The Ghost in the Mirror

by Ayse Hafiza

  “Why?”

  “Because there is a little boy on the other side of the mirror who is going to be born in a month and he needs a life without her dominating it.”

  “What are you talking about?” asked Jane confused.

  “My unborn son Jane, I didn’t want Frank Junior to have to live his life looking over his shoulder,”

  Jane looked at him.

  “You did the right thing,” she said after a few minutes.

  He smiled and kissed her knowing this time she wouldn’t be snatched away from him.

  Both of them stood in front of the mirror, looking into his bedroom in the real world. He could see his mug on the table to the side of the mirror and his bed. He could also see the ghosts that lived in his bedroom.

  “They have a new saying in the real world,” Frank said to Jane.

  She looked at him, her blue doe eyes melted him every time, and his love for her pushed back the negative forces inside his blood to the farthest corners.

  “Really, what is this saying?”

  “That if you love someone, you should let them go,” Frank said looking at her, trying to see her reaction.

  “I offer you that. If you want to go back into the real world and carry on with your life Jane, you can go. I won’t keep you prisoner here,” he said offering her freedom.

  She looked to the floor, and he could see the crown of her brown hair.

  Using his index finger, he lifted her face by her chin. Her blue eyes were watery, and he felt his heart sink. Frank didn’t know what she thought about the real world. Or how much she missed her life before she met him.

  “I’ve waited all this time for you to rescue me, and now you think I want to leave you?”

  “It’s an option.”

  “Not one that I am willing to take.”

  23

  Portal

  Within their world inside the reflection, the sun broke out from behind the clouds. Jane went to the window and looked out. Frank stood behind her and slipped his arms around her waist. The rose bushes in the garden came into bloom and he remembered that things would flower for him. He could have stayed like that for a lifetime. The mirror had managed to rob his future, yes. But living in the mirror didn’t need to be that bad. At least now he held the woman that the really loved in his arms.

  “If we’re not going back, then we need to call back the ghosts that escaped from here,” Frank said.

  Jane nodded. She understood that the living needed their space and the dead needed theirs.

  Frank stood in front of the mirror.

  “I, Master of the Hamilton Coven, call all the ancestors and ghosts within the Hamilton Farm House back inside the world of the mirror.”

  Orbs of light passed him at speed.

  The temperature of the room dropped, and Frank knew they were listening.

  Heaven came and stood in front of the mirror, he beckoned to her.

  “I don’t want to come Frank,” said the young girl. “I need to stay and protect them.”

  “Heaven darling, the war is won. Protect them from what?” asked Frank wondering if there was negative energy that he had missed.

  “From anything that could hurt them,” said Heaven turning her head and looking out past the doorframe.

  “Everything that could hurt Sophie or Nevaeh has been dealt with. I promise you. You can live here with Jane and me.”

  The ghost of the girl looked into the mirror, and Jane smiled and beckoned her.

  “But what if they need me?” asked Heaven.

  He had always preferred this twin over the other, and he realized it was because she was never selfish.

  “They aren’t going to need you, but they are going to miss you. Nevaeh is going to grow into a young woman, and you will always be her sister, but you will never grow. Being in the world of the living isn’t the right place for you now.”

  She listened to his words, and after a short while, she nodded.

  “They will always love you, and you will always love them. I know you aren’t a Hamilton and you do not have to listen to me, but you will hold them back if you stay. They will never leave that house, they will never move on, they will search for you and they could unleash negativity.”

  She nodded again.

  “You died my dear, you were meant to pass on,” added Frank.

  She took a step back as she thought and watched the lights push past her into the mirror to where Frank stood, all the ghosts were returning. Heaven followed them climbing onto the table knocking over the mug with the dregs of his coffee. When she came through the mirror, Frank caught her and held her in a hug. He wished more than anything things had been different, and he had been able to save her when she fell from the cliff edge. But he knew that rescuing her wasn’t his destiny. Jane stepped over and smoothed Heaven’s hair. Wrapping her arms around the man she loved and a child he adored. When all the ghosts had passed through there was one last thing he needed to do, looking at the mirror he waited for the ripples on the surface to settle and for it to solidify, then he punched it hard.

  Cracking from the inside, he knew he had closed the portal to the lives of the Hamilton’s.

  Sophie had been teaching Nevaeh her lesson at the breakfast table. Ever since the disappearance of Mrs. Boswell, she had assumed the role of teacher and parent. Secretly she enjoyed it when there had been two girls she struggled to be anything more than stressed about how they would eat, how they would live their lives day to day. The closure of the commune had been the best thing to happen to her, and Frank and this house had been a godsend. She was grateful for her lot in life, even if Frank had been emotionally stunted, she knew that when the baby came he would be there for the boy.

  While watching Frank with her girls she had known that he would be a great Dad, and hopefully in time he would come back to her bed, and she would teach him what it meant to be in a real relationship.

  Sophie shuddered when she thought about the other men they had lived with, none of them had Frank’s presence or his natural leadership. The fact that he had helped them off the streets and they now ate the best of foods and had a roof over their heads gave her satisfaction. Sophie didn’t need grand romantic gestures, she just needed someone reliable who wanted to stick around. Frank hadn’t tried to compete for her attention, not like other men, and that had been his allure.

