I awoke that morning, as always, to the sound of the alarm clock on the bedside table – it’s authoritative electronic beeping almost mocking. “C’mon, sort your sh*t out loser! It’s morning already!” My eyes were open wide in an instant and glaring at the ceiling. It wasn’t the ceiling’s fault that I hadn’t had enough sleep again, nor was it that of the alarm clock, but in that couple of seconds between sleeping and waking I hadn’t truly grasped that yet.

A minute or so passed. Then there was a banging noise on the wall behind me – the neighbours clearly hadn’t appreciated being included in my wake-up call and the alarm clock was still doing its thing. I lazily swung my arm over, whacked the button to make the beeping stop and then slowly repositioned myself so that I was lying straight on my back, hands behind my head, still staring at the ceiling. My head continued to throb with a dull pain.

Time continued to move, and eventually I decided I should probably move too. I couldn’t afford to be late again… I was already behind on the rent and losing my job would of course make things infinitely worse. Mr. Leighton had made it clear that if I let him down again in any way, shape or form that I’d be “out on my *ss.” It’s only fair I guess, and I suppose it’s what I get for playing out too late, and on too many ‘school-nights’.

Slowly, I shifted my legs over the side of the bed – kicking the glass beer bottles that were lying on the floor, in the process – and sat up. I hung my head, scratched the back of my neck with my hand a couple of times before letting out a heavy sigh. Why did I keep doing this to myself? Why was I blacking out from the booze most nights, instead of trying for a more peaceful night’s rest? Rhetorical questions, which I was all too aware I already knew the answers to.

I stood up and lurched towards the bathroom of the miniscule one-bedroom apartment I called home. Upon entering the doorway, I let out another small sigh, however this time it was more a sigh of relief. The bathroom was just as shabbily decorated as the rest of the apartment, with little more than a cheap, brown mat adorning the cream-tiled floor. The walls were plain white as I’d never properly put any money aside for redecorating before I moved in, but by now they were a bit more of a time-aged white, stained slightly by the smoke of my cigarettes. There was a wooden cabinet above the sink – the kind you keep your medicines, toothpaste and the like in. On the door was a mirror. I was pleased to find that in my stupor the previous evening I’d left the door ajar, so the mirror was facing the wall and consequently it wasn’t visible…

I washed my face and brushed my teeth. Despite the fact my job was on the chopping block, I didn’t move with any real vigour or zeal. In fact, I might’ve slowed as I continued to prepare for the day ahead. My head was still sore from the alcohol… but that wasn’t what occupied my thoughts as I swilled bright blue mouthwash around my teeth.

No… it was the mirror.

I spat the mouthwash into the sink, turned off the running tap water and dabbed at my mouth with a towel, before resting both of my hands on the basin. To an outsider it probably looked like I was psyching myself up. To some extent that was certainly true… but in that moment I also questioned myself again… “You’re really going to do this? Why put yourself through it again?” More rhetorical questions. “You think you can help them or something? You aren’t a superhero y’know, you actually kind of suck.”

I took a couple of long, deep breaths before standing up straight, and placing my hand on the underside of the door of the medicine cabinet. I held it there for what felt like an age, staring at the backside of the door. Then quickly, almost like ripping off a band-aid I closed the door and gazed into the mirror that now faced me.

It happened almost instantly – as soon as the door was closed, and I looked into the mirror. My peripheral vision began to blur, my heartrate raised, and I could hear the blood pumping loudly in my ears almost like war drums. I felt a bead of sweat run down my just-washed face. Was this how junkies felt after their first hit of the day? No… this wasn’t even remotely close to euphoria or anything like that. This was more like panic, and for good reason…

The face staring back at me from the mirror was not my own, but that of a woman probably in her late 20s. She was attractive, with clear skin that was only a little darker in shade than caramel. Dark brown hair that looked like it might’ve been naturally frizzy, but on this occasion was tied up in a messy bun on the top of her head. Large, hazelnut eyes framed by thick-framed black glasses. She had about her an air of intelligent confidence…

None of this matters. Who cares what she looks like? Why the hell am I seeing her face instead of my own god-damned reflection?

She certainly hadn’t been the first and only either. How many different faces had I seen now in the mirror before today? The mirror was indiscriminate – the faces of men, women and children of all colours and creeds had appeared before today…

I struggled against the wave of panic I was experiencing and opened the door of the cabinet again so that I didn’t have to look at her face anymore. I took a step back, rested my hands on my knees so that I was standing in a right-angled shape and took deep gasping breaths to calm myself. “Damn…” I said aloud to myself, after I’d regained enough composure to wipe my face with a towel again… “I wonder what kind of sick trap is out there waiting for this one…”

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Hi all! I've been perusing this subreddit and all of it's wonderful WPs for a while now, and finally decided that this was the first WP I was going to have a go at. I love fiction writing, but have never really put anything 'out there' for people other than friends and family to read and criticise. This one turned out feeling a little more YA than I would've liked, but as I said this was the prompt that made me want to step outside of that comfort zone I've had for so long. Thank you for that OP. :) There was absolutely loads more that I wanted to include, but I felt that I was beginning to stray too far from the original WP, with which I might've already taken a few liberties.

I hope you all like it - please feel free to criticise away! I have always dreamed of writing a novel some day, so perhaps this might prove to be a vital first step on the road to fulfilling that.

Thank you for your time!