The steam rose around me and wrapped my body in its warmth. Hot water massaged my head as I ran my fingers through my hair to strip it of soap. I closed my eyes and leaned back into the stream of clean water, bubbles running down my face and neck.

I gave a satisfied sigh and twisted the shower knob off, standing there for just a moment longer to relish the peacefulness. Reaching my hand passed the curtain, I gripped the thick towel and brought it into the warmth of my sanctuary. After breathing in the water vapor for just a moment, I pulled the curtain open and stepped over the tub, onto the plush bath mat. I wrapped the towel tightly around me and tucked the end under my arm.

I stopped in front of the mirror, running my hands through my wet hair, fingers catching the tangles. I looked up and my blood ran cold. A single handprint sat in the corner of my mirror. Backing away, my breath caught as the fingers dragged themselves through the moisture on the mirror. They stopped.

Leaning forward, I looked carefully at the prints. They were already beginning to fog up again. I grabbed my bathrobe and wrapped it tightly around me, dropping the towel at my feet. I tied the cord tightly at my waist, watching the prints. My blood felt thick in my body, circulating sluggishly from my heart to my toes.

Slowly, I reached my hand out to place my palm on the print. The mirror was warm and water dripped down it. I got closer, pressing my hand tighter.

The fingers wrapped around my hand. I gasped and tried to pull away. The hand gripped tighter and pulled me closer. My feet left the floor as my flailing body was dragged over the sink. And through the mirror. "Help me!" I screamed, hoping one of my neighbors could hear me.

Another hand burst through the mirror, snatching my other arm. In a quick motion, I was pulled into the mirror, shins scraping against the veneer of my counter. I toppled in, falling on top of myself and another body.

Pushing myself up, I stared into the face of another woman, whose hair was also damp and wrapped stringy around her face. 

"Who are you?" I breathed.

The woman clambered to her feet and ran. Out the bathroom door. I stood and looked around the familiar bathroom. The same sign that read, 'Soap - 5 cents' that hung over my towels was present, though this one was printed, 'stnec 5 - paoS.'

"Wait!" I called, running through the door. The woman came out of nowhere and jumped up onto my back.

"Please!" I cried, falling to the side. She gripped my hair and shoved it down my throat. Choking and gagging, I plunged my thumbs into her eyes. As she screamed, I felt hot pain explode in my corneas. I let go and fell backward, scurrying away from her. "What are you?" I said with a groan. My vision faded back and I saw her across her me, chest heaving. 

"Who are you?" I asked again.

"I am you," she said, voice gravelly. 

"How?" I said it warily, reading to run at any moment.

"I live in the Reflection," she said. Her dark eyes matched my own in fear. 

"What do you want?" I began to slide away from her, back to the bathroom. She watched me carefully. "I want you here," she said. "Join us."

"I need to go back," I said. She looked away and I stole the chance, leaping towards the door. I wrenched it wide open. I felt hands around my ankles and I fell, hands flying out to catch myself. I hit the floor hard and we both grunted in pain. She crawled over me, grabbing my hair again as if it were rope to assist her climb.

"Stop!"

"No."

I began to kick at her, every blow that landed on her sent pain in the same areas of my own body. My fingers went back and raked down her face, searing pain blazing across my face. She let go of my hair long enough for me to stand and put my hands through the mirror again. I climbed onto the counter to step through but she wrapped herself around me again.

"You can't!" she screamed. I fell forward in, taking her with me. We landed in my bathroom again. We were a tangle of wet flesh and cloth. Pushing her away, I ran out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. The door locked from the inside so all I could do was hang on tight to the knob. She twisted it hard, the handled making my hands ache.

She slapped the door with her hand in frustration and I could feel the sting in my own palm. "What do you want?" I called. "What do you really want?"

She stopped her battle against the door. She sat silent, panting. I waited, inching my ear closer to the door to hear her.

"Do you know why you fell through the mirror just now?" she said, quietly.

"Why?"

"Because I wasn't there to stop you," she said. "It's my job to stop you from entering the Reflection. You're not supposed to be in there."

"Then why did you drag me into it? If you're supposed to protect me, why are you trying to hurt me?"

"I'm tired," she said, voice muffled through the door. "I'm tired of mirroring you and saving you from yourself. Why are you always trying to get in?"

"I wasn't trying to go in," I said. "I was just, you know, putting my hands on the mirror."

She didn't answer. 

"It just instinct, I guess. We've all played games with the mirror. Staring into the mirror until our face morphs into the monsters we're afraid of," I said. "That's all. No one is aware that there's another side to our reflection."

Still holding tight to the doorknob, I glanced down at my shins and saw they were raw and bleeding, blood oozing down to my ankles. 

"What do we do now?" I said. There was no answer. There wasn't even a sound from inside the bathroom.

"Hello?" I said, knocking on the door. Slowly, I opened the door, watching for any sign of movement. As the door opened wide, I watched the shower curtain blowing in the breeze from the open window above the toilet.

"You mentioned staring at our face until we turned to monsters," she said from behind. I whirled around. She stood, matching red legs, at the front door.

I stepped closer to her, to get away from the mirror.

"When you look in the mirror, you think you're just staring at yourself, you vain creature. But when you look so carefully, you're not looking at yourself anymore. You're looking at me. That monster you see... is me." She lunged at me, shoving me to the ground. I fought back, ignoring the pain I inflicted. She pushed me back into the tub, my head slamming against the ceramic. I was dazed and tried to rub away the stars in my eyes.

She recovered sooner than I did and had me on my feet.

With strength I didn't know I had, she lifted me and dumped into the mirror. I fell onto her sink and rolled off. Scrambling to my feet, I watched as she took the towel rod and drove it right into the mirror. I covered my face, expecting it to hit my face. Instead, there was a shattering. I looked up and saw her face in little fragments of glass that stubbornly clung to the corners. She smiled and broke those pieces. 

I stood in a pile of glass and as I moved to the shower, my feet left bloody footprints. I turned on the shower and shed the ripped and grimy bathrobe. It crumpled into a pile at my feet. I stepped out of it and into the shower.

The steam rose around me and wrapped my body in its warmth. Hot water massaged my head as I ran my fingers through my hair to strip it of soap. I closed my eyes and leaned back into the stream of clean water, bubbles running down my face and neck.

There was a small mirror in the corner of the shower. I leaned forward, watching my face get closer. I reached out to put my hand through it. She shook her head and touched the mirror as well.