[ WP ] You have developed and ability to see how people will die when you look at them . Your entire life you avoided pictures of yourself , but today you forgot , and , brushing your teeth in the morning , looked in the mirror ...

*First time submitting* 
 
 I'll never forget the first time my `` gift'' came to me. I was seven or eight and hanging from the jungle gym of the local playground. My eyes caught those of a much older man sitting on a bench. As I stared into them, the world fell away around me, and suddenly I was in a car as it went head on with a large truck. 
 
 Screaming loudly, I slammed my eyes shut as hard as I could and could feel the warm tears forming in the corner of my eyes. `` Are you ok? Everything's OK, baby!'' I could hear my mother's voice penetrating the silence. When I opened my eyes, I was back on the playground, though now I was in my mother's arms. 
 
 I did my best to avoid eye contact with anyone for the rest of my life, which caused great concern from my parents. They took me to see all sorts of doctors, but I could n't tell them why I acted the way I did. I was young still, but smart enough to know I would end up in a mental institution if I had told the truth. 
 
 The worst session came when I was 12, and my parents took me to a psychiatrist. They strapped me into a chair, and the doctor forced me to make eye contact with him. To the outsider, I just began sobbing and screaming. Inside my mind was a completely other matter. There I was sat across the room from a wrinkled old man as he lifted the gun. Paralysis had set in, and I could do nothing but watch him put the gun in his mouth and pull the trigger. I became inconsolable, but the doctor pressed on. 
 
 My father replaced the doctor in the chair in front of me. Once again, equipment was used to hold my eyes open and force eye contact. I held out as long as I could, but eventually the vision broke through. I was in the front seat of an Ambulance on a very dark country road. `` No, daddy. Please do n't die!'' I screamed - this being the first time that words had passed my lips successfully during a vision. My words fell on deaf ears though, and I heard a voice from the back tell the driver that he was unable to resuscitate the patient. 
 
 I became a total recluse after that session; only leaving my bedroom when I absolutely had to. My parents signed me out of school, in favor of home schooling, but I could n't even handle that. 
 
 My parents desperately needed a break from the burden of my'gift', and so they decided to take a weekend away. I was 14 at the time, and they figured that I could look after myself, or maybe they just did n't care anymore. I had n't bathed/groomed in a week at this point, so I took my first opportunity to run straight to the bathroom. 
 
 I got undressed, started the water, and decided to brush my teeth first. Applying an excessive amount of paste to my brush, I slipped it into my mouth and really went to town on my filthy teeth. I must have scrubbed them for 10 minutes before I finally stopped after noticing a large amount of blood in the sink. Without any hesitation whatsoever, my face snapped up so that I could inspect the damage in the mirror. It was then that I locked eyes with myself. The familiar darkness surrounded me, but then, to my amazement, the bathroom came back. Except now I was standing in the corner, and I could see myself looking into the mirror. 
 
 When the other me snapped back to reality, a single tear rolled down her cheek cheek before her eyes clinched tightly. She backed away from the mirror slowly, making it a few steps before her feet became tangled in the mess that was her recently discarded clothing. She tripped and fell into the bathtub; the water running red with the very essence of her life spilling from her head. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and prepared to relive the horrible thing I had just seen. 
 

