The last time I remember everything being normal was in January. My best friend (/roommate), Claire, and I had had a long hard week, so I made us some mac & cheese (with cheddar and gouda, Claire’s favourite) and she picked us up wine (boxed red, our usual budget selection), and we had a relaxing night getting tipsy while watching a movie sprawled out on our couch. I had some exciting news to share with her, but I wanted to wait until after she had let the stress of the day dissipate before talking about it. I knew she probably wouldn’t be as excited about the news as I was.
Claire and I had been best friends since middle school, so when we both got into the same university, it made perfect sense that we’d find a place together and become roommates. We had been living together for the entirety of our university years, so we had our end-of-week crash routine down: have a yummy, easy to make, dinner (nachos/pizza/mac & cheese etc. paired with a cheap wine) while watching a moody drama or a romcom.
Our favourite film era to choose from was the 90s - early 2000s. That night, we were feeling like indulging in moody (I think we figured red wine paired well with moody), so we picked Hamlet (2000)*. We sipped our wine and ate our food while enthusiastically murmuring our favourite lines alongside Ethan and Julia.
* Yes, we were both proud theatre nerds. We had acted in many school plays together over the years, including Hamlet (I played Rosencrantz and Claire was Guildenstern in our grade 11 production). While I had moved away from theatre to pursue engineering at university, Claire had continued with her love of performance and literature and was just finishing up an arts degree.
We finished watching the movie around midnight. Then I decided it was probably a good time to casually drop my news: I had been invited to a job interview with my favourite engineering firm in the city. It meant I could potentially be getting my dream job right after graduating.
But I was worried about telling Claire because I knew she had some stress building around what she was going to do after university; I feared her hearing about my interview would stir up those feelings.
But I wasn’t going to not tell her; she was my best friend and we always shared everything with each other. So I dropped the news as lightly as I could. I told her I didn’t expect anything to come of the interview and that I was just excited about having the opportunity to meet people at the firm (which was true, it would be very very difficult to get the job as it was very competitive). Claire gave me a big hug and was extremely supportive, telling me, “Of course they’ll want to hire you!” I could see in her eyes that something was bothering her though. I asked her if she was ok.
“You’re just so lucky you know what you want to do with your life,” she told me. “I have no idea what I’m going to do. It’s so hard to make it as an actor, I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to make a career of it. Maybe I could be a lit professor… but then I’d need another degree… Or maybe I should drive out to Tofino and try to get a job at a surf shop there. I don’t know… The closer I get to graduating, the more murky my path seems to be. I’m scared I’m never going to know what I should be doing. I honestly wish there was someone who could just tell me what to do…”
Then she tried to brush it off. “Sorry, sorry,” she said. “I don’t want to be a downer when you have such good news.”
“Don’t be silly,” I told her, “You’re not being a downer. You’re allowed to be stressed. We all have our ups and downs, Claire. Don’t worry. It’s ok if you don’t know what to do right now.”
Claire manoeuvred into levity. “But I want tooooooo!” she said with a pouty smile. Then she playfully fell to her knees and dramatically called out:
“O all you host of heaven! Just tell me what I’m supposed to do! O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else? And shall I couple hell?”
She laughed and I laughed along with her. Of course Claire would have a perfect way to segue into using a line from Hamlet! I gave her a hug and told her that she’d figure it all out soon. She’d always been so talented at whatever she put her mind to, and I had no doubt the right thing would come to her.
“Well, I know what I’m doing right at this particular moment, at least,” Claire replied. “The dishes!” she said, flashing a cheeky grin at me. I offered to help her, but she just waved me off to bed: “You made us dinner,” she told me, “of course you don’t need to do the dishes, you crazy person!”.
We were used to this dish duty dance. Even though the person who made the food was never expected to clean up, we always took our turns offering, even though we knew who was ultimately going to do the dishes. Under Claire’s enthusiastic usherance, I left for bed.
I had gotten into my pjs then realized I had forgotten my phone in the living room, so I came back into the living room. When I returned, I could see Claire looking into the large wall mirror, regarding her reflection. She no longer had on the smile she had when I had left her. She didn’t notice me until I picked up my phone from the couch. When she realized I was there, she turned around and started gathering up our dishes. “Have a good sleep!” she said with a smile. “You too!” I responded.
That’s when I first saw it, just out of the corner of my eye: flicker of a shadowed figure moving in the mirror by Claire’s reflection. But when I looked up into the mirror to examine it more closely, it was gone.
