Selkie here. After my strange encounter with a text message in Laying Ghosts, I seem to be hounded by objects with attitude! Some are seriously creepy like this one.
In the first chapter of THE FIRST LIE, I encounter the face of a strange woman in my bathroom mirror. I’ve just moved to Hawaii, a place full of paranormal happenings and to say I’m spooked is an understatement.
I race outside and phone my flatmate Wanda, who says the mirror belonged to her grandmother, Tutu. What she says next is a shock:
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“Tutu was a kahuna,” Wanda says. “That’s where I get my Hawaiian blood, from her. She saw things. In her mind. And in the mirror.”
“Things?” I ask.
“You know. The future. Predictions. Visions.” She stops. “Now you’ve seen one.”
“I saw a face, that’s all. A face that . . . stared at me.” But the hairs on my neck are standing up.
Then we talk about what to do with the mirror:
“What do you want me to do,” Wanda asks, “call in an exorcist?”
“Hell, no. Just move the bloody thing.” Into a dumpster on the other side of the island.
“You can move it. Turn the mirror to the wall and it loses its power.”
“No way,” I say. “And I’m stuck outside in my bathrobe. How am I going to get to work?”
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Hawaiian folklore turns out to have lots of stories about mystical mirrors:
faces appearing, causing doors to slam and cups to rattle
the ritual of turning the mirror to the wall before going to bed …
In THE FIRST LIE, searching for the woman in the mirror turns into a quest I never imagined.