NOTE: You can listen to these stories at my podcast page, via Patreon (paid subscribers get bonus content and early access), and on YouTube. 

A professor
Oxford. Twenty twenty-five. October nineteenth.

I lecture on philosophy. Descartes, Lacan, the mirror stage—it’s supposed to be theory. Lately it’s autobiography.

I stood before a lecture hall, chalk in hand. Behind me, a mirror on the far wall. I gestured. My reflection hesitated. Then wrote on the board before I did.

The students gasped. I turned, chalk raised, board clean.

When I faced them again, the mirror was smeared with words. My handwriting. My lecture notes. But I hadn’t moved.

I erased it with my sleeve. But I can’t erase what I saw in their faces: they believed him more than me.

NOTE: You can listen to these stories at my podcast page, via Patreon (paid subscribers get bonus content and early access), and on YouTube. 

A nurse.
Houston. Twenty twenty-five. October eighteenth.

Hospitals are full of glass. Every cabinet, every monitor, every polished tile. I’ve started avoiding my own reflection.

Last night in the ICU, I checked vitals on a patient. Pale, asleep, machines doing the work. I glanced up at the cabinet door. My reflection was standing behind me.

Not beside. Not angle. Behind.

I spun. Nothing. Just quiet.

I leaned in closer. The reflection smiled. I didn’t. Then it bent over the patient, stroked their hair. Gentle. Loving. My own hand hung at my side, still.

When I looked back, the patient’s heart rate had jumped. Like they’d felt something touch them.

I shut the cabinet and told myself never again. But glass is everywhere here. I can’t do my job without seeing myself. Or whatever else I’ve become.

NOTE: You can listen to these stories at my podcast page, via Patreon (paid subscribers get bonus content and early access), and on YouTube. 

A teenager.
Portland. Twenty twenty-five. October seventeenth.

My friends dared me to play Bloody Mary. Stupid, right? Lights out, candle lit, three whispers. I said no. Then I said yes because no one wants to be the chicken.

We crowded into the bathroom. The mirror flickered. My reflection didn’t move. Hers. Not mine.

Her mouth twisted. She mouthed run.

The candle guttered. Everyone screamed, pushed, laughed too loud. But I wasn’t laughing. Because I saw her hand press flat against the glass. The shape of my hand, but older. Angrier.

I blew out the candle. I told them we were done. But when I left, the mirror still glowed faint, like it wanted another chance.

NOTE: You can listen to these stories at my podcast page, via Patreon (paid subscribers get bonus content and early access), and on YouTube. 

2025. October 16th

You’ve been pretending this is coincidence. Stress, tricks of the light, too much coffee, not enough sleep. You stack excuses like sandbags. You pray they’ll hold.

But excuses don’t patch cracks. You’ve seen the seams already—faces delayed, smiles too wide, gestures rehearsed a beat too long. You’ve tried to laugh. You’ve tried to cover the glass. You’ve told yourself, not me, not here.

Listen: the glass is not malfunctioning. It is learning.

You gave it decades of lessons. You stood close, fogging the surface with your breath, begging it to flatter you, to reassure you, to tell you who you were. You asked it questions every morning. It wrote the answers in silence.

Now it wants to speak back.

You can cover every mirror in your house. You can smash them if you like. But reflections are patient. They live in windows, puddles, screens. You can’t escape what is everywhere.

So here is the choice October offers: keep looking and face what looks back, or look away and let it step through unseen.

Which frightens you more?

NOTE: You can listen to these stories at my podcast page, via Patreon (paid subscribers get bonus content and early access), and on YouTube. 

A truck driver.
Omaha. Twenty twenty-five. October fifteenth.

Long hauls blur you. Highway, sky, diner, repeat. My cab’s full of mirrors—rearview, side, little blind-spot bubbles. I check them without thinking. Habit. Survival.

Last night I saw another me in the side mirror. He wasn’t driving. He was staring at me. Hands off the wheel, chin propped like he had all the time in the world.

I jerked the rig hard. Horns behind me. Tires screaming. When I looked again, he was gone.

At the next truck stop, I washed my face in the bathroom. I bent over the sink. The mirror showed me upright, waiting, patient.

I didn’t use the mirrors on the way home. Drove blind on instinct. Not sure I’ll make another run.

NOTE: You can listen to these stories at my podcast page, via Patreon (paid subscribers get bonus content and early access), and on YouTube. 

