#2 - Reflection of a Vampire

 

 SAME as yesterday, Rosalie and Isabel were partnered again to roam the city. The vicinity of their work was the same, the Paranormal Fair.

“We have again to walk through extra ordinary things.” Isabel said, what she meant was the many tents in the fair.

“That’s why it’s called paranormal.” Rosalie answered. “Yesterday I saw a tent about Palmistry, what do you think if we let our hands be read today?”

“Rosalie, it costs money.” Isabel said. “You can afford it because you are single but me, I have two kids. Besides seems you believe this kind of stuffs.”

“It’s just for fun! I will pay for you, don’t worry about money.” Rosalie was so eager to go inside the tent of Palmistry.

Isabel shrugged her shoulder and reluctantly walked with Rosalie to the direction where the tent of Palmistry was, when Isabel noticed something.

“Rosalie, look.” Isabel said and pointed to Rosalie a vacant space. “The tent about Guardian Angels was gone!”

Rosalie stopped walking. Isabel was right, the tent where they were in yesterday to know who their guardian angel is, was gone.

“Your right, the tent was gone!” Rosalie agreed with Isabel.

“Why, the fair just begin yesterday? It’s only the second day today.” Isabel found it strange.

“I don’t know.” Rosalie answered and continued walking, Isabel followed.

When they entered the Palmistry tent, inside were two women who stopped talking to each other when they entered.

“Good morning!” both Rosalie and Isabel greeted the women good morning, the women answered back and Rosalie and Isabel noticed that the other woman was the woman yesterday in the tent of the Guardian Angels. 

The woman that had told Rosalie that she was a queen in her previous life, stand up and bid goodbye to the other woman. She nodded to Rosalie and Isabel and went away but both Rosalie and Isabel noticed the fear in the woman’s face.

“Can I help?” the woman asked Isabel and Rosalie.

“We want our palm to be read.” Rosalie answered the woman that they wanted their palm to be read.

“Oh, I am sorry but I cannot do it today.” The woman answered Rosalie.

“No?”

“There’s a meeting of our group and I must be there. Sorry.”

Rosalie and Isabel went out the tent. No palm reading for them.

That night Rosalie after eating her dinner, do her laundry. She put in the washing machine her dirty clothes and just let the washing machine do the work. She sat in the living room to watch the news on the TV, and after the news, she switched off the TV and went to her room. She wanted to finish the pocketbook she was reading.

She crawled under the blanket, picked the pocketbook that was on the small night table between her bed and the mirror and started to read it when she heard someone calling her name.

“Rosalie!” the voice seemed from far away.

Rosalie stopped reading and tried to listen well. It could not be her imagination because she heard it clear, someone was calling her name.

“Rosalie.” Rosalie heard again the voice. Rosalie did not move. She wanted to be sure to herself that she really not imagining things. That she really heard a voice calling her name.

“Rosalie!” again a voice calling her name.

“Who is there? Who is calling me?” Rosalie asked but no answer, then Rosalie thought she’s becoming crazy. She could not explain why she saw things that are not there and hearing voices when there’s nobody.

Rosalie got out from her bed and went outside her bedroom.  She sits in the living room and open the TV very hard until she heard banging from the neighbor upstairs which meant she have to set her TV softer. She did it by switching off the TV, she does not want trouble with her neighbors.  

She stayed sitting in the living room, just sitting until she heard that the washing machine its work. She stood up and transferred the clothes from the washing machine to the dryer and set it on. She looked at the clock and see the time is almost ten o’clock in the night. She thought to put the dryer on the timer and will go to sleep. Tomorrow was Saturday and she do not have to work but she had not slept well the other night.

When she entered her bedroom, she first stayed standing at the door for a while. She listened well if she could hear someone calling her name but everything was silent.

“You are just imagining things, Rosalie.” Rosalie mumbled as she was talking to herself. “Who will call your name? You are in your bedroom, there’s nobody.”

Rosalie as she changed her clothes and wore her pajama, dared not look the mirror that was on the wall. She thought that it was just her imagination but she really seen that her reflection in the mirror was smiling while she was not. She thought how could it be? To convince herself that she was not imagining she must look at the mirror. 

She stood in front of the mirror in her pajama and looked at good to her reflection. She did all kinds of weird features with her face and body at the same time looking at the mirror. Her reflection in the mirror did the same actions she does, thus there’s nothing strange at all, that she concluded what had she seen last night was just her imagination, her reflection smiling while she was not.

She goes to bed with the lights on in her bedroom. She read few pages from the pocketbook and she was half sleeping when she heard again the voice.

“Rosalie, Rosalie.”

Rosalie covered her ears and spoke. “I heard nothing! It’s just in my head!”

“Rosalie, help me please.” the voice said. Rosalie did not respond; she just keeps quiet. Even she had covered her ears with her two hands, she heard very clear the voice, the voice was asking for help.

“Rosalie, I really need your help!”

