Asher muttered to herself, turning the key and listening as the engine turned over quietly. An odd feature for an old car. The marks on the dashboard were archaic, a mix of letters, street signs, and arrows.

An hour later, she'd finally reached the X that the dashboard had marked. She was in the middle of Iowa, with only a third of her tank left. It was only now that she'd realized what she had done. She'd left school! She'd stolen a car! Worse yet, she followed a map given to her on the DASHBOARD of an OLD CAR, and didn't even know who had left it! What the hell!

Thunk Honk Thunk Honk.

Every time she hit her head on the steering wheel, it would honk. After the fourth time, a shadowed figure, odd on a sunny day, knocked on her window.

She jumped, looking in horror to see who had scared the shit out of her. Her dark Hazel eyes looked up at the figure, unable to see his face due to the huge wreath of shadows that covered him from head to toe.

"What do you want?!" Asher demanded, furious that something so vague had startled her. It held up a shadowy arm, motioning for her to follow him.

"You're shitting me, right?" She growled. The creature said nothing, but it felt like he was gazing into her soul. Not good, she mused, then shrugged and allowed him to lead the way through the thick roads that paralleled the roads. The leaves crunched under her feet, the air crisp enough to chill one's blood, if one wasn't wrapped up tightly in a light coat. In other words, it was perfect to her. Yet, with this... thing in front of her, a part of her could never relax. She didn't really know who, or what he was... or even what he was going to do with her in the middle of a forest. She looked down at her phone, but it flashed a "no Signal" light at her.

"Look, shadow-thing. If you don't tell me why the hell I'm in the middle of the forest, I swear to god that I will--"

A house seemed to spring up out of the forest, looking worse for wear when surrounded by the dying trees.

"... Oh. Well. That... "

The shadow motioned for her to continue through the splattered sunlight and to the door. Something was in there, drawing her in... and he was giving her an extra push. She glared at him, then sighed and followed her instinct to go and see what something called her "destiny".

The gravel steps beneath her feet crumbled under the pressure, the house looked like it was just about to do the same. Years ago this must have been a stylish, well kept house... Her mind wandered as she considered what might have happened to the former owners... or what was awaiting her inside its murky darkness. She walked up the half-dozen deteriorating steps, glancing about the walkway. The porch in front of her had massive, gaping holes in front of her, with a reinforced path only along the way to the door. Even the door looked like it was about to cave in. There were no windows on the house... odd. Aren't there supposed to be windows? Asher thought, a thread of panic snaking through her mind. Something was here, and it was scaring the crap out of her...

The doorknob was ice cold under her hands, what was even more frightening is that she couldn't remember walking over the path and reaching for the door. Her hand twisted the handle, but was stuck against the knob as the door pulled her inwards. It released her and shut behind her, leaving her stranded in the dark with only a single pool of artificial light in the middle of the room in which a figure stood. A very, very familiar figure.

"Greetings, Asher. Take a seat."

A shadowy chair appeared under her, complete with armrests. The entire thing was comfortable, if a little creepy. She wanted to raise a hand and ask a question, but found that her arms couldn't move. It was like the chair was stealing her energy...

Her mind was reeling as she desperately tried to recognize the character in front of her... something was so familiar about him, something was driving her crazy, besides the faint glow that the cross around her neck emitted as the creature drew closer. He was a pale man, dressed in, surprise surprise, all black with the exception of a red dress shirt. It looked like a gothic tuxedo.

"You look... familiar..." Asher muttered to herself, peering through the shadows to try and see any details of the man's face. She could see the longish black hair, the dark eyes, and the bit of facial hair, but something hadn't clicked yet. He stepped closer, letting her see his face clearly in the light.

"I'm surprised you don't remember me, Ash"

It clicked.

"JASON!" She exclaimed, wishing she could reach up and hug him, but her arms were still held by the bonds of the chair. He apparently understood this, smiling as he placed his hand on her shoulder. As happy as she was to see him, she still felt like something had changed. "You've been gone for years! What... What happened to you?"

Jason smiled a sad smile, looking at her through his bangs. "Can't you feel it, Ash? I'm not human anymore."

Asher stared at the ground, feeling the hot sting of tears in her eyes. It wasn't fair, of all people... he...

"You're here for one reason, Asher. You only have one reason to be alive right now. He wants to see you."

She looked up. He?

"You're in danger, Asher... your former 'master' is the only reason I'm doing this... I'm sorry." He whispered into her ear, low enough that no one else could hear him.

Jason was suddenly behind her, gripping the chain of her cross necklace and pulling it towards him, pulling it against her skin and cutting off air. Asher made every idea she could think of to free herself without moving her hands, but Jason refused to release it until the chain broke, cutting the skin of her neck as the chain splintered into tiny pieces.

It was like dropping blood into a shark tank. She saw his eyes grow dark, as well as feel the other eyes upon her. Jason reached up and grabbed her hair, tilting her head away from the wound, opening her neck to whatever wished to grab the bounty. Her mind reeled as she felt the crimson liquid slide slowly down her throat, knowing that she had the full and complete attention of the small crowd. Mast-

Her vision flickered for a moment as she had a painful moment of realization. Her first boyfriend...

"Oh god..."

When she'd left him, he had told her that she would regret it.

That he'd return to her.

HE had been the voices in her nightmare...

A tongue on her neck brought her back to reality with a snap.

"Did you forget about me, Pet?" Jason purred, using the nickname that he knew was familiar. It was what her master had called her. The look she gave her captor was not a happy one.

"What does he want?"

Jason smiled. "Just a visit. He hasn't seen you in a while."

Asher closed her eyes and shrugged. "No way I can get out of this... " She looked up at him. "Lead me to him."