Do Not Touch
by
Samantha Brooke
WARNING! DO NOT
TOUCH! This exhibit is cursed, and
has brought great misfortune and harm upon people in the past. For your own
safety, please do not attempt to touch it. Taking photographs of the exhibit is
also prohibited. Thank you for your understanding.
“That is so
lame,” Amy scoffed. “Why would they put up a dumb sign like that?”
“They've
obviously just made it up to try and get this place a bit of publicity,” Claire
said. She scuffed the toe of her trainer upon the hard floor and shrugged,
looking around. “Let's face it, they're not exactly attracting many visitors,
are they?”
A wicked grin
spread across Amy's face then. “You know what would be fun? If one of us
touched it! We can film ourselves doing it.”
“That doesn't
sound fun to me,” Harry said, sullenly. He was only there reluctantly, the two
girls having dragged him along. If it wasn't for the fact that he fancied
Claire, and was trying to impress her, he would not have been there at all. “Why
don't we just go and grab some food, and then head to the cinema? They're
showing that new horror film.”
“Ugh.
Boring... “ Amy dismissed the suggestion with an impatient wave of her hand. “No
- we're doing this.”
“But – “
“Unless you're
too scared, of course?” she cut across him as he tried to protest. His gaze
flickered towards Claire, who was watching them both with amusement. Her left
eyebrow quirked up, challenging him with the gesture.
“Of course I'm
not scared, he snorted. Get your cameras ready.”
Amy whooped
triumphantly, while Claire laughed. Feeling emboldened, Harry stepped closer to
the exhibit. It was enclosed by a glass covering - so he reached out and lifted
the transparent box away, revealing the piece itself. Beside him, both girls
had their phones out, pointing right at him.
“It doesn't
look like anything special to me,” he said, with a deliberate display of
bravado. “It's just a scruffy old mirror.”
“It's
definitely ugly,” Claire agreed. “I wouldn't want that thing in my house.”
“Go on, then -
touch it,” Amy said.
Harry felt his
heart quicken despite himself. Determined not to show his trepidation, however,
he reached out his fingers towards the surface of the age-spotted glass. He
could see his own reflection looking back at him as he did so, the image
slightly distorted for some reason. He frowned, his fingers brushing against
the mirror. It felt icy cold to the touch...
Both girls
cheered - but they were interrupted by a sudden, loud yell from across the
room.
“Hey - stop
that! Don't touch the mirror!”
Harry looked
up with a gasp. One of the uniformed museum workers had entered and was now
striding towards them, looking angry.
“Run,” Amy
instructed, without missing a beat. He didn't need telling twice. With his two
friends at his heels, he turned and raced for the nearest exit - the man still
yelling in their wake.
He raced down
the steps and out of the building - he couldn't seem to stop running, even as
he headed out into the middle of a busy road…
A flash of
sunlight on metal blinked in the corner of his eye, just before he felt the
impact of the car smash into his body. A deafening scream rose up harshly into
the air - and then he knew no more.
*
It wasn't until
two months after Harry's funeral that
Claire was able to bring herself to watch the footage they had filmed on that
fateful day in the museum. She sat on her bed, heart pounding as she pressed
the play button on her phone. Her hand shook...
Grief twisted
in her stomach and a painful lump lodged itself into her throat at the sight of
Harry...
It all
happened just as she remembered it, as she watched through her tears. He had
pulled the glass covering away, reached out and touched the supposedly cursed
mirror -
A gasp was
torn from her then, and her body grew icy cold. For there, on the video, she
could see something that she had not seen on that day of her friend's tragic
demise.
As he
approached the mirror, his reflection had become visible in the glass. Only,
she could see now that it had not been a reflection of how he had actually
looked in that moment. Instead, the face that was shown in that mirror was
mangled and bloodied. One side of his head smashed in from the impact of where
it had hit the road, and his neck bent horribly...
His reflection
in the mirror showed just what had happened to him, only moments after he had
touched it. Claire dropped her phone with a scream.
End