I looked around the room, trying to see what could’ve caused it, but there was nothing moving but the two of us. I chalked this vision up to too much wine.
I left the living room and was almost back at my bedroom when I heard, “Hello?”
It sounded like Claire.
I circled back to her. “Yes?” I said, poking my head back into the living room. Claire now had one hand on the mirror, looking into it. When she turned around to me, she looked confused.
“Did you call me,” I asked her. “No,” she replied, the look of confusion still there.
“Are you sure I can’t help with the dishes, Claire?” I asked.
“No, no, no, definitely not! I’ve got them! You go to bed. I can tell you’re tired,” Claire said. She seemed like her normal self again, and I was tired, so I obeyed.
In the morning, I got up and went to the kitchen. When I passed the living room, I saw Claire was there, still in the clothes she was wearing the night before. She looked exhausted.
“Did you stay here last night?” I asked her.
Claire nodded. “Oh, yeah. I was up really late talking with a friend,” she told me.
“Which friend?” I asked. Claire told me I didn’t know her. I thought that was strange; we share or know most of each other’s friends. But I didn’t remark on it. Maybe it was a new friend. Claire left the living room, telling me she was going to try and get some more sleep.
Then I noticed the dirty dinner dishes were still out. That was very unlike Claire. I picked them up and took them to the kitchen sink to clean them. It didn’t bother me though. It was just a few dishes, and they were very easy to clean.
But when I look back, that’s when I remember Claire’s odd behaviour first started.
I hardly noticed the change at first, to be honest. We were both so busy with school, we had papers and exams, and I had my job interview to prepare for…
But soon I realized that Claire was avoiding me more and more. We used to have tea together most mornings, but then I realized she always seemed to be sleeping late or leaving early. And instead of having dinners together, she was more frequently taking her food to her room, saying she was going to eat while studying and that she had to study alone. I was surprised when she missed two Friday night movie nights in a row, but then, when she had made excuses to skip three more, that’s when I really started worrying.
I started to watch Claire more closely.
She seemed really tired all the time. I realized she was definitely deliberately keeping to herself more. Whenever I invited her to hang out in the living room, she’d make an excuse as to why she had to be in her bedroom. And when I invited her out with our friends, she always chose to stay in. It really wasn’t like her.
Then I realized Claire was never eating around me. This took me longer to register because she was constantly making a lot of food in the kitchen. But when I started watching her more closely, I realized she never actually ate the food in front of me. When I saw she was becoming thinner, becoming weaker, I became extremely concerned. And I told her.
It was a Friday night and I had made nachos for the both of us. I had Ten Things I Hate About You ready to watch on the TV. I asked Claire if she wanted to come and join me. She said she was busy.
I asked her why we never hung out anymore.
She snapped at me, “We don’t need to hang out all the time. We’re just roommates.”
I had never heard Claire talk like that to me before. It shocked me.
“What’s going on with you, Claire?” I asked.
“What do you mean, what’s going on with me!?” She snapped back at me. Her voice was full of venom that I didn’t recognize.
Then, that’s when I saw her.
The woman in the mirror.
When Claire was talking to me, something in a mirror had caught my eye. My gaze had shifted to Claire’s reflection. Then there, in the mirror, beside Claire, I saw a waifish woman, dressed in black, whispering in Claire’s ear.
The sight of that woman nearly stopped my heart. She had cold eyes and one hand had a vice grip on Claire’s shoulder. I quickly looked back to Claire, who was standing right in front of me. But there was no woman beside her; she was standing there alone. My eyes flicked back to the mirror. The woman dressed in black was gone! Only Claire’s reflection remained.
I launched at the mirror, grabbing it up off the wall. I looked deep inside the reflection, moving it to see different angles, but the only people I could see in it were Claire and myself.
“What are you doing? What are you looking at?” Claire asked me, sharply.
“I… I thought I saw someone,” I told her, my eyes flicking between Claire and her reflection in the mirror, “I thought I saw someone talking to you. Whispering in your ear.”
“What?! You’re kidding, right? And you think I’m the one with the problem?” She said, before retreating into her room.
I was left alone, utterly bewildered. I looked into the mirror again, but all I could see was my own frantic expression looking back at me. I put the mirror back on the wall.
That night, I couldn’t sleep. Was I just imagining things…?
No! I knew what I had seen! I had seen that woman in the mirror.
But it didn’t make any sense…
Who was this woman? What was she??
