MY KAYLIE MUSE HAS NEVER FELT STRONGER, AND I STILL NEED TO REWATCH THIS MOVIE, BUT HEY.

I'M HAPPY.

Right now, dear, that mirror can't get you. Oh, how wrong she was. But Kaylie didn't tell her that, frozen stiff when the gun moved against her face again. Tears were stinging her eyes, and she squeezed them shut to fight them back, refusing to look so weak right now. She had to stay strong, had to not break down. Tim should be home soon, how long had he been out of the damn house to get those fucking batteries? No matter, she could find a way to keep herself safe until he got back.

A whimper did manage to escape her in the end when she opened her eyes, but she let that be her only sign of fear. Her eyes still held the anger and obsession from when she first explained why she wanted to destroy the mirror. "What else can it do? To have the energy it needs, to first mess with your own mind and then kill you in the end, it kills plants. . . Kills animals, even." She briefly thought of Mason again, how he got so sick and then he was just. . . Gone.

"Once it has you in its grasp, it won't let go. A call to the outside world either occurs in your head or repeats a message you heard once before. . . No matter who you try to contact." All of those doctors they called, all of them with the same voice. The same message. "It doesn't take orders, okay? It doesn't take fucking orders!"

The Devil, the Devil resides in that mirror, and you've trapped yourself in this house with it. If those thoughts were for herself, the woman before her, or the both of them, Kaylie had no idea.

"I know you saw her. My mother. Her spirit, really, the image she held when the mirror took over in the end. . ."

Like a Mirror's Reflection || idlegossipandarchaeology

"Oh how terrifying it deflects golf clubs." She retorted sarcastically, eyes blazing as she pushed past Kaylie roughly, glancing at the hallway as if it may offer some sort of an answer. Her hold on the gun never once slackened, muscles taut as she grit her teeth and went on. "I am not leaving here without that mirror, especially not now." A smile crept onto River’s features, laughing deliriously.

“What else can it do Kaylie?” She took one shaky step towards the other woman and then another until suddenly she were dangerously close to her, breathing heavily at the thought of all the havoc she could cause with this in her possession. Better yet, it showed precisely what it’s victims didn’t want to see. Imagine what would happen of she left it with the Doctor. The perfect sort of revenge.

Her hand reached up once more, dragging the barrel of the gun along the side of Kaylie’s face, lifting a strand of ginger hair. “Right now dear, that mirror can’t get to you. But I can, so you’d best start talking.”

Oculus (2013)

Tim, look at me. I want you to promise me, that when we’re big and we’re strong, we will make this right. We have to kill that thing. For mom and dad.

Karen Gillan in Oculus ( 2013. )

We were just kids, we made up a scary story so we wouldn’t have to accept the fact that our father was a sick man who killed our mom.

x

Oculus (2013)

Oculus (2013)

I’ve met my demons and they are many. I’ve seen the devil, and he is me.

I’ve met my demons, I have many. I’ve seen the devil, he is me.

Oculus (2013)

Oculus (2013) "The purpose of today’s experiment is to prove that the object behind me, the Lasser Glass, is home to an observable, predictable, supernatural force. There’s no scientific equivalent for the word ‘haunted’, so we’ll just say this object is responsible for at least 45 deaths in the four centuries of its recorded existence."

Oculus

Kaylie jumped when she heard the gunfire, spinning around to face River as she messed with the camera, hurrying to turn it on and start recording.

"It defends itself. Always has. Tim and I already tried to smash it with golf clubs when we were kids and we knew we aimed at the fucking mirror, only to find we had been hitting the wall!" She was shaking, the grip on her camera tight, as if it was a lifeline. Hearing the gun go off nearly made her shut down, but she had to force herself to try and be strong, to not let this woman break her.

The mirror had already done that, anyway.

Turning so she could record bits of the room and see if anything they would see is real or not, Kaylie began to walk away from the door, trying to calm the heart currently hammering in her chest. "Look, I don't know why you want the Lasser Glass, but it's not going to just be taken and do what you want. Believe me, it will bring the ghosts of those it has killed, and it won't stop until you become one of them. That's why my brother and I have to destroy it, because it won't ever stop, because it took our parents from us!" At that, she spun around to face River again, her eyes wild with hate and obsession. "And now you're stuck here. Go on. Try calling someone. Tell me exactly what you hear on the fucking phone. You'll think you're outside sometimes, but then you'll see that you're inside. That the mirror is making you wonder where you really are."