“Who are you?” later Rosalie decided to answer the voice although she was thinking that the voice was just a kind of hallucination.

“I need your help!” the voice said.

“What help you are asking from me when I cannot see you?” no answers, so Rosalie said to herself “I am becoming crazy. I am asking question to nobody but myself!”

“Rosalie, you are not crazy. I am really talking to you. I need your help, please help me.” the voice said to Rosalie that she was not crazy.

“If you really need help, let me see you.” Rosalie said.

“You cannot see me yet.” The voice answered Rosalie.

“Why not?” Rosalie asked.

“Because you have first to help before you can see me.” The voice answered Rosalie that before Rosalie could see her, Rosalie must help her first.

“And what help are you asking from me?” Rosalie asked the voice.

“You must save my life.” The voice replied.

“Save your life? Are you sick? If you are sick, I cannot save you, a doctor maybe.” Rosalie said to the voice that she cannot save her, maybe a doctor.

“No, I need no doctor, I need food to survive.” The voice said to Rosalie.

“Food? What food you like. There’s a night grocery here nearby. I can go do grocery for you.” Rosalie offered to the voice that she can do grocery for her.

“You do not understand, Rosalie.” the voice said again.

“What do I have to understand?

“What I am asking is food of existence!”

“All foods are for existence.” Rosalie mumbled. “If you will not let yourself, be seen then I want to sleep.” And Rosalie covered her whole body with blanket, the same time mumbled. “Talking to myself, I am really becoming crazy.”

“Okay, I think I have to introduce myself to you. Will you please stand and look at the mirror on the wall?”

“No, first you have to say to me your name, who are you.” Rosalie refused what the voice was asking on her.

“I am your sister, my name is Riza, Queen Riza!”

Suddenly Rosalie sits straight on her bed when she heard what the voice said.

“Please repeat to me what you just said?” Rosalie asked the voice to repeat again what was just said by the voice.

“My name is Riza. I am a Queen! I am your sister.” The voice repeated what she had said.

“I do not have a sister here in Rotterdam, my sisters were all in the Philippines.” Rosalie told the voice that all her sisters were in the Philippines.

“I am your sister, your younger sister Riza. Believe me, I am telling you the truth.”  The voice insisted.

“I do not know. That woman in the Paranormal Fair, said to me that my guardian angel is my sister, her name is Riza. I do not believe her, I thought she was just making stories.”

“She was not making stories, Rosalie because I really exist.” Queen Riza told Rosalie that the woman in the Paranormal Fair was not making stories.

“But she said it was with my past life, my previous life, not now the present.” Rosalie said that what the woman was talking was from her previous life not the present.

“That’s true but you see we are immortals.” the voice answered Rosalie.

“My past life was maybe a long, long time ago. How come you still exist? Like that sister of yours that was the Queen too, she died a long time ago.” Rosalie argued with the voice.

“Yes.” The voice that introduced herself as Queen Riza became sad. “She was a good person, my sister, and her tragic death had changed everything. I only became Queen after her death.”

“You see, you said it, your sister had died already, so I am not your sister.” Rosalie said.

“You are my sister, no doubt about it, I said it to you, we are immortals.” the voice insisted that they were sisters.

“No, I said it to you, I am not your sister so you must go away.” Rosalie drove away the voice that's talking to her.

“I cannot go away, because I really need your help.” the voice answered Rosalie that she could not go away because she needed the help of Rosalie.

“How can I help you when you are invisible? You are only a voice and maybe you only sit in my mind because of that woman talking about my previous life.” Rosalie said.

“Look at the mirror on the wall!” the voice said.

“Okay.” Rosalie got out her bed and stood in the front of the mirror on the wall. She saw herself in her pajama. “Now, I am standing already in the front of the mirror.” 

“Say, mirror, mirror on the wall. I want to see Riza, my sister!” the voice told Rosalie to say the words. 

“Okay.” And Rosalie said what Queen Riza told her to say, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, I want to see Riza, my sister!”

Rosalie saw what’s happening. The mirror become blurred and then when it became clear, she saw no reflection of her in the mirror.

“I have no reflection in the mirror, I lost my shadow!” Rosalie exclaimed. Then suddenly she saw a woman in the mirror with a crown on her head. The woman was dressed as like the princess or the queen in the mid-century. The woman was smiling to her.

“Hello, Rosalie or I would say Eliazora, your real name.” Queen Riza said.

“Where is my reflection, why I do not have a reflection in the mirror? And you, you like exactly me behalf that dress and crown!” Rosalie was in panicked as she saw herself no reflection in the mirror.

“Eliazora, you will only see me when I borrow your reflection.” Queen Riza said to Rosalie.

“My name is Rosalie. Just call me Rosalie!” 

“I will only exist by borrowing your reflection.” And Rosalie could not believe it. The woman or Queen Riza stepped out from the mirror and stand in front of her. *to be continued*