Amanda's Mirror: The Aftermath

Wednesday...

Finally I come back with the sequel of the Short Story I wrote a few months back. I honestly can say that this was a fun thing to do. It wasn't planned, I'm not a writer and it's not an ambition of mine, but a friend over here, @Frankmart (sorry for the tag) said that he felt cheated haha so I decided to do a Part II.

Part I is here if you want to read it --> My First Adventure as a Writer

Amanda's Mirror: The Aftermath

Three days had passed since the day that Amanda called in sick for work. No one missed her except for her boss, Peter Williams. He was an introverted person as well, but unlike Amanda, he tried to blend in with his surroundings.

Ever since he got out of college he knew that if he wanted to be successful he had to get over his shy persona and be more outgoing and open to interact with others. This realization opened doors for him; he got the attention of every employer he had until he was named General Manager of the Gallery.

His personal experience made him understand Amanda's behaviour, and even that was appealing to him; there was something about Amanda's shyness that was attractive to him, but he never had the guts to do anything about it, except be friendly and kind to her.

That day, he saw her standing in front of the galery when he received the call; he noticed a special sadness in her voice and because of that he decided to give her some space and allowed her to not come in for work.

But three days had passed already and he was genuenly worried about her. He called her cell, he called her neighbours, and nothing. She had no family as far as he knew so, he called the police and went to her apartment. When they forced the door open, is world crumble to a thousand pieces when he saw her in the floor of the living room, liveless. If the policeman hadn't stopped him, he would easily fell beside her and try to bring her back to life, but that was not possible, she was helpless, he was heartbroken.

Then he noticed a ray of light, a bright light and was coming out of her hand, so, carefully approach to the body and saw in her right hand, a mirror. It looked old, maybe an antique, who knows, but he was left curious about it.

In the blink of an eye, he was at the morgue giving positive ID to Amanda's body, since he was the one who called the police. When he was looking for the coroner's office to sign some paper work for her release, he stumbled with and old woman.

There was something very unsettling about her whole appearance, but he didn't want to be distracted by that, all he could think of was Amanda, and that mirror he saw. As he kept walking, Peter noticed that the old woman was following him, whenever he turned she turned, whenever he stopped she stopped. Annoyed by this, he turned around and asked her with an angry voice:

-Excuse me mam, what do you want? Do I know you?

The old woman smiled at him in a creepy way and answered quietly:

-You don't know me young man, but I knew your friend, Amanda. It's so sad what happened to her, right?

He was astonished by her coldness as to referring to Amanda's dead, but also a bit curious to the relationship between his friend and that very strange woman. He didn't wanted to give any information to her and respectfully answered calmly this time, trying to see if could find out where they knew each other.

-Yes, it's sad, but I still don't know what happened to her. You two were close? As far as I know, Amanda had no family.

-We were not related, I just sold her an artifact a few days ago and her check bounce, so I searched for her address and found out about her passing.

This was shocking for Peter. What kind of artifact could Amanda had bought to that woman, and how much it had cost for her to go and found her. He kept asking more questions to the woman, he wanted to get to the bottom of this.

-What did you sell to her? Maybe I can pay you for it. It would be some time before we can get access to her apartment and her belongings.

-I don't want your money, or hers for that matter, I only want my mirror back, she said, again smiling.

A mirror, her mirror. Could it be the one Amanda was holding in her hand as she died?

-Well, I'm afraid I can't help you, as I said before, I don't have access to her belongings, so if you'll be most kind and leave me an adress or a phone number to reach you when I found what you asked for.

-No need, it's here, it came with her body.

-How do you know that? There was no one there when we found her at her place. Did you have anything to do with her dead? Maybe we should talk to the police.

As soon as Peter said this, her face changed and became as dark and cold as the night. He was scared by her presence, and at that moment the coroner shouted at him, distracting him from what was happening. When he turned again, the woman was gone, and he started to run with the hope to find her, but had no luck.

After singning the papers, he went home and with a heavy heart, started to prepare Amanda's funeral; he called the funeral home, the florist, and the people from the galery and her neighbours, at the end of the week, Amanda will finally rest in peace.

The next morning, as he was leaving his house, he tought he saw the old woman in the corner of his house, but thinking it was a alucination he got in his car and started driving. When he got to the gallery, he saw her again, walking by the font window, always looking at him. He felt stalked, but again, decided to ignore her, at the end, she was crazy and it was better not to get in any way involved with that person.

During the day, he felt tired, drained, like all the joy was taken out of his world. He cared for Amanda, but why did he felt like this? It's not like they where a couple or anything, he had interacted with her but, aside for the atraction he felt for her, there was no other bond between them. He started to try and find an explanation for what he was feeling and finally settled with the fact that he just felt sorry for the way that she had died, alone and no one to claim her.

Yes, that was it, he just felt sorry for her.

Suddenly, he got a call from the coroner's office, the autopsy report was back and the results where odd, to say the least. He had to go there inmediately.

Upon arrival, he saw again the old woman lurking around the parking lot, as if she knew that he would be there. He was scared, he was being stalked by a crazy person and he had to deal with it, but later, right know, the important thing was to found out what the coroner had to say.

After the respective greatings, Dr. Boughman said:

-Mister Williams, in all my career I have never seen such a thing and I thought I'd seen everything. Miss Shaefer was broken inside, literally. The official cause of death is Multiple Trauma consistent with a Hit and Run.

-What are you talking about? She was found in her apartment and as far as I saw she didn't have any signs of being in an accident.

-That's what's strange. She didn't have external abrassions or bruises, but internaly, her organs where swallen, bones broken, her skull was fractured and her brain had hemorrhage signs, all of these consistent with a heavy trauma due to an accident, most likely a car accident or a hit and run. The time of dead was around 8:00pm and it she died on sight. The police will be here soon to ask you a few questions, but Mister Williams, this is beyond any explanation I can offer. I'm sorry.

Peter was speachless. How could she died from a Hit and Run if she was in her apartment? Her things where there, all the sings said that she was in her apartment at the time of her death. He asked the same questions to the police when they got to the coroner's office. They also were astonished by the autopsy report, but due to the lack of evidence they had, they ruled her death accidental and also ruled him out of suspicion, since at the time of her death, he was still at the galery and that was corroborated by colleagues, customers and security cameras.

He didn't care about that, he knew he didn't had anything to do about it,but he still was trying to make sense to what everyone had told him. Dr. Boughman had him sign some other release forms, Amanda's belongings; her clothes, her earings, her watch, and the old mirror she was holding when they found her. Suddenly the same flash of light he saw that day blinded him, but despite the curiosity he put the mirror with everything else and started to walk to the parking lot, he wanted to leave that place and never come back.

At the parking lot, he again felt watched but no one was around, so he reached for his keys to open the door but fell on the ground, so he picked them up and when he got up, the old woman was standing in front of him, smiling upon her victory, she finaly got what she wanted.

Hours later, Peter Williams was found dead next to his car, no signs of struggle or foul play, and on his side where some papers and a bag with a woman's belongings, clothing, earings, a watch, but no mirror...

I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. Rest assured that this is 100% legit, not stolen from anyone or anywhere.

Thank's for Reading me!

✨✨Blessings✨✨

@rebeysa85