"Hey Annieeeeeee, want to come to an adventure?!" The cheeky face of Perry "Pop" Johnson stuck his head in through the window of Annie Hardy's front porch. He swivelled his head around to see if anyone was around. "I've told you before Perry Johnson, the next time you appear through that porch window will be the last time, you done made me spill my coffee!" Janice Porter, Annie's mothers' live-in carer, chuckled as she laboured her way through to her favourite chair in the weathered-looking sitting room before she sat down she turned and said, "Annie's upstairs, go on up and see her son".
Pop dashed in through the front door and flew up the stairs, taking them two at a time, he slammed against Annie's closed bedroom door, landing face down on her carpet. "Ouch," he muttered. He picked himself up and looked around the empty room. "Annie?" he peered out her bedroom door and tiptoed along the dark corridor, standing for a while to regard the only other closed door upstairs. "Annie?" he inquired, quietly. He placed a tentative hand on the doorknob and began to turn, just as he did the door flew open and Annie slipped out of the room into the hall. She made an "shhh" noise with her finger to her lips and they walked back to her bedroom and closed the door. "Sorry," said Pop, "Janice said you were up here, I just thought...". "It's OK," said Annie, her back was turned to him as she opened her double-doored wooden wardrobe and threw on a coat. "How's your mom?" he asked. "Fine" was all she could muster. She turned, keeping her awkward gaze on the bedroom carpet. Just as quick as the awkward encounter had started, it ended. "I've found something crazy cool" enthused Pop.
Although having just turned 15, Pop looked around 12. He was short for his age and his baby face didn't do him any favours at making up for it. His mother always told him he'd welcome it when he hit her age but he had never understood.
"OK," said Annie. She was quiet but, as was often the case, Pop's enthusiasm for whatever new idea was that day warmed her up. Although some of the teenagers in Scarville thought of him as childlike, Annie enjoyed the distraction his little schemes and adventures brought her. "Where are we going then?" she asked him. His excitement radiated throughout the room, he was speaking so fast he was incomprehensible but she got the gist. "...shediedandsomekidswereatherhouseandfoundthismirrorand...." "Cool", she said, "let's go".
They said their goodbyes to Janice and promised to be back for dinner. They made their way through the football-pitch-sized fields of corn which were adjacent to the back of Annie's garden and stopped at the precipice of the old railway line. "How much farther?" she asked him. "Only over the line and then through the tree's, that's where the house is," he said. He was still in a state of complete excitement.
He'd explained to her as they were walking that he'd been out for one of his "recce's" and had come across old Mrs Samson's abandoned house. When he was there he'd met two older kids who had told him that they'd been checking over the house for anything 'cool'. "They had backpacks of it, mainly old jewellery and stuff though" he'd said. Annie had thought this was pretty gross but Pop didn't seem to notice as he was bubbling over with his excitement to tell her the next part. The two kids had told him that in the loft of Mrs Samson's house they'd found a mirror and when you stood in front of it, it showed you your biggest fear. "Bullshit" she'd laughed. "They were having you on Pop! There's probably nothing but rats and mice in the loft, maybe some dusty china that was kept for a special occasion that never came." But he'd protested, the two kids had told him what they'd seen. "The first guy, Marlon, he'd saw himself standing on top of a high rise building, a huge gust of wind had hit him and he'd fallen from the top. He said he could feel the cold air as he was hurtling to the pavement, Annie." Pop's eyes bulged and Annie was slightly concerned they might fall out his head. She laughed again. "Pop, you ever wonder why it is that you end up in these sort of weird situations with people telling you odd things that have happened to you?" "NOPE" he replied marching with purpose onwards to the abandoned house. "So, the other guy, he'd saw himself trapped in a cage with massive snakes, he said he could feel it biting him!! Can you believe that?!" The two boys had explained how they had had to pull each other away from the mirror to stop the terrifying ordeal continuing. "Right, sure," said Annie sarcastically. She rolled her eyes at Pop but he was too caught up in his thoughts to notice.
They finally arrived in front of the old house. They stood together looking at the front door, which rested open. The house sat alone in front of the old commuting road which linked Scarville to the rest of American civilization. "Right, let's go find this magic mirror" snarked Annie. She was willing the sarcasm to dominate the fear creeping over her back and crawling into her ear. She'd thought this was just another one of Pop's usual silly adventures, something to do on a boring Sunday afternoon. But when she saw the house sat on its own in the middle of nowhere, crooked old front door sat open almost beckoning them in, something felt a little off to her.
They made their way in through the front porch and into a dark creaking hall. The wooden walls were bare and a small table with an old looking telephone next to it lay knocked over on the floor. "Through here" whispered Pop. His excitement had been usurped by fear and in the dark of the hall, his pale complexion looked ghostly.
They came to a set of wooden, makeshift stairs, 10 or so high which disappeared off into a pitch-black square hole in the ceiling. Pop turned to Annie, half smiling, half terrified and nodded his head. They both clambered up, one after another into a dusty, murky loft. Pop pulled out a small torch which illuminated the immediate foreground. Cobwebs and dust dominated their vision. They held hands, creeping into the darkness. Just as Annie was about to declare it was time to abort this particular adventure, she bumped into the back of Pop who had stopped dead in front of her. "Look" he whispered. He shone his torch in front of them, lighting up a giant mirror. It must have stood 7 foot tall and was facing away from them at a 90-degree angle. "Holy shit" Annie whispered. Pop began to nervously laugh.
