“Do you always have to invite your friends?” Jenna complained. Her older sister was the life of the party and always had to crash whatever event she had planned with her friends.
Cassie frowned and put her hands on her hips. Her younger sister always tried to make trouble, whatever she went, it seemed. Irritating, but Cassie attempted to ignore it. But not this time, as Jenna had her friends over, occupying the kitchen.
“Why do you always have to invite your friends, Jenna?” She emphasized her sister’s name to make a point. Cassie sighed and shook her head. Twelve-year-old girls are little girls, after all.
“Oh shut up,” Jenna snapped. “My friends are here, and we’re making fudge and hot chocolate. You can go to your room or bathroom just fine, or do your stupid social media stuff.”
Cassie narrowed her eyes. “You little-“ she was cut off by her friend pulling her arm towards the living room. Cassie tried to break free, but her friend had an iron grip and pulled her away.
“Brenda, what-“ she started.
“Just ignore her,” her friend said. “We have a better idea of how to have fun.”
Cassie cocked her head in curiosity.
“And what is that?” Brenda brought out a book and a paper.
Cassie was confused.
“I don’t understand,” she said. Brenda called her other friends, and they came over.
“It’s called the mirror game.”
“The what?”
“You haven’t heard of it?” Trish, one of Cassie’s friends, chimed in.
“It’s supposed to be a game where you can talk to someone you know who’s dead.”
At that, Cassie’s curiosity peaked.
“Basically, you knock a certain amount of times and can contact someone,” Trish finished.
“Sounds like bullshit,” Margret, another friend, said. “But hey, got nothing better to do.”
So the girls decided to try it. Brenda read the paper. Cassie almost snorted when she saw it.
“Did you make this up?” she said sarcastically.
Brenda looked somewhat offended.
“No, I didn’t make this up. It’s on the internet. Some person on Insta said it worked.”
At that, the two other girls laughed at her.
“It’s definitely a fake, then,” Trish said. “I’m not wasting my time on that shit. I’d rather do something else.”
Cassie laughed too.
“Let’s just leave it be. I don’t think I want to waste my time, either.”
The three other girls soon left the room, leaving Brenda alone with the paper and the book.
Cassie, Margret, and Trish went into her bedroom to do a makeup tutorial video.
A few hours later, they decided to collect Brenda, feeling bad for their past reactions.
However, when they went to where she was, she wasn’t there anymore.
Cassie rolled her eyes and went to find her, assuming she went to hang out with her younger sister.
The three girls went to the kitchen, where Jenna and her friends sat watching YouTube. Fudge, hot chocolate, and a huge mess lay everywhere. Cassie opened her mouth to yell at her sister, but Trish stopped her.
“Brenda’s not here,” she said.
“What?” Cassie looked confused now. It didn’t make any sense.
“What do you mean, she’s not here?”
Marget scratched her ear in thought.
“I mean, she could have left. We were mean to her. Should call her house to check.”
So they did. Brenda’s mother picked up.
“She’s not here. I thought she was with you?” Cassie’s palms began to sweat, and she grew more concerned by the minute.
“She probably went out for a minute,” Cassie answered, not wanting to worry her friend’s mother.
“Let’s check outside,” she said. Jenna and her friends completely ignored, or couldn’t hear what was happening.
The girls stepped outside. It had gotten ugly, and cloudy outside, as if it was going to rain.
“I’ll check inside again,” Trish said. “You all look outside.”
Cassie walked some down the block but did not find her friend. As she and Marget returned, Trish returned with a pale face. Cassie gave her a concerned look.
“What’s wrong?” Trish gulped and pulled her friends inside.
“Look back at where Brenda was supposed to be,” she said nervously.
So the three girls looked there again. To their surprise, the paper and book were still there, and so was her bag.
“I..-I’m not sure she left,” she said. “We need to check everywhere.”
Closets, doors, and cupboards were opened, but no sign of Brenda. Cassie decided to check the bathroom to see if she was there. She wasn’t but as Cassie was leaving, she heard knocking. Confused, she stopped. Knocking? There were no windows inside the bathroom. Weird, has to be my imagination. As she turned to look, the bathroom mirror looked odd. Like it was cracked. Someone had broken it. There was red on it. She noted the shower curtain. It was shut. Cassie slowly walked over, hoping that whatever she was about to see was a joke.
“Brenda, if your fucking with us, tell us now. I don’t like this.” There was no answer. She heard the knocking again and swiftly swung the shower curtain open. And then she screamed.
Cassie ran to her friends and sister faster than she had ever run before.
“Get out! Get out of the house right now!” Jenna didn’t understand, but Cassie grabbed her arm and yanked her out fast. Her friends and her sister’s friends followed suit. They ran to the neighbor’s house and knocked over twenty times. Finally, they answered.
“Please, call the police!”
Approximately 20 minutes later, the police arrived and went into the bathroom.
One of them shook his head, looking sad. Then he called his buddy to search the outside and in.
Brenda lay on her side in the bathtub. Lacerations and blood seeping out from deep puncture wounds. Her neck was purple, and broken glass was on her face. The police searched the bathroom, but they found nothing much. The only clue left was footsteps that showed up under the blacklight.
The front door was discovered to be unlocked, even though Cassie swore she locked it earlier that day. Based on fingerprint data and other evidence, it was determined that Brenda had never played the mirror game that she brought. The police left later that day. Weeks later, the case turned cold. But Cassie believed who murdered Brenda was among those who visited the house that day, and her friend was trying to tell her something.
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