I got up out of bed. I walked around each room, looking into each mirror individually, searching for a sight of that woman dressed in black. I willed her to be there while also deeply fearing that I’d catch sight of her again. But the woman was no where to be seen.
I got on my computer. I scoured the internet for any information on what could’ve caused that woman to appear in our mirror. I was awake all that night, but still I couldn’t find anything that matched what I had seen.
The next day, I went to the university library, looking for any books that could give me an answer. My search became all consuming as Claire continued to avoid me. By day I looked in the library, and by night I searched online. I tried to keep up with my school work in between, but I barely managed. Days rolled into each other. And I completely missed my job interview.
But I felt that didn’t matter. All that mattered was finding the woman dressed in black. Because I could see Claire was getting weaker in front of me, and I knew that woman I had seen had something to do with it.
As Claire became weaker and more worn out, she became slower to dodge me and less aware of where I was. One day, I saw her sitting in the living room with a plate of toast. She didn’t realize I was there, watching her, as I kept quiet and hidden from her view. I looked to Claire’s reflection in the living room mirror, and… there she was! The woman dressed in black! She was sitting right beside Claire.
I looked back to Claire on the couch. She was alone. But looking back to the mirror, I saw that woman was still there, in the reflection, beside her!
This time, the woman didn’t look waifish; she looked healthy and strong. Then, I realized why.
I watched as Claire brought a piece of toast up to her mouth - then stop short of eating it. I looked to her reflection, and watched as the woman dressed in black whispered in Claire’s ear. Then Claire moved the toast over to allow the woman to take a bite. I was shocked. I looked to Claire on the couch. Even though I couldn’t see anyone sitting beside Claire, I could see there had clearly been a bite taken out of her toast. But Claire wasn’t eating. I looked to the reflection again. The woman dressed in black was eating Claire’s food! I watched as the woman kept on eating, and as Claire’s food kept disappearing. Then I knew this was why Claire wasn’t eating in front of me. And why she was getting weaker. She had been feeding this woman her food this whole time!
I ran into the living room. “Stop!” I cried. “Claire, you have to eat. She’s taking all your food! She’s making you sick!” I told her.
Claire looked at me like I was crazy. “What’re talking about? Who’s eating my food? I’m just eating my breakfast. Look.” She showed me the half eaten toast.
“Her! The woman dressed in black! There!” I said, pointing to the the mirror. But as soon as I pointed, the woman was gone. Again, it was just Claire and I left in the mirror’s reflection.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you. You’re really freaking me out,” Claire told me, getting up to leave the living room.
“Claire!” I pleaded, “I’m trying to help you. There’s a woman in the mirror! She’s eating your food! I know you know she’s there. I saw you listening to her!”
But Claire just pushed me away. “You’re acting crazy, you know, saying things like that. Just stay away from me, ok!”
That night I deep dove into online research using my new information from that night. Finally, I was able to come across a reference to the woman dressed in black:
I learned she’s also known as the Shadow Woman, or the Whisperer, or the Mirror Demon.
She comes to her victims pretending she’s their friend. She tells them she can be their support for whatever they need and, if they listen to her, if they trust her completely, then she will be able to give them everything they desire. In return, all she needs is some food.
But she’s a manipulative liar. She doesn’t actually want to help. Her ultimate goal is to steal the life-force from her victims. If she is able to convince her victims to give her the food meant for them, then she can syphon away all their strength and spirit. This demon has no mercy and will continue to do this until her victim is dead.
Reading this absolutely terrified me. I had already seen the hold this demon had on Claire. I had seen how weak she had become. I didn’t know how I was going to get the demon away from her, but I knew I had to try everything I could. I couldn’t let this thing continue to hurt Claire. I couldn’t let it kill her!
I decided to try and make Claire’s favourite food: macaroni and cheese. Maybe, I thought, if I could entice her to eat a couple bites, that would help. Maybe it could give her some strength back and then, maybe, she’d talk to me. Maybe she’d let me help her.
I made it the way she liked it the most: with cheddar and gouda.
I placed mirrors all around the kitchen. I wanted to make sure I saw the woman dressed in black. I wanted to make sure Claire knew I saw her too.
When Claire came home, I was there, waiting for her with the macaroni and cheese. I offered her some on a plate, but Claire, immediately seeing the mirrors around her, tried to leave.
She told me, “I hate macaroni and cheese.”
That really made me fume. Claire had always loved my macaroni and cheese, and now she was saying she hated it. She was lying to me.
