The face framed in gold stared back at me, always with my own eyes. Sometimes those eyes held tears, sometimes they were happy tears sometimes they were not. The face stared back at me every day, until today.

Today was the first day I didn’t see me in the little gilded hand mirror.

I am 99 years old tomorrow.

44 years ago today the little mirror came home with me from the antiques shop just ...

“The moment he saw what the chest contained, he wished he had never opened it… but it was too late now.”

His booties stuck to the viscous mess on the floor. The air was noxious with all of the typical odors you might expect in such a situation. But what was before him was anything but typical. A greenish-gray mass lay steaming and hot under the glare of the sterile light and it wriggled. Nothing ...