This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/WarFrequent on 2024-10-30 15:19:38+00:00.

I noticed this perhaps three weeks ago while brushing my teeth. My reflection was out of sync. Not by a massive amount, but enough to be noticeable.

I had just had a long day at work and simply thought my brain didn’t work. But it kept up the next morning. Same situation: teeth brushing, out of sync. 

I attempted to use the mirror in the downstairs bathroom. But here, when I smiled, I noticed my reflection took that extra half second for the lips to move. When I frowned, it was not quite right, as if this person frowning was not me, but another version of me.

This problem did not persist at work. At work the mirrors were functioning as usual. No delay. Nothing. So it is specific to my house.

It became a problem for me when I noticed a certain malicious glint in my reflection’s eye. It is hard to describe how a mirror image of you can be malicious, especially when they are ‘mirroring’ your expression, but it was as if the image were taunting me, as if it were playing a game and I was the victim.

I immediately went out and purchased new mirrors. While removing the mirrors and placing them beside the bin, I tried not to look, but I did catch a glimpse, just before they were taken away. They were smiling, the reflections, with teeth that were not my own.

The new mirrors did not improve my situation. If anything, the out-of-syncness, the delay, whatever you would call it, got worse. Now it was clear they were mocking my movements, almost as if they were pantomiming my life.

One evening, I couldn’t take it anymore. I took a hammer to my mirrors. I don’t know what took over me, but I went from room to room, smashing my mirrors, screaming at the top of my lungs. When the shards fell I got a true glimpse of them. A glimpse I do not want to describe here, but it terrified me. I collected the shards in a black bin bag, drove to the river and tossed it in. My heart was hammering when I returned home, but I slept that night better than I’d slept in days.

I thought then that I had rid myself of them. But this was not the case. They only became more ambitious, if that is the right word. I saw them in the reflections of my window panes or in the steel pans I use to cook. They are smiling there, of course, with the same rotten teeth. They know they’ve got me, I suspect. That the joke they’re playing is in full effect.

I’m writing this on my laptop. I went to the bathroom just now and when I came back, the screen reflected a pair of ugly gray hands perched upon my keys. As such, I can’t bring myself to write anymore. Please, if anybody else has ever suffered from this problem, can you write with advice. I think if it persists, I may go mad.