There was a small orphanage up the road from my house, and, as part of the top year at my school, it was my job to look after it with my friends, as it was short of staff. It was fun to see all those little kids having fun without knowledge of their parents, though we were warned not to mention mums or dads at all.

I was having so much fun with a little six year old called Bethany when she had to go and tell me about Life Before the Mirror. Here it is:

It was a cold, dark night, and all of the children in the orphanage were getting ready for bed. One child, Abbie, saw two men bringing in a tall package on wheels. Excited for the new things, she asked the teacher what it was, and was told that the school was finally getting its own mirror for those pesky girl teenagers and all their makeup. They were going to put it in the main hall for the night until somebody woke up and sorted it all out.

Abbie woke up in the middle of the night, and decided that she would be the one to sort it out, because she was the first one to wake up. She crept along the corridor until she found the double doors to the main hall. They creaked open, but no one seemed to hear it. There, in the centre was the mirror.

She wheeled it to the teenager's common room, and tore off the brown paper. But that was as much as they knew about the poor girl, because the next day she was nowhere to be seen.

Teachers searched the room from top to bottom. They went in and shut the door behind them so she couldn't escape, but when more adults went into the room, it was empty.

The head teacher was called to see what had happened. People were talking about what they were going to say to her as she entered. However, when they looked over to where she was next to the mirror, there was no one there. Legend had it that the only thing that remained of the head teacher, was a fading reflection in the mirror. To this day, the teenager's common room is locked, and those eight people are lost forever.

Of course, I didn't believe Bethany, but she suggested to check it out together on Sunday night when I was allowed to stay over, and I couldn't say no to her puppy dog eyes.

That Sunday night, I switched on my torch, and crept along the corridor with Bethany by my side. We found the key to the teenager's common room, and opened the door slowly and quietly. There it stood, the mirror, wrapped up in brown paper and tape. I searched the room while Bethany ripped off the paper. I regretted that decision when I heard Bethany's helpless cries.

"HELP ME! HAYLEY!"

I turned to see her being dragged into the mirror by a hand. A black hand. I looked at the mirror closely, and could just make out a fading reflection of the unfortunate girl, and could just about hear her screams.

I saw a silhouette of a person in the background behind me in the mirror, and realised that I had forgotten to close the door behind us. We were in big trouble now. I turned to see who it was, and before I noticed that there was nothing there, a black hand reached out of the mirror and pulled me in...

***

I woke up in Bethany's bed. Just a dream. I saw her on the floor, kicking and whimpering in her sleep. Poor girl. She was having nightmares too.

I didn't want to get up, but my body was somehow forced out of bed and into the teenager's common room. I did not want to be in that room after that dream. There were these weird people with skin as black as coal. The door slammed shut behind me. I looked at my reflection, and it winked at me.

"How do you like it in my world?" It said.

These people closed in on me, and I saw my reflection laughing, fangs dripping with blood...