She remembered having a sister when she was little, one who looked just like her. Annika, she remembered yelling that and seeing her sister turn around smiling and mouthing Elba. How quickly she forgot the sound of her sister's voice but never her smile. Never.
Her parents didn't talk about Annika, they had no pictures of her on the walls or in the books. Elba only had her memory, her one precious memory and her reflection to remind her that she could always see her sister in the mirror.
When she was younger she had once told her parents that she saw Annika in the mirror and they explained to her what reflections was despite her insisting that the knew this and that wasn't what she'd meant. She didn't see the whole of Annika, just the top of her sister's head peeping over her shoulder.
She always seemed to be there, just watching from behind Elba. It was like she was hiding from something. Her eyes would always dart around before she ducked out of sight to somewhere Elba had never been able to see. Not even when she stood high up and gazed down at the reflected floor only to see Annika scuttle away out of sight still.
It reminded her of the day she'd died trying to rescue a cat from underneath a car parked on the hill. The driver claimed he'd always put the handbrake on and that was the one day he forgot but nothing could change the fact that the cat ran out into oncoming traffic and Annika had knocked her head against the underside of the car, stunning herself and bumping it just enough to get it rolling over her fragile little head.
Elba remembered exactly where the tyre had crushed Annika's head. It was along the bridge of her nose, just about where her head stopped peeping in the mirrors. She wondered if the rest of Annika haunted her or if it was just the topmost part of her. Maybe that's where the soul was kept?
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