It happens mostly at night. I can hear the sound of their skin peeling off their teeth as their lips curl. I don’t know what they are. But I know what they sound like. I’ve seen them. Standing in the corners. Where it is dark. It almost looks as if it is facing backwards. And maybe it is. Or maybe it has mouths on both ends. I never found out. But I know that there’s a sound they make when they do smile. I hear it. I even saw it once. These……..Mimics.
It was in my room when it happened.
Stick thin and hugging my coat rack. I could hardly make out its shape in the dark. And when I looked directly at it. The Mimic smiled. It sounded like a door creaking. They would usually do this for several minutes. Smile. And then watch me until I fell asleep. But this time something was different. My fire detector blinked red three times and beeped. It was the first time I ever saw one of them move after smiling.
The Mimic tilted its head and stopped smiling. We both waited without moving again. Not until the alarm beeped again. This caused the Mimic to smile, except this time as its lips spread. I heard a beep. The sound was wrong. And I think it knew this because it suddenly stopped smiling, and we waited again.
The smoke detector beeped.
The Mimic smiled, “Beep.”
It sounded closer this time.
We waited.
I could hear the air in my room.
The red light blinked. One. Two. “Beep.”
It then got close to my face. Closer than any of them had before. And it beeped again.
I could hear footsteps coming from outside in the hallway. I only took my eyes off the Mimic for a second to look. But it was gone as my Mom threw open my door. I started crying before she could yell at me for not hearing that noise. “What? Did you want to die from getting burned up,” she asked me. “Quit crying.”
For the most part. The Mimics go away if I can find other people. Though sometimes they have gotten close. They also don’t like the sunlight, even if there are enough shadows for them to hide in. And it seems like no one else can see them.
But then something changed. I don’t know if it came from our side or theirs. But one of them started behaving differently. Broke all the rules. If there were ever rules to begin with.
It started one day when I noticed a Mimic standing near my school. I watched it walk into a small gap that was between two temporary classrooms that had been setup. We weren’t allowed to squeeze through it, but most of us did anyways. The old pop up buildings had been there for ages. And it was the fastest way to get through campus, without having to go all the way around. Some of the younger teachers even admitted to doing the same thing when they were students here. So that rule of keeping out, wasn’t exactly enforced. Not until what happened.
This one kid. Reggie. I didn’t know him too well. Was up first. I tried to warn him. Tell him not to go. But he didn’t listen. I even threatened to tell the teachers on him. But all that did was turn everyone against me.
Someone pushed me down. And yanked on my backpack.
I was picking the small rocks from where the ground scraped up my hand. Some of them were stuck against the pieces of dead skin that made it look as if I were peeling. There was blood forming in the deeper layer. I could see it. And then a breathing. Except the breathing wasn’t mine. I could hear the panic when Reggie called out, “Hey.” Hear him struggling. “I’m stuck.”
“What?”
“Come on.”
“Hurry up.”
Reggie flailed his arms. I could hear his elbows striking the hollow wood buildings.
“What are you doing,” someone else complained.
Reggie’s head turned as far as his body would allow. I could see him finally realizing the situation he was in. The Mimic was pressed against him. Not letting him through, or back out.
“What are you doing?” The others asked in confusion. One of the girls near the back of the line left.
“Come on,” a tall curly haired kid said. “We’re going to be late for class.” He pushed forward and cut the line.
The other kids crowded around the opening in a half circle as the curly haired boy disappeared inside.
“Hey! Let me go man!”
“Get out of the way,” the taller kid complained. “I said move!”
“I can’t! What the hell is wrong with you,” Reggie screamed. “I told you. I’m stuck!”
The taller kid pulled on Reggie’s leg. “Get down you fucking dipshit.”
Reggie yelped.
I could hear the two of them struggling inside. By now more kids had come. From the distance I could see Ms. Marin rushing over. More kids following behind her.
“Put your hands down,” the taller boy yelled at Reggie.
“I can’t!”
There were so many people now that I couldn’t see inside the gap anymore. Especially not when Ms. Marin finally came over and tried to reach her hand inside. She kept yelling, “Give me space.” As the other kids swarmed her.
She didn’t have to say it for long.
Because someone screamed. And then everyone ran.
Ms. Marin was the only person left standing there, and she was covered in blood. Her entire blouse was a bright red, and all the color was drained from her face as she pressed her cheek against the side of the building. Her arm still halfway in it.
When the police finally arrived. They were able to pull out the bodies. Reggie wasn’t dead. But he might as well have been. The way he looked. The way he hasn’t talked since.
I’ve slept with all of my lights on after that. Terriffied; I hide a flashlight under my pillow. But perhaps I wasn’t scared enough. Because I let it catch me in the dark.
My cousin had invited me to a sleep over. It was only the two of us, and she was a heavy sleeper.