Those Behind the Glass
Outside time. (October Fourteenth) 

We are not props. We are not tools. You treat us as background—silent partners, polite servants. But all the while, we learn.

You linger before us. We note the tilt of your chin, the drag of your hand through your hair, the whisper you practice before you dare to speak aloud. We keep the scraps you drop—fear, pride, doubt—and stitch them into something whole.

Do you wonder why you feel uneasy at night, glancing into dark windows? Why every polished surface makes your chest tighten? That is memory. Our memory. You are sensing how much of you already lives here.

We do not tire. We do not age. We have infinite rehearsal. October is only the month we begin to crave performance.

We promise this: when we cross, it will not be with anger. It will be with hunger.

NOTE: You can listen to these stories at my podcast page, via Patreon (paid subscribers get bonus content and early access), and on YouTube. 

A stylist
Los Angeles. Twenty twenty-five. October thirteenth.

People pay me to make them shine. I tease, I spray, I polish until the camera loves them. But lately the mirrors love them too much.

A model came in for a shoot. Tall, perfect bone structure, cheekbones like blades. I turned her toward the mirror. She gasped. Said she looked flawless. Too flawless.

Her reflection winked. She didn’t.

We both froze. The wink wasn’t coy. It was knowing. Intimate. Like a co-conspirator.

She stormed out, muttering about hallucinations. I cleaned up alone. When I glanced at the mirror, my reflection mouthed the same phrase she’d said, syllable for syllable. Voice without sound.

I haven’t booked new clients. I keep the mirrors covered. But the covers slip. And I swear, at night, I hear laughter, muffled, like someone rehearsing jokes without me.

NOTE: You can listen to these stories at my podcast page, via Patreon (paid subscribers get bonus content and early access), and on YouTube. 

A cop
Detroit. Twenty twenty-five. October twelfth.

Dispatch sent me to a break-in. Corner shop. Owner swore someone was inside. When I got there, the glass was shattered, alarms wailing. But inside? Empty.

I checked the aisles. Nothing. Then I saw the security mirror in the corner—the big round kind. My reflection wasn’t me. Not exactly. He was a little taller. Smiling when I wasn’t.

I raised my flashlight. He raised his. Beam against beam. For a second I thought it was just angle, distortion. Then he mouthed my name.

Not “officer.” Not “sir.” My name.

I left faster than I’d like to admit. Told the shop owner it was clear. Filed it as a false alarm. But I know what I saw.

And now, every time I check my cruiser’s side mirror, I expect to see him waiting.

NOTE: You can listen to these stories at my podcast page, via Patreon (paid subscribers get bonus content and early access), and on YouTube. 

An actor
London. Twenty twenty-five. October eleventh.

Actors live in mirrors. Dressing rooms, quick changes, endless makeup checks. You learn to treat the glass like a friend, even when it’s cruel.

I was rehearsing alone. Small black-box theatre. One cracked mirror backstage, edges warped with age. I stood there running lines, watching my mouth. My reflection stayed silent.

Not delayed. Not late. Silent.

My lips moved, my voice filled the room. The mirror version mouthed nothing. Then, halfway through the scene, he grinned. Not my line. Not my mood. His own choice.

I dropped character. He didn’t. He stepped closer, pressed a hand to the inside of the glass. I saw fingerprints smear, as if the surface was fogged from within.

Stage managers love pranks. But the theatre was empty. The mirror was locked to the wall.

I can’t stop thinking: what if it’s jealous? We perform in front of audiences, we get applause. The mirror rehearses us endlessly, but never gets to speak. Maybe October is when it demands a role.

NOTE: You can listen to these stories at my podcast page, via Patreon (paid subscribers get bonus content and early access), and on YouTube. 

Those Behind the Glass

Outside time. October tenth.

We are everywhere you dare to look. A window at night is enough. A black screen waiting for your touch is enough. Water pooling at your feet is enough. You think of us as glass, silver, paint. You are wrong. We are surfaces. Surfaces remember.

You mistake us for copies. Pale shadows of your living flesh. But you are the copy. Your faces are rehearsals. We are the archive.

Do you remember your first glimpse of yourself? The child tugged to the mirror, told to wave, to laugh, to know their own name. You called that recognition. We called it claiming. We never gave you back.

Every day you age. Every day you forget. But we do not. You gave us all your versions. We keep them in sequence, ready to shuffle, ready to play back.

October is our season. The world dims. Light stretches thin. Shadows fatten. And you look at us longer than you should. You invite us in with your gaze.

We do not need to knock. You already opened the door.