Chapter 3: Good bones make good neighbours. (Patreon)

Nan climbed out of the shower chair, using the rail on the wall to brace herself. She got her balance. Then she straightened her posture and stood naked in front of the mirror. The index fingers were laid out on the counter in a row. 

It was not the first time she felt the urge to sprinkle garnish on them. Like she was plating a dish in an expensive restaurant. What do you garnish human fingers with? Parsley, she figured. Maybe a drizzling of extra virgin olive oil. But the effort would be wasted on its audience. Except for the word virgin. The creature would like that. It would sneer proudly at recognizing the word. 

Nan moved the fingers a few inches apart so that they took up a bit more space. A larger offering.

Then she reached out and flicked the switch by the door, so that the only light came from outside the bathroom. Half her body was in shadow now. She stared at her reflection until it started grinning back at her, its smile getting wider and wider until the rusted, clacking teeth of the reflection-creature were exposed. These were not Nan's teeth. They met in a perfect line at first, squared like machine parts, and then they began to twist and grind against one another. The pressure began to split them in half at strange angles, jagged and brown triangles. It was an ugly mathematical movement. Upsettingly logical.

"She's a good girl, that Clara," the reflection said. "Very nice to you. Soft warm bath for vagina blood grandma." It looked greedily down at the fingers on the reflected counter top. "Three," it said. "Oh. Three is very good." It snatched up two of the severed fingers, and shoved them into its mouth at the same time. The teeth churned the fingers between gears. They crushed the small bones. 

It made a familiar sound, like a shovel in dirt.

The reflection-thing took its time with the two fingers. Chewing and grinding. Shovel in dirt. Shovel in dirt. Nothing else existed. Then it turned its attention to the woman's longer index finger. 

Nan didn't know the creature's name. She hoped she never would. It was almost reassuring how crass and stupid this thing was. A reminder that she was still human. She did terrible things, but they hurt. They had a cost that this creature would never understand. Nan hadn't lost herself entirely yet. 

The thing was leering now, in the mirror. Smelling the finger. 

"Why did you wash away the smell?" her reflection said. "Bloody grandmother finger dried old inside smell tastes good. I remember."

Making a big show of sucking the bone. Nan didn't respond, and it looked at her.

"Joking. Joking. Good bones. Perfect. Thank you. Three today. Very three. Thank you." It gnashed into the finger. A coffee grinder. A truck wheel crushing an animal under its weight. The ribs cracking one by one. It spit out the fake painted fingernail onto the counter.

Nan reached out to turn off the light.

"Stop." The creature's voice was serious.

She stopped.

"You are buttering me," Nan's reflection said, small chunks of black blood dripping down its chin and onto its sagging breasts. "You think I don't know." It laughed. A broken bone sound. "Three, out of nowhere. You old sad woman. You butter me while you make a plan in your brain."

Nan said nothing.

"Dying, dying, dying." her reflection whispered. "I know. You hate that you aren't dying fast enough. Did you know I keep you alive, too? You hate it."

"You do not keep me alive," Nan said. "That is not part of the agreement."

"Ok. I do not keep you alive. I lied. You keep living though. And you hate it. You want to die. I see. I see you make secret plans behind your eyes. You think maybe you can chop off your own head and you'll be free. Drink a cleaning poison under the sink. Stab your own heart. No more crying begging strangers in their beds at night. No more watching eyeballs stop seeing."

"No more big teeth in the mirror. No more scary claws. No more good perfect fingers in your cunt pocket. But we made a deal."

The reflection of Nan looked younger now, the hair was brown. Now dark brown. The posture was straighter. And the face? The teeth folded back into their places. The mouth closed into a shy smile. The face was Clara's, now.

And blood began to dribble out of Clara's nose. First just a drop, and then more. More. Until it poured out. Until it flowed between the girl's breasts and down her naked body, down in one red sludge river. 

"She's a good girl," the Clara reflection said. "A good alive girl thing." It sneered with her granddaughter's face.

"For now," it said. "Maybe tomorrow Clara has bad poison blood again. Maybe bad blood poison all over these pretty Clara titties. Pretty little Clara naked poison blood in every hole. Pours out. Gushes. Exsanguinates." It had real difficulty with that last word, its teeth getting in the way. "Exsanguin-" 

Blood started to drip from the corners of Clara's eyes, now. To bubble and gurgle in her mouth.

"BECOMES DEAD," it said.

This was new. 