But then I looked to the mirrors around the room. And I saw the woman dressed in black was clutching tightly to Claire’s frail arm. I saw her whispering into Claire’s ear. And I saw the fear in Claire’s eyes.
So then I understood Claire was also telling me the truth. How could she like any food when the demon was forcing her to give it away? The fuming anger I felt turned to a feeling of sadness, but it boiled in my body just as intensely.
I told Claire straight out what I had learned about the woman dressed in black, the Mirror Demon, the Whisperer. I was telling this to Claire, but I was also talking directly to the woman dressed in black in the mirrors.
I watched the reflections as the woman glared at me, furious. She clutched Claire close and whispered in her ear.
“You’re making things up!” Claire told me. “There’s no demon talking to me. You’re crazy. I need you to leave me alone!”
In the reflections, I saw the woman whisper something else in Claire’s ear.
I cried out to Claire: “She’s speaking to you right now, I can see it. Look! In the mirrors. Claire, you can pretend this isn’t real, but you know we can both see her!”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Claire yelled at me. “Is this all because I don’t want to hang out with you anymore, isn’t it?!” she asked. “Why can’t you just see? I’m not hanging out anymore because I don’t want to! You’re not interesting. You bore me. You’re irritating to be around! I don’t want to be friends anymore! I JUST WANT YOU TO LEAVE ME ALONE!” Claire shouted at me.
I was stunned. I could see the woman dressed in black staring out from all the mirrors at me. Her look towards me was ferocious. But my eyes were just drawn to Claire, who was standing alone in front of me. She had expended too much energy and had to clutch onto a chair to steady herself.
“I know that woman is telling you to say that, “ I told her. “But it’s still you who’s saying it, Claire.”
I reached out to her. “Do you really believe what you’re saying?” I asked her.
I could see Claire’s eyes flick to the woman dressed in black. “Yes.” she replied to me, defiantly. But then I saw her register the tears in my eyes. “No,” she said. “I’m sorry. I’m so confused. I’m so tired. She’s confusing me”.
She actually admitted it! She admitted the woman dressed in black was there!
I was ecstatic! I started throwing down all the mirrors I had up in the kitchen. Smashing them one by one. I hardly noticed that my bare feet were being sliced by the sharp glass on the floor. I told Claire that we had to get rid of the woman dressed in black.
“No!” Claire said. “She’s my friend! She wants what’s best for me. She’s helping me!” she told me, pushing away from me. “This is why I didn’t tell you about her. She said you wouldn’t understand and you don’t. I need her!” Claire told me.
“You have other friends who want the best for you,” I told her. “Like me, Claire. I want what’s best for you.”
“Smashing the mirrors isn’t going to get rid of her,” Claire told me. I looked down to the shards on the ground and saw the woman dressed in black staring out at me from a hundred different angles.
I picked up my tray of macaroni. “Claire, I made this for you, because I know you like it. I made it for you. Not for her,” I told Claire.
Claire retreated into the living room. And I followed her. In hindsight, this was the worst thing I could’ve done. But at the time, I was desperate and exhausted and not thinking clearly.
I should’ve known that food was entirely entwined in Claire’s relationship with the woman dressed in black. And I should’ve known how dangerous that woman could be.
But at the time, it was all I could think of to help Claire and I was frantic. I put the macaroni on the coffee table and plunged a fork into it. I held out the full fork to Claire. “Just eat a bit, please!” I begged her.
Hope fluttered in me when Claire took the fork. But then my eye caught her reflection on the surface of the metal coffee table; the woman dressed in black was whispering to Claire again. Claire moved the fork over the the woman, letting her eat the macaroni.
Seeing that, I became livid. I was furious at the woman dressed in black, but I was also furious at Claire for listening to her.
“Stop feeding her!” I screamed. “Can’t you see she’s making you weak! She’s going to kill you!”
But Claire just stabbed the fork into the macaroni and kept feeding the woman. I looked to the mirror on the wall and watched in horror as Claire gave the woman forkful after forkful. “I have to feed her,” Claire told me. “If I don’t feed her, she’s not going to help me. She needs this food, I don’t.”
“Stop, Claire! Please!” I pulled the tray of food away from her. I could see exhaustion wash over Claire. She sunk down onto the couch, too weak to stand anymore.
I rushed over her, sitting beside her. “You need food,” I told her. Claire looked at me. Then she gave me a small nod.
She raised raised her fork to her mouth. Then her hand stopped.