  She heard the loud bang and wondered what the noise was. Resting one hand on the banister, she called upstairs, “Frank. . .Frank?”

  There was no answer.

  She put one foot after the other on the stairs and slowly made her way up. His bedroom door was open, and that was strange. Sophie had grown used to the door being shut and Frank locked away behind it studying the old book he had brought home from Mrs. Boswell’s house.

  She stepped into his room and noticed his knocked over mug, she picked it up in her hand. Luckily the dregs hadn’t fallen out. They were settled in the bottom of the mug. She lifted her gaze to look in the mirror, the surface was broken. Like a beautiful cobweb, it looked like a bird had flown directly into the middle shattering it. She raised her hand to touch the surface but thought better of it, and pulled her hand away, she didn’t want to cut herself.

  “She’s gone,” said Nevaeh in the doorway.

  “Who?” asked Sophie.

  “Heaven. . .”

  Nevaeh ran into her mom’s arms and Sophie cuddled her as she led her out of the room. They would grieve again. Deep inside she knew that Frank was gone too, although she wouldn’t feel his loss that keenly because part of him was still inside her. As she walked down the stairs she rested her hand on her pregnant belly. Part of Frank would always be with her.

  Under the blades of grass deep below the layers of mud and rock, the curse licked its wounds. It had melted away from the magic of the Priestess of the Oban, but the Oban portion of the curse was not magic meant for Frank. The curse had been forged by the double-cross that the Oban’s were responsible for, their s
eparate deal with the Devil. Now the pledge of the Hamiltons had been revoked, the curse needed a new focus.

  With Frank being as powerful as he was, it was important that she hid among the foundation of the Isle until she was whole and strong again.

  Being defeated was shocking, centuries after she had been born she had been knocked out of her host, Priestess of the Oban, by some upstart of a male witch with unprecedented gifts which dictated the curses existence. The curse had been cheated, Frank promised it his unborn child and yet had no intention of giving it. Didn’t he know that making a deal with a curse was tantamount to making a deal with the Devil herself?

  Although it had no sway on the Hamiltons, they were free to procreate and be like the normal humans that witches had dominion over. The curse didn’t understand that emotion in witches. What was the point of pretending you are a sheep in wolves’ clothes? Other than to escape persecution, why would a witch choose to be mediocre?

  The curse traveled deep into the geology of the rocks, and there it sat and waited for itself to heal, regenerate and grow stronger.

  And it was there it felt the call of an Oban. The call tempted it, calling to its inner desire.

  The Oban clan would be its new victims. The curse was born of equal measure of Hamilton and Oban magic, and if Hamilton withdrew, then the Oban magic would be its next logical magnet. The curse knew what it needed to do.

  It raced up the cliff at such a speed that it caused a portion of it including the old fig tree to subside into the sea. Feeling the pull of the mirror, it traveled away from the stone farmhouse that had been its base for centuries.

  Back inside the broken mirror, it began to heal itself. When the mirrored surface reformed, the curse looked out on a room it didn’t recognize.

  That told it the humans had moved the mirror.

  Leaning against a wall, it saw a fabric sofa and faded wallpaper. The book of Hamilton witch spells was on a coffee table. It knew Frank had visited this house, a few times it could pick up on his signature inside the room. But what overwhelmed its senses was the distinct waft of Oban that emanated from every crevice inside the house, the curse in the mirror would take a while to adjust itself to the new scent. But when it smelled it, like a hound it had its target in its sights. It picked up an undertone in the scent. One which mixed the scent of an Oban and that of a Hamilton, the mirror had picked up on the scent of Audrey’s unborn baby.

  The curse chose its next target, after all. . .Frank had promised it a child.

  It settled itself, it would need to wait for a while to grow stronger, it was half the strength that it had ever been, but it would find the Oban witch who carried Frank’s child, and it would take that child from her.

  Whether he knew it or not, Frank would make good on his vow the curse promised itself.

  Also by Ayse Hafiza

  The Ghost in the Window

  The Ghost in the Mirror

  The Ghost in the Water

  Coming Soon - Mans End Trilogy

  Earth Extinct

  The Seven Gates of Hell

  Heavens End

  Have you read? -

  The Azrael Series

  The Jinn Series

  The Demon Series

  Afterword

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  About the Author

  I’m a Londoner born and raised from a proud family of authors, so I feel that becoming a writer was part of my destiny.

  As children without fail every night, Dad read us bedtime stories. Generally, Aesop’s, Anderson fairy tales, but he also told us colourful stories of Sultans, Emirs, and Maharanis. Daytime was for stories of Prophecy, and snapshots of the mystical world of the Jinn. Whereas, Mum took us to the library and made sure we always had a book in hand during the summer holidays. Both my parents cultivated a love of reading in me.

  After university, I was employed by leading technology brands. My work led me overseas on business trips where I was lucky enough to experience vastly different cultures and countries, and I’ve flown fully around the globe at least once.

  After I fell in love and married, my husband and I moved to Istanbul, where I really had a chance to put pen to paper. He is my biggest supporter and without his understanding, you wouldn't have read the words on this page. We moved to Istanbul, and we travel between the two historic and beautiful cities of London and Istanbul.

  For more information

  www.aysehafiza.co.uk

  mailbox@aysehafiza.co.uk