Into the Mirror by Kadeem Campbell Phang
Kadeem always had a decent life. He grew up with nice parents, he was an above-average student, and now he has a good-paying job. He spends his time writing essays for the AFYW organization. Have you ever seen things that weren’t there? These things tend to happen from time to time but not exactly to the point where it feels real. Kadeem has been very down lately because he has a job far from his parents and his friends. He tends to get sober sometimes and hit the bar, but nothing is curing his loneliness. Something lately that has been happening is he has been hallucinating and seeing some weird stuff. He thinks it’s just from all the beer and alcohol he has been consuming, but it’s something bigger than you can imagine. Kadeem meets up with his new buddies at a bar. It’s kinda been an addiction to be there. “Hey, what’s up man, how you been, haven’t seen you in the bar in a while?” his friend Paul asks. “Pretty good, I’ve been trying to get my mind over not seeing my family, and my only brother is in the hospital, but I can’t see him.” “Dang, God bless, I haven’t had a family since I was 10. They went missing somehow and nobody could find them.” “Don’t worry about that, though, man you will get used to it, drinks on me.” (Paul flirts with the bartender trying his best to get a discount.) That was the last time Kadeem saw Paul. It’s been rumored that Paul went insane after that night. The police say he had a mental episode and others said it was the drinks that made him lose control. It was neither. Paul has been hallucinating night after night like Kadeem was; he just couldn’t take it anymore and started freaking out one night and started screaming “She’s coming for us” while trying to harass people physically. Kinda like those crackheads you see getting in your way. One day Kadeem was working real hard on essays and articles for AFYW. He took a deep sleep from working all day. 3am hit and some strange things started happening. He woke up and started to 283
