Diane Mendez lazily munched potato chips as she sprawled on the sofa in the living room of her family's split-level home.
She was watching a film on TV about a group of explorers who find themselves in a deep valley somewhere in a lost jungle. The explorers were just being attacked by giant lizards, when the commercials came on.
Diane stared at the TV. The commercials always come on at the exciting moments, she thought. Those lizards looked like they meant business!
She sighed and looked around the room. And all of a sudden, for some strange reason, the thought of those lizards frightened her. She couldn't imagine why.
She sat upright and stretched. She was just tired, that's all, she told herself. Why should she suddenly be frightened of lizards?
On top of that, she seemed to be in a fog tonight. It was as if she weren't quite awake. Even the sounds of her mother and father having coffee in the kitchen seemed to be coming from a distance and not just a few feet away.
She shrugged and went to the hallway mirror. She must be just imagining things, she told herself as she looked in the mirror. Her image looked back at her. It showed a pretty girl of thirteen with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. She preened in front of the mirror a bit. She couldn't help being happy with the way she looked. She put up her hair to see how she would look in an upsweep.
She smiled at herself. All of a sudden a face appeared in the mirror over her own! She did a double take and felt herself jump with fright. The image lasted for no more than a few seconds but it was enough for her to see what it was. It was the face of a horrible lizard-like creature!
And the horrible part about it was that it had been smiling--just as she had!
She shuddered and turned away in disgust and fright. It's that dumb show I'm watching, she thought. Just then her mother called her from the kitchen.
"Diane, come in here. I'm making some hot chocolate for you."
"Yes," chimed in her father good-naturedly, we would like to see our daughter once in a while!"
The voices of her parents had a soothing effect on her and she forced herself to look in the mirror again. All she saw was herself.
"You see?" she whispered to her image. "It's all your imagination."
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