When I saw her again that day, smirking at me in the mirror “I know you. I walked with you once upon a dream, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar” I said, scared as I was. And although it is known that visions are seldom what they seem but I knew enough to know that there are some that never cease once begun. She wore my face but it were not I. Or was it? From a different time?

I forget.

I pull a cloth over the mirror but I hear her still faintly- clearer now that she knows I listen.

“I see you” she says. “I see you and I know you see me too

Sister.”

She torments me keeps me awake at nights or puts me to sleep for days at a time. I have begun losing sense of time. Where was I before she let me wake up? If only she would let me remember. Can I go back to being who I was before she revealed herself to me?

What are you trying to show me?

“I will show you where its dark, but have no fear”.

I am not afraid of the dark, I said. “You will be like you were when you first saw me, like you still are.”

Are you the dark? “Aren’t you?” She asked. I slept.

When I woke my head throbbed with pain so intense my jaw hurt. Slightest sounds crushed my skull like the blow of a hammer. And then it came. A flood. Thoughts. Images. Words. Music.

Warped and bent into one another like a melting colours on a canvas.

I don’t want to know this, take it away please, please! I begged and begged her. Until finally it dried as my tears did and I slept a long dreamless sleep of oblivion after a long time.

Months passed since my reflection changed in the mirror yet still, I look, wait, look from the corner of my eye- where are you?

I conjure every spell in the book- bathe in the new moon light, smear sandalwood on my skin, rosemary in my hair, burn candles, sage, cinnamon, agave, camphor, sip belladonna, move to the rhythm of my breath. I touch myself. Where are you? I slept.

“I will tell you things you don’t want to hear.

You see that barber? Go and ask him to peel your hair. Don’t ask why. You will know why.”

I wake up.

Is my mind playing tricks on me? They say forces beyond our understanding can take a hold over our mind at the peak of the new moon. They say it weakens the barriers between the realm of spirits and men. Truth be told, I’ve never felt the difference. I’ve always felt them moving among us. Is she one of them? Having her fun with me? One of the Devil’s servants? She wants me to give up my hair.

Why my hair? She does not reply.