3

The curiosity turned to panic immediately. The family next to me, who had been watching the lights in the sky with rapt attention and singing hymns, ran so fast they knocked their candles over. I had no choice but to follow the press of bodies down the street. I was terrified that I would stumble and be trampled to death. By chance, the crowd ran past the History department building, and with effort and elbows I made it up the steps onto the porch of the side entrance. From there, I could watch everyone dashing past me. I saw a mother carrying an infant, and two strong men shielding an older man as best they could to stop him being knocked over. I also saw a businessman beating people with his umbrella until they let him past them.
I risked glancing back to the sky. The amber lights were still circling slowly, but now there were blue flashes, like fluorescent tubes, flickering between the clouds and the ground. I'd never felt quite so unsettled in my life. I didn't fancy my chances with the surging crowd, so I fished my swipe card out of my purse and let myself into the building.
It was quiet inside, but that didn't exactly make me feel any better. On a Sunday evening I doubted anyone else would be in the building except the security guard. I knew I had left a packet of biscuits in my desk drawer, and decided to eat a couple of them to calm my nerves. My office was on the second floor at the other end of the building.
As I approached my office, some movement caught me eye in one of the side rooms. I wanted some company, so I knocked on the door. It opened slowly at my touch. The light was on, but there was clearly no-one in the room except my own reflection in the window. I called out a hello, but there was no response. Assuming someone had left the light on by accident, a flicked it off and-
-I saw movement further down the corridor. It looked like a thin woman, holding a bag, but it moved round a corner before I got a good look at it. I ran the length of the corridor, but there was no-one there by the time I reached it. There was payphone right next to me, so I picked it up to dial for security. The dial-tone was wrong, an octave lower than it should be. When I tried to dial, the tones were similarly muted and down-shifted, and the dial tone never went away. I gave up and hung it back on the hook.
I became aware that the building seemed too quiet. There was no traffic noise from outside, or any the shouting from the crowd to be heard. Only the gentle hum of the strip lights in the corridor. I walked over to a window and peered out. There were still running people, opening and closing their mouths, and cars darting this way and that to avoid them. I watched a woman lean heavily her car's horn, but heard nothing.
I didn't want to stay in the building a moment longer. The lift was on my floor, so I ran into it and hammered on the button for the ground floor. I tried to compose myself, thinking that tomorrow I'd look back on the whole weird day and laugh. When I looked at myself in the mirror at the back of the lift, I saw the woman standing right at my shoulder. She looked exactly like me, except that her eyes were completely black, with no glimmer of light in them.
The last thing I remembered before I fainted was the way she smiled at me.
So you see, officer, that's why I threw out all the mirrors in my flat, along with anything else that could show me a reflection. That's why I put paper over the windows and put ink in the water before I use it. I understand that my neighbours and colleagues are very worried about me. I'll gladly go with you to the station, or the hospital, or anywhere else you think you should take me; but I beg you- keep me away from any mirrors.

Month-long project number 3, fittingly. I'm not entirely convinced it came out exactly as I wanted it to, but there's some serious meat in there for a horror game.

• Rules, in dead tree or pdf.