The reflection thing teased Nan. It mocked her wrinkled body, toyed with her shame and age. It enjoyed being lewd and hideously sexual, some days. Other days it said whatever mean words that popped into its head. It didn't seem to understand which things would hurt or frighten Nan. But it clearly wanted to. It wanted her to be afraid. Some days it threw tantrums. Spewed vile and hate all over, desperate to get a reaction.

But Nan brought it what it needed, and she understood that it was just in the creature's nature to be cruel. To toy with her. Its words never cut too close. It wasn't smart enough to find her real weaknesses. 

They weren't equals, but they had an understanding. 

Threatening Clara was not part of that understanding. Nan kept her voice low. She met the creature's eyes and held them.

"Choose your words carefully," Nan said. "I wouldn't want to misunderstand you. Because it seems like you are threatening to break our agreement."

"I would never!" The reflection's voice was so loud that Nan wondered if her family would hear it from downstairs. "You! You're the one who wants to break deals. You are the one who wants to die. I keep my promise every day."

"I have no intention of breaking our agreement," Nan said, calmly. 

"SO CAREFUL WITH WORDS." The teeth tore out of Clara's mouth, and some of them bounced off the other side of the mirror. Fell to the counter. Metal sounds. The blood down her granddaughter's body was black now. The thing was breathing heavily. "I could open your head and maybe then your real words would fall out. Your true words. Or maybe I should open little Clara's head."

Nan said nothing.

"MAYBE. May-be. I am careful too. I have sneaky words too."

"I have no intention of breaking our agreement," Nan repeated.

"I have no intention even more than you." It was quiet in the mirror. Staring back at her. 

"We are friends now for so long," Clara's torn face said. "You and me."

"It is a good agreement. Violence. Violence and the best valuable bones. You bring me pain and knuckles, and I make the bad things in Clara stay small. Pretty Clara gets to be sixteen years old now. Normal." It leered down at Clara's body. It just couldn't help itself. "A sixteen year old girl just like her friends. Lucky girl. Thanks to you. Thanks to your friend, me. Without friends it is hard and bad. Very bad pain and death. Remember her small dead baby body? Think about that in your secret inside thoughts and careful words." 

Nan remembered. She remembered holding her granddaughter's dead body above the crib. She remembered the heartbreak and the sudden insanity that wiped her mind blank. The crack inside her heart that let in a sudden secret knowledge. That drove her to make the worst mistake of her life. That led her here.

The creature was trying to lick its own bloody breast now, but it couldn't reach. So it just pinched the nipples. Licked at the air. Drooled. It was so lewd. Childish. Nan wondered what it understood about sex or humiliation. Was this just something it had been taught? Had some other mirror-thing given it a list of scary and defiling acts?

"Did the fingers taste good?" Nan asked. It forgot all about molesting its own reflection of Clara's young body and smiled instinctively. 

"The woman's finger," it said. "You hurt her in a bad way. I could taste it. She died before she died. Hopeless. You broke her heart. You are a good friend. You do your good friend job properly and nobody even sees you. You are a good invisible hunter. I am scared you will trick me and go away."

That was exactly what Nan was going to do. She was going to be free. She was going to trick it. She just had to be careful. She couldn't break her word. Neither of them could. There were consequences. 

She was going to be free, but she was running out of time. It was getting harder and harder to trust her own mind. Nan remembered the fear when she woke up on the street this morning. Hugging a car tire. Her confusion. That confusion was more and more common now. Still, it always faded in the sunshine. Nan still had time. She still had time to find a way out.

"I have no intention-"

"We stay friends," it said. "I know. We stay friends for Clara. I know."

The dark, reflected cheeks were sagging now. The hair turned grey. The breasts lowered. The reflection of Nan's body returned to its proper form underneath the river of drying blood. The blood flowed slower. If it moved at all. It was hard to see in the dark. The creature flipped its Nan breasts around a bit, pinched the nipples at her, spit on itself. But there was no malice in the action. Just an empty habit. It was already fading.

Nan fought the urge to wipe the spit off her breasts, even though it wasn't real.

And then the creature was gone. Her reflection was her own again. No blood. No leering smile. No threats. Just a tired old woman. So tired, suddenly. She left the bathroom, and closed the door behind her. There were no other mirrors in her room.

"Fuck. Right. Off," she said, under her breath.

She wanted to crawl into bed. Bury herself in quilts. Her whole body ached. Soon. Soon she could sleep. She let herself stoop, and rest for a moment against the wall. Her stomach was making sounds now. It gurgled. Angry.

Soon she would sleep. 

But first, the rest of the teeth would have to come up.

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