I looked to the mirror. I could see the woman dressed in black was holding Claire’s hand in a strong grip; she was stopping the fork from going into her mouth. Claire tried to lean towards the fork to bite, but the woman dressed in black forcibly pulled Claire’s hand with the fork over to her own mouth and ate the food. Claire was too weak to resist her.
“No!” I yelled at the woman dressed in black. I grabbed the fork out of Claire’s hand. I stabbed the macaroni again and held it out to Claire. Claire leaned toward it again. But suddenly, she grabbed the fork- and stabbed it into my leg!
I screamed out in pain. Looking to the mirror, I saw the woman dressed in black holding Claire’s hand, holding the fork in my leg. She was looking directly at me, her cold eyes boring into me with malice.
I looked to Claire, whose face was horrified as mine. I pulled the fork out of my leg. And I went wild. Raging, I launched at the space beside Claire, the space I saw the woman dressed in black should be, based on her reflection.
But the fork was striking nothing. I was just swiping madly at empty air.
“Stop, please,” Claire begged me. “That’s not going to do anything.”
I looked to the mirror. The woman dressed in black was smirking at me. I picked up a chair and hurled it at the mirror, screaming: “LEAVE CLAIRE ALONE!” Glass shattered over me onto the floor.
Claire launched onto the ground to pick up a large shard. “She’s just trying to help me!” She told me. I saw Claire look desperately into the glass shard; I could see in the reflection that the woman dressed in black was whispering to her again.
“She’s trying to kill you, Claire,” I told her. “I don’t think I can stop her. But maybe you can?”
I saw the expression of the woman dressed in black change. I saw what looked like panic. Like fear. What I said must be true. She is beatable!
The woman dressed in black leaned in close to whisper to Claire.
“I need her,” Claire told me.
“Whatever she’s saying, she’s lying to you,” I told Claire. “Think about it. What is she doing for you except make you weaker?”
I saw Claire’s grip on her glass shard tighten.
Then she charged at me! Swiping the sharp shard at my throat. I managed to push her arm and dodge away, but then tripped over the coffee table, knocking both it and myself over. And then Claire was on top of me, again, trying to slash me! As I struggled to keep the shard from reaching me, I could see our reflections in the surface of the coffee table beside us. The woman dressed in black had control of Claire’s arms.
“Claire! You have to stop her!” I shouted.
I could see Claire trying, but then she said: “I can’t. I’m sorry.” The woman was strong. I could see the woman forcing the shard down towards my chest. I pulled away and turned just in time, getting just a slice on my shoulder instead of full impalement.
I tried to scramble away. But Claire clutched onto my ankle. Her hold was strong. I couldn’t get away. I looked to Claire. “Let go!” I said. I saw Claire’s face was terrified. But she couldn’t let go. The woman dressed in black wouldn’t let her.
Claire looked to the reflection of us in the coffee table. “Please,” spoke to the woman dressed in black, “Please, she’s my friend. I don’t want to hurt her!”
Then the woman whispered into her ear again. I saw Claire’s expression change from one of fear into one of resolution. “Ok,” she told the woman with a nod, “I understand. Bring her to me.”
Then the woman dressed in black used both of her hands to clutch around Claire’s hold on my ankle. She pulled. I tried to get away, but she was too strong- I was dragged across the floor towards Claire.
I looked to the reflection on the coffee table; me on the ground, Claire above me with the woman dressed in black in control. Then, in a swift movement, Claire slashed the shard-
Right across the throat of the woman dressed in black! My eyes were glued in shock to the reflection. Crimson blood sprayed over us all, over the floor, over everywhere. It sprayed and gushed until the woman dress in black fell to the ground.
Then, with her last remaining energy, the demon crawled away, leaving a thick streak of blood behind her. My eyes left the reflection, trying to follow her movement to see where she crawled. But I couldn’t see her anymore. Outside the reflection, her blood wasn’t visible either. Only smaller streaks of blood from where I’d cut my feet on the glass. But there was no carnage to be seen from the killing.
I picked up a shard of glass off the floor. I looked into the reflection, carrying it around with me to view all corners of the house. The woman dressed in black was no where to be seen.
“She’s gone,” I told Claire.
I found Claire sobbing, sitting on the couch.
“Are you ok?” I asked her, joining her.
“Yes,” she told me, “I’m just relieved.”
I looked to our reflection. Sitting together, the two of us covered head to toe in the demon’s blood, we were a disastrous sight. But I smiled. I hugged tightly on to Claire, and she hugged me back.
The woman dressed in black was gone, I thought.