They had decided that if they were going to do this, they needed a plan. Sat on the dark, dingy floor of the loft, whispering as they conspired, they had agreed that if either of them looked like they were in danger, that the other would grab them and pull them from in front of the mirror. As a failsafe, they had agreed that if they couldn't pull them away for whatever reason (Pop had offered the example of him being seduced by a female Vampire who looked like Angelina Jolie) then they would smash the mirror using a brick they had found lying on the floor.
"OK, here goes," said Pop. His voice shook nervously. He let go of Annie's hand and walked to face the giant mirror. For the first few seconds, he stood staring, his face unchanged staring deep into it, as if he were looking way into the distance. Annie, feeling as though she were sat alone on a deserted island, sat holding her breath only a few feet away. She couldn't take her eyes off him. Just then, Pop's face contorted in horror, he let out an ice tingling shriek, flicking at his face as though he'd just disturbed a beehive. He began to run on the spot, looking over his shoulder at nothing. He screamed. "GET THEM OFF ME, JESUS CHRIST, GET THEM OFF" he continued to run on the spot, picking up his pace. It looked to Annie as if he was running flat out but uncannily he stayed on the spot, thumping on the wooden floor beneath him. "ANNIE!!" he screamed, "PULL ME OUT, IT'S COMING!!" Annie was frozen to the spot, she tried to speak but her voice caught at the back of her throat. Regaining some control over her body, she slowly approaches Pop and just as he screamed "NOOOOOOOO" and covered his hands over his head she pushed him as hard as she could. He thudded to the floor out of the mirror's vision and the room fell silent.
"Pop?" asked Annie, in whispered tones. He groaned as he pulled himself to his feet. "I hate spiders, Annie," he said, fixing her with the most serious look Annie thought she had ever seen from him. "Spiders?" she asked. "They were all over me and this massive one was chasing after me, it was 8 feet tall with gigantic fangs!!!" his haunted face burst into an electric smile and he shook with elated laughter. It echoed all around them. "That was AWESOME" he shouted to the sky. Annie realised that her whole body was sore, she had been rigid with fear. As Pop excitedly recounted the giant spider chasing him through a jungle, his face and body covered with them, all shapes and colours, she exhaled and relaxed slightly. "That sounds horrible Pop, how can you even be laughing at that?" she asked him. He was giddy "Honestly Annie, it was awesome. Come on, I can't believe this thing works!!" She shook her head and proposed they leave, they'd tried it, it had worked and now it was time to go, she should get back for dinner. Pop was having none of it. "Come on Annie, it's your turn. It's not that bad at all and we can end it any time, I'll either push you or use the brick." He'd won her round. "OK," she conceded "but please, push me away from it as soon as I say" He held his hand to his head and sarcastically saluted her "aye, aye captain". She took a deep breath, turned her body and stood to face in front of the giant mirror.
After a few seconds of peering into the mirror, staring at her own reflection her vision became water-like, as if looking into a whirlpool, she felt dizzy as the mirror started to swirl round and round. She blacked out and after a few seconds, she slowly opened her eyes. She was lying on her back in a brightly lit room. She thought she was in bed which was confusing. Must have been a dream, she rationalised. Something niggled away at her hand, she grabbed at it to feel an IV tube snaking it's way beyond the side of the bed, looking down she could see she was wearing old looking traditional pyjamas. "Mom?" said a voice. She looked up to see four adults sat around the bed, two men and two women. They felt familiar to her but she couldn't place them. "Who are you?" she asked, she jerked up and sat facing them "Where am I?!" "Mom, it's me, Toby," said the oldest looking man, he took her hand and stroked it. "We're in the hospital remember? You've been here for 3 years now Mom, it's Mothers Day so we thought it'd be nice to have lunch with you." She was panicking now. "I don't like this Pop" she screamed. "NOOOOO!! POP!!!" I DON'T LIKE THIS!! NOT LIKE THIS" "There she goes again" sneered the other man "always talking about goddamn Pop, who even is he?" he was shaking his head and looking at the others around the bed. "No-one knows," said one of the women, "the nurses told me that she shouts for him at the same time every day, something about pulling her away." Annie felt faint and thought she was going to pass out, she screamed at the top of her lungs "POP!!! SMASH IT!!! SMASH IT NOW, POP!!
Pop, stood in the dark loft, had watched this whole ordeal unfold. He had watched her lie down in front of the mirror, pull out her hand involuntarily as if someone else was holding it and he'd watch her scream in horror, shouting his name over and over. He had tried to push her but every time he got next to the mirror he saw himself with a spider on his face and had gotten scared. As she began to scream for him to smash it, he about turned and made for the brick. He picked it up and with all his might he threw it as hard as he could at the mirror.
The four adults were attempting to soothe her as she spiralled further and further into a terrorised panic. Just then, a huge crash of glass rang out in the hospital ward and all four adults jumped in fright. "Sorry everyone," said a nurse as she slumped to her knees and began to pick up large shards of the test tubes she had dropped. "POP?!" shouted out Annie. "POP!!! ANSWER ME!!!" The four adults shook their head and slouched back down into their chairs. "man this is hard" said one of the men. "I know," said one of the women "But she looked after Grandma when she had the same, it's just something we need to do". Annie was crying, blubbering for Pop over and over through shallow breaths. "Mom, we're going to go now," said the oldest man "I'll come by next week" Annie looked up, feeling caged in a body she couldn't escape. "He said he would smash it" she repeated to them, over and over. "love you, Mom". They all took turns to kiss her on the cheek or cuddle and turned to leave.
As they were walking to the ward entrance she screamed at them with all her might. "HEY!!!!" they all turned, their faces stunned at the outburst. "Where's Pop?" she whispered, "we agreed he would smash it." Their heads all dropped as one and they turned away towards the entrance.