Hours had past since Stella had fallen into a deep, peaceful sleep. As she laid still on her comfortable mattress, her body began to feel hot, so she threw off her blanket and continued to rest. It was quiet, dark, and still in her mind until she started to drift off into a dream. In her dream she saw a wooden door with a golden handle that seemed to glow and leave a stream of light in its shadow.
She reached for the doorknob and slowly opened the door to reveal a cute little restaurant that had lightbulbs hanging on a thick tan string from the ceiling and their light illuminated the room. The floor was covered in shiny wooden tables and talk oak wood chairs that glistened under the yellow light. Each table had a small vase containing one single rose in each one. She looked over at a sign near a corner table by the window that read "La rêve" it was the name of the restaurant, and a beautiful one at that. It was such a beautiful and peaceful place and if Stella had a choice, she would never leave.
As Stella walked further into the restaurant, she was suddenly approached by Will. He flashed a grin at her and took her hand, guiding her to the nearest table. "Thought I'd take you to a nicer place for dinner this time" he said with a smile and I was having too much fun to ask questions so I just nodded and thanked him for his kindness. We talked, laughed, and even saved room for dessert! We looked at the dessert menu with excitement in our eyes and Will began to ask me what kind of sweet I wanted, but his voice sounded different and it kept changing.
"What would you like for dessert?" Will asked in a low toned almost frightening voice. I was too shocked to answer the question so he asked once more "What would you like for dessert?" his voice having more rasp to it this time, as if he had a scratch in this throat. I was still unable to answer him, this time I wanted to, but if felt like my lips were sealed shut. "What would you like for dessert? What would you like for dessert? What would you like for dessert? WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE FOR DESSERT!?"
Stella jumped backed at the sudden change to a monstrous voice and shouting coming from Will! She quickly backed away from the table and ran towards the door. He grabbed one of her arms and whispered in her ear in the most frightening low toned scratchy voice "When would you like to die, Stella?" she slowly turned to face Will, but it wasn't him, it was the haunted reflection she's seen of herself before and it was now taking over Will's image. As the shadow figure flashed her a smile, Stella pulled her arm away in a rush and pushed the figure into the table before finally being able to run out of the restaurant!
She ran outside, but there was no, outside, there was nothing except for darkness. After a few moments of standing in a pitch-black abyss, stella woke up, but not in her bed, instead she was lying on her bathroom floor. It was strange because she didn't remember coming to the bathroom in the middle of the night, let alone falling asleep there. The coldness of the bathroom tiles seeped through the materials of her t-shirt sending shivers down her spine. She slowly stood up from the floor as she faced the bathroom mirror as she suddenly froze in fear from what she saw. It was the haunted image that she had seen in her reflection before and this time she was speaking to her. Stella thought she must have still been dreaming, but everything seemed so real! She tried her best to overcome her fear and to listen closely to what her altered reflection was saying through the other side of the mirror. Although it was hard to focus, she stood still and stared at her speaking reflection.
"Why are you running away from me when you KNOW you need me, stella?" the altered reflection asked. "I. am. Scared. Of. You." Stella managed to answer her with a broken sentence due to fear. The figure remained calm and began to explain herself to stella. "You should not fear me because I am you, well I'm part of you and you need me to stay balanced. There is no more need for you to be afraid every time you see my face because its, your face. I am just the side of you that almost no one sees because it's full of darkness, but sometimes the darkness can be good for you stella. Without darkness, there would be no light, so like I said, I am here to keep you balanced."
Before stella could open her mouth to answer her reflection, she suddenly woke up! it was another dream or rather nightmare. She scanned the room with her eyes before lying back down, but when she turned to the side she saw an exact replica of herself lying next to her on the bed! She jumped up once more and suddenly heard BEEP BEEP BEEP! Her eyes opened again, this time she looked over to her phone as her alarm went off for work. She slowly got up from her bed and turned off the alarm, once again looking around to make sure that everything was real. She lifted two fingers towards her face and slowly pinched her own cheek quite hard "ow!" she yelled out! She was awake for sure now and now her face hurt. She hurriedly washed up, got dressed, but took a moment to pause and look in the bathroom mirror once more. This time nothing was showing up and even though she was still terrified, she wanted to know more