She slammed her fist against the corner of the wall, walking into the kitchen and setting down the camera. It was all too much. She was fine with just the mirror, but now with this woman here, too? And her mother. . . She hadn't expected the mirror to show her mother. . .

"The Lasser Glass will show you things you don't want to see. . . All to destroy you."

Like a Mirror's Reflection || idlegossipandarchaeology

Her head whipped around with lightening fast reflexes, giving Kaylie a look that was somewhere between amusement and wariness.

“Now, now dear, you’re not going anywhere are you? Not unless I say so.” She held up the gun again, angling it just slightly as she calculated where to shoot. Nothing fatal, not yet.

That was when it happened again. That curious sensation that she were being watched. Frowning now, River cast the other woman one final glare through the flickering lights, before spinning around to face the opposite wall. The sight didn’t terrify her as it did Kaylie, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t the least bit affected. A woman stood there, or rather, the grotesque remains of one. A normal person might have screamed and vacated the room as the hurried footsteps behind her alluded to. Instead, River smirked, turning away to glance at the mirror. Her eyes wavered over the blank glassy surface. “Hello there. Finally ready to play are you?” With a wicked grin she turned, casting the dead woman a look as she moved towards her. The grin faded soon after as of course River raised the gun and fired, the sound reverberating through the room. The bullet however, simply melted out of existence as if submerged in acid.

River blinked, cursing. “Well someone doesn’t play fair.” With that she was forced to turn, to run out the room, heart hammering in her chest as she heard the heavy footfalls behind her, the ragged breaths. For the first time she did feel fear. The barest traces of it.

"Fine, we’ll try things your way!" She hissed, as soon as she had made it out the door, helping Kaylie in shutting it behind her. It couldn’t be shot. That was an inconvenience.

She hated the fact that she was slowly beginning to break, that she was whimpering from just the barrel of a gun brushing against her skin. It was like she was a child again, fearing that her mother or father would kill her, that she would die. And now she was fearing death once more.

Kaylie trembled when the gun was pressed to her temple. She squeezed her eyes shut, ignoring the rest of the video, ignoring the lights as they flickered. Upon opening them again, she nearly screamed.

              "M-Mom. . ."

While River was focusing on the lights, Kaylie was staring at the image of her mother, leaning heavily against the wall, hair still ruined and teeth still missing, blood caking torn lips from when she would be eating plates and pots. Her eyes darted to see that, yes, they were still bloodstained, still curled as if ready to be claws to wrap around her throat once more.

            Should you claim                       My staring eyes                                             My soul you hold, f o r e v e r m o r e

The lights ceased flickering, dimming a bit. Kaylie stumbled away from where she sat, away from the videos that made it look like she and her brother were faking what the mirror does, when they were actually in the other room at the time. "G-get out of the room," she said, forcing herself to keep her voice steady when she spoke again. "Get out, now! Do it!" She turned to River, pushing her to the door. "We can't stay in this room right now, we just can't!" She made sure to grab one of her cameras before leaving the room, shutting the door behind them. Glancing around, she sighed. "Plants are dead. Of course."

Like a Mirror's Reflection || idlegossipandarchaeology

She laughed harshly at that, wrenching Kaylie’s head back once more, her wrist twisting sharply to further the pain as she ran the cool metal barrel down the side of the woman’s face.

              “I can make it stop Kaylie, in fact,”

River paused there, finger brushing against the trigger once more as slowly, she raised the gun, pressing it against Kaylie’s temple.

            “I can end it for you right now.                       All you have to do,                                             is ask.”

She cocked her head to the side thoughtfully, about to pull back the trigger. Already she could hear the gunshot and smell that inevitable pungent odour of smoke. So too did her imagination run wild at the thought of blood and brains spilling onto the walls.

The moment never came however. Instead, her attention was drawn to the flickering lights, each of them flashing on and off in some sort of synchronised pattern. With a snarl River moved away from Kaylie, the gun still firmly clenched in her hands as she strode towards the nearest light. She rapped sharply upon it with the handle of the gun, ignoring the crinkling sensation on the back of her neck.