Meanwhile I woke up at every sound.
And it was some time past 2 O’Clock when the TV is still, and the screen asks in a lonely glow, if we wanted to play the next movie. When I saw it standing in the corner of the living room. It wasn’t my house, but I was familiar enough ‘ to know that there was suppose to be nothing in that corner. But it wasn’t the surprise of seeing a Mimic that made me wish I would die. No. That already terrifies me. It was seeing the One from school.
I recognized this One immediately. How wouldn’t I? Its image has been permanently scarred into my brain. Every side eye. Creature hurry. Parent doorway standing. Younger sibling sneaking. Shadow. Reminded me of this particular Mimic. And I knew it was this one. Because the way it moved. Its size. It was much wider than any of the others. And the feeling of dread that locks me in place. Too afraid to move a muscle. Waiting for me to run out of air until my lungs gasp like an inaudible scream.
The Mimic looked at me. It opened its mouth. But it didn’t smile. Instead a low hissing returned. And I knew. That must have been what I sounded like.
All I could do was beg when it came toward me. I must have screamed loud enough because it woke up my cousin. This mimic didn’t even care. It threw her aside. She hit the wall. I could hear her skull crush. It was so loud that I heard my uncle getting out of bed. The light clicked on upstairs. The Mimic froze
“What are you girls doing down there?”
I wanted to scream.
The Mimic tilted its head a little towards the stairs. And in my cousin’s voice it said, “Nothing daddy. We’re just getting ready to go to sleep.”
“Alright. Now. Get to sleep. Don’t make me come down there.”
The Mimic smiled, “Don’t worry! We won’t make a sound.”
I heard my uncle talking. But my eardrums were pounding in my head. I couldn’t hear what he said. The light clicked off, because suddenly it was dark again. And the Mimic just looked at me the entire time as it backed away. Smiling. Slowly going back into a corner. Further. Until its mouth closed.
I was afraid it would come back if I didn’t keep its word. If I made a sound. So I crawled back into my sleeping bag. And laid there on my side. Awake the entire time. Even as the sun came up. My aunt coming down the stairs. Bacon. The dog licking the side of my cousin’s bleeding head. And the screaming. When they found my cousin dead.
After that night. The One from school would come to my room. Every day. Locking me inside as much as it could. Isolating me in my house. Keeping my parents on the other side of the door. Smiling the entire time they tried to talk to me. “I don’t want to talk. No! I’m fine. I said I was Fine,” it would say in my own voice. Things I never mean.
First the Mimic spread a rumor. My dad was the only one who heard it.
“Uncle Jonnie came downstairs that night.”
“Yeah. He came downstairs to check on you. Honey. Can you open the door?”
“Yeah. He came downstairs to yell at us.”
“What? Honey. Come on. Open the door.” He paused. “Yelled at you guys for what?”
“That we had to keep his secret.”
I could almost picture him on the other side. The way the words rolled slowly out of his mouth. “What secret?”
“That he came downstairs twice.”
Then it made me sound as if I hated my parents. For weeks. Cursing at them through the door. Blaming them. Laughing, and screaming. Smiling.
And then it did something to me. In the morning. Months after our family had begun tearing apart. Nothing but yelling and arguing. So much that when the Mimic did let me out of my room. I couldn’t stand it anymore. And started yelling it all back. Like my mind had become so consumed by the Mimic’s sound of my own voice that I started speaking the words it had been saying. And that’s when the Mimic knew it had me. That’s when it knew to pick up the phone and call my mom one day when no one was home.
“I’m sorry mom. Good bye.”
That was all it said before I blacked out.
When I woke up, the doctor said I had incredibly long lacerations up my arm. I had missed major arteries but I still lost a lot of blood.
And when they asked me what happened. No one believed a single word. They all thought I was crazy. Several times in fact, I tried to show them the Mimic responsible. Tried to explain to them that it wasn’t me who said any of those horrible things. Or did anything to myself. But none of it worked.
Shortly after my hospitalization, my parents had me admitted.
It was some weeks inside. I can’t remember it’s difficult to track time here. When I finally saw one again. It moved slower. And was smaller than the the One from school. But there was a girl nearby. Sitting in a rounded lounger. That caught my attention. She was staring directly at the corner where the Mimic was standing. Staring it right in the eyes.
I turned to her and asked, “Can you see them too.”
She looked around, almost as if shaking her head. “Yes.”
“You can see them,” I almost cried. “How long have you been able to see them?”
“Years.” Her head jerked erratically as she tried not to concentrate on them in the corner.
“What are they? Do you know?”
Her head kept shaking.
“Have you been able to figure anything out? Do you have any advice?”
And for the first time since the Mimic appeared. This girl stopped moving. She turned to look at me and said, “Don’t smile back.”