Ghost in the Mirror (2)
Blaze, Pakistan
July 2005
This story starts when we were posted to Pindi. I was 12 years old. There were no army houses available and we had to rent one. The house is two storey, rather strangely built. The owners lived on the upper floor and we were supposed to move into the lower one. However for some reason they decided to live on the lower floor. As I mentioned before, the house wasn't built with much consideration.
We moved to this house located in street 15, Scheme 3, Chaklala. My sister and I got the room at left corner of the house while our brothers on the right side. The house had a rather sinister look and some of its areas seemed particularly haunted e.g. on the staircase one could feel someone or something standing right behind them, also, strange sounds were heard, like heavy things being dragged, people moving and running and sometimes that of an anklet.
Our room's window and the mirror were haunted. It so happened that one day as I stood in front of it brushing my hair (long and straight) I experienced a strange thing. Half of my image was mine; the other half seemed to belong to somebody else. This mirror is rather distorted, so I thought it was an optical illusion. But as I noticed, the other image had short curly hair, white pupil-less slightly red eyes (mine are dark brown) and a beard. I was slightly confused and turned to look at the window right behind it; no one there. As I looked closely, I moved my head from side to side. On one side was my own image, but on the other side was something truly terrible. I screamed and ran out of the room to my mom. She comforted me and told me to come with her. I was afraid but went inside; as I peered in the mirror, there was no one in there. I dismissed the idea from my mind considering I was having hallucinations. The next day, however, as I stood in front of the mirror, my whole image changed and that strange man leered at me. Again I ran out, convinced that it was not my imagination. At first mom was reluctant to believe, but after a few days our sweeper complained of a man following him around. He said, I cant do my work properly with him around me; although he was alone speaking to my mom with no one around him.
I began to see that man in every mirror or glass, even the ones on the cupboard. I was scared. In an attempt to end it we removed all the mirrors from the house but that man appeared in the cupboard glass; complete man in every single one. I didn't go there alone.
After a few months the problem ceased and mom put back the mirrors. I was rather reluctant to use them again but I did on the instructions of our religious leader. He told me to be brave and to face that man with courage, tell him that you are not afraid of him and he gave me some verses from Quran to recite whenever I see him. It so happened that my fear was so strong at that time that I couldn't recite them. I was scared out my wits. Then one day, I vowed that come what may, I will recite the verses.
That day, when I looked in the mirror, that man came and started to come out of it. True to my vow but terrified, I started reciting the verses. At first he seemed to be growing but then he started getting smaller and then started burning from the feet. As I watched, he burned and vanished and that was the end of the ghost in the mirror.
The experience is totally real and has nothing to do with imagination; also I am not very imaginative, come to that. It was very frightening and even now causes cold shivers to run down my spine.