Nyssa:

Steam fogged the mirror, clouding and distorting Nyssa’s face. She slicked back her hair and swiped her damp hand over the cool mirror. Wide green eyes blinked back at her. Without her usual halo of frizzy locks, her face looked tiny and gaunt, making her eyes seem cartoonishly big.

She was thinner.

Over the last week or so, she hadn’t had much of an appetite. Her collarbones jutted out and her face was scary thin. She pressed her forehead against the mirror, the cool glass felt good against her fevered face.

“Mum?” she whispered. Her breath fogged up the glass again. “Mum? What do I do?”

A flash of yellow made Nyssa step back.

Her reflection was no longer that of a gawky teenager. Soft green eyes crinkled gently beneath neatly curling locks. Her mother’s hair always behaved, no matter the humidity. She was wearing the same yellow sundress she wore the day she died.

“Mum?” Nyssa pressed her palm against the glass, her mother’s reflection copied her action. She could almost feel the warm pressure of her hand.

“I don’t know what to do. Something bad is going to happen. I don’t know if I can stop it.”

Her mother smiled gently. Her face hadn't changed in eight years. She had the same soft laugh lines around her mouth, the same rosebud lips and heart-shaped face.

Nyssa had that face.

Now that she was older, the resemblance was clear. Green eyes, olive skin. Nyssa’s nose turned up a little more at the end and she could never get her hair to stay as flat but they even smiled the same.

“I have spent so long running away, I don't know if I can stop.”

Nyssa rubbed her hands over her face. For a second, her own reflection blinked back at her, eyes filling with unshed tears. But then her mother’s warm smile was back, gently encouraging her.

“Mum, I’m scared.”

Her expression didn’t waver. Green eyes reassuring and rosebud smile confident that she would find her way. She used to look at Nyssa like that all the time. Always so sure that she would find the right path on her own.

Nyssa knew the right path, she just needed the confidence to take it. Nyssa stared at the cut on her palm for a few seconds. It had mostly scabbed over but it pulled at her skin uncomfortably. She clenched her fist, suppressing a wince.

She had to go warn Del.

But she really didn’t want to.

Her mother smiled again, proud but sad. Nyssa blinked back tears. She longed for these short moments when she could see her mother again. Sometimes it was a soft whisper in that place between waking and sleep or a wisp of perfume or her warm chuckle echoing through the empty night.

But she was always left aching and empty and somehow she missed her mother more when she left again.

“Mum, I-” Her mother’s sad smile faded, replaced with a grimace. A trickle of blood flowed from her nose, staining her rosebud mouth red. Soft curls dampened with more dripping blood and her sundress tore and dirtied. Nyssa cried out, throwing her hands up to ward off the familiar sight of her mother screaming, though no sound echoed in the small bathroom.

Nyssa stumbled back a few steps, tripping over her own feet and crying out but only her own terrified face stared back at her. Her face was drawn and pale and dark strands of hair stuck to her cheeks.

“Nyssa, are ye alrigh’?” Elsie called through the bathroom door.

“I’m fine, Elsie.” Nyssa shook the haunting image out of her head and took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m fine,” she said again like she was trying to convince herself.

So you get to see a little bit more about Nyssa's past. Let me know what you think.