In 1510 a pretty young lady lived in Vienna. Her name was Clara. She led a free and unbridled life. For hours she made up her face and couldn’t stop admiring herself in the mirror.
One day the girl became very sick and when she felt that bad that she was close to die she promised in her prayers to change her dissolute life if only she would recover.
The prayers helped and after a short time she was completely healthy again.
But the good resolutions were forgotten quickly and soon she was back in front of her mirror and looked at herself full of pride. She powdered her face white, dyed her eyebrows to black and painted her mouth red.One day engrossed in painting her face Clara heard a soft crackling of glass. She held her ear close to the mirror surface. Clearly she could hear a faint crackling. She looked for cracks in the glass but – what she saw now scared her a lot - she noticed that her face was no longer visible.
The surface was completely empty.
Surprised she wiped her hand over the mirror. Suddenly she felt held by an overpowering force detaining her. At the same moment a distorted sardonic grinning devil’s face stared at Clara out of her mirror.
Anxiously and desperately she cried, “I will not be vain anymore and I promise to live modestly and piously!”
But it was too late for promises. The devil jumped out of the mirror, grabbed Clara by her hair, turned her head around till her face was black as coal and took her down to hell.
Copyright © 2012 Ingrid Prohaska
Special thanks to the Flash Pulp Crew for including this legend in their 'FlashCast 51 - Short People' !
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