Fog and Steam by Tamara Duncan


			by Tamara Duncan hhhhh. It feels so good to be clean," Grace thought to herself as she stepped out of the shower into the warm, dense steam of the bathroom. She wrapped herself in one towel and dried her hair with another, humming her favorite tune and thinking about the day past. Although she knew it would leave streaks, she wiped clean the fogged mirror in preparation to wash her face and brush her hair. As she stared at her reflection, the steam in the bathroom once again began to cover the mirror, but this time in a strange pattern. A large area, not unlike a face, in the center of the mirror became fogged-over. Wisps of cloudy steam began to flow off the face, cascading over ghostly white shoulders, not at all unlike Grace’s own hair and shoulders. As Grace leaned in to inspect the "face" of fog on the mirror, the face enlarged to meet hers. She took a step back and the image also receded. As she brushed her hair, the foggy apparition brushed its hair. Playfully Grace opened her mouth at the mirror and stuck out her tongue, the face mimicked opening its mouth, but instead of sticking out its tongue, it opened up so wide that Grace could see deep into a dark abyss behind this face. Peering into this darkness Grace saw thousands and thousands of screaming