Smile for me

 

I have a beautiful smile. Oh, how I miss it. This morning, I wake up and I smile at my bedroom mirror. I am disappointed at what I see. I kiss my husband, I send my two children off to school. I entertain guest friends. I show them all my lovely smile. But I look in the mirror and I do not see it.
“Are you ready?” Harry calls from the parlor.
“Yes, my love.” I reply as I clasp a string of polished pearls around my neck.
“Oh fantastic, the children are with Mrs. Knox, and the dinner reservations are all set for eight o’clock sharp.” Harry beams as he enters our bedroom. He crosses over to me and puts his arms around my waist and tells me how darling I look tonight.
I embrace him warmly. But suddenly I feel his arms stiffen.
“V-Vivian?” Harry stutters.
“Yes, dear?” I answer sweetly.
In horror Harry raises a shaking finger over my shoulder and points at the old full length mirror against the wall.
“Your reflection… it can’t be… is it staring at us?!”
I turn and see her there, gazing intently. She throws herself against the mirror. There is no sound, only deafening silence. Harry, help me! she mouths as she batters the surface with her fists.
I feel my eyes narrow at her. Harry looks back and forth between myself and my abhorrently perverse reflection.
My limbs begin to elongate and dear Harry’s blue eyes widen. He shrieks and struggles as I grasp him. My jaw detaches. My face contorts and splits open at my mouth, my teeth like shined and piercing knives.
Vivian claws at the mirror. She beats against it as I devour her hapless husband.
Perhaps now she will learn to smile for me.