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Noss ended up being ten minutes late clocking back into work, primarily due to another sharp pain in his forehead that had started while he was driving. Once he parked, he took a quick glance in the rear view mirror, noticing that there was now an “I” written next to the “L” on his forehead. He put the hat back on as he went back into the office.

On the way back to his desk, Noss noticed Mason walking towards him. Preferring to avoid eye contact, Noss opened his Blackberry, as if he had a text message, even turning down an adjacent hallway for good measure. To his delight, there was, conveniently, a message from a certain someone already waiting for him:

Hey! Are we still on for our date tonight?
I have some more news about my upcoming show.

Noss and Ginny had first started seeing each other about six weeks prior. She was a saxophone player from the country who had moved to Somewhere for the same reasons anyone else would want to move there: to become someone significant.

What Noss liked about her was the fact that unlike so many people who pursue their dreams, only to either compromise or outright give up on them, she was actually accomplishing hers, entirely on her own terms. Lately, she had started performing at local venues in the evenings, consistently gathering a sizable audience. Noss figured that she would be scouted by record company recruiters in no time. He wondered if that was the “news” that she had in store for him. As he entertained the thought, he couldn’t really consider himself surprised. 

She had the kind of attitude that made people think her ambitions weren’t just possible but inevitable. She came from nowhere to Somewhere and was actually becoming someone. At the same time, he’d spent his entire life there and could hardly be considered “significant” at all. She seemed out of his league to him sometimes. And this wasn't the first time this thought had troubled him.

You need to be better.

…

“Not one, but TWO record label reps said they would come to the show on Friday! Isn’t that great Noss!!!” Ginny’s eyes beamed as she put another forkful of spaghetti in her mouth. “I’ll be mhm- releasing albums in no time!”

“That’s fantastic Ginny! I’m happy for you.”

“Mmmhmm! Mmm!” Embarrassed, Ginny covered her mouth after talking with her mouth full. She took a moment before following up her thought, “Sorry, I’ve only been talking about me this whole time. How was your work today?”

“Oh, good. Just the usual.” Noss answered with his default response. He wasn’t always sure how to explain his work with Ginny, since their occupations were so different. However, she had said something the other day that had struck a chord with him.

“You don’t talk about yourself very much.”

Because you’re bad at it.

At this thought, he took a sip of the liquid courage he had ordered (tonight it was a gin and tonic), hoping it could talk on his behalf.

You need to be better.

“Well… actually some of the higher ups at the company had an important meeting with some customers today. They wanted to see some reports that I had written up and they liked the news I had for them. So that was cool.”

“Interesting! What kind of reports?”

“Quarterly details. Mostly. The sort of thing accountants are known for. They were important for the meeting though, so there was some tension to get them done in time and to get them right.”

“Do you ever wonder if you got anything wrong?” Curious, Ginny tilted her head a bit.

“Only all the time. One wrong number could lead to a big misinterpretation of a company’s entire financial standing. And it’s not the sort of thing that you can justify or work off of on the fly, like you can with music. It’s not like I can easily segue into something new and interesting. An error is an error and I pay the consequences for it.”

“I see… I think I get it.” At this, she averted her gaze.

Idiot.

Unsure of how to continue, the two sat in silence for a bit until Noss thought of some more small talk, “How’s your brother by the way? You said he’s visiting some time next week, right?”

“Yep. I’ve told him about you.”

“Good things I hope.” Noss added a chuckle to try and lighten the mood.

Their evening continued like this, with Noss having little to add to their conversations.

…

“Take that hat off silly, it’s like… 80 degrees out!” Ginny did her best to find some humor in Noss’ supposed ‘fashion statement’, especially after he insisted on keeping it on all through dinner. She wondered if he got some crazy new haircut and was embarrassed to show it.

“Nah, I want to keep it on. I’ve had a headache all day, and the compression seems to be helpi- hey!”

Ginny had trailed behind him and managed to yoink the hat off his head. Alarmed, he turned around quickly, revealing the three letters that now spanned the surface of his forehead. Confused, and a bit frightened, Ginny read the newly-formed word, “Lia? Is that… someone’s name? Noss… who’s Lia?”

Having not realized until now that the letters had begun to form a word (let alone a name), Noss stammered in an attempt to explain himself, “It’s nothing, I uhh… went to a party last weekend, and some guy must’ve written it there. I think his name was ‘Liam’ or something and he just wrote his name on my head as a dumb prank. Seriously, it’s nothing.”

She eyed him with skepticism still, “You? At a party? Sure, that sounds convenient enough. It seems more likely that a girl named ‘Lia’ would do that and spell her name correctly in the process, like most people on the planet Earth can! And I bet her phone number is written somewhere a little more private!”

“What? No, I swear there’s nothing else written on me!” Noss tried to explain himself, but he couldn’t really prove himself here and now though. They were arguing in the middle of a city sidewalk after all.

“Yeah, sure. Try to think of a better story next time something like that happens. Maybe your next girlfriend will buy it.” Furious, Ginny stormed off into the night.

Flustered and confused, Noss stood in place, speechless. How could he have explained to her that the most likely explanation for this was that some voice that he heard in his head that morning somehow had the ability to tattoo his forehead throughout the day without even being there?

It was only after this much time that the voice decided to make its presence known again, and not without another bout of stabbing pain to his forehead.

He didn’t want to admit it to himself, or to anyone else, but he knew exactly who she was referring to. In fact, at that moment, he needed to have a word with them. Most of their performances today were atrocious after all. But just as he began the short walk back to his apartment, something, or rather, someone, caught his attention.

Hannah Honey walked along the sidewalk at a brisk pace, mere inches away from the building next to her, leaving Noss more than enough room on the sidewalk to pass by. She wore a pink, hand me down looking hoodie, coupled by a pair of dirty, moss green colored converse high tops. She looked like she let a dice choose her outfit, complete with messy brown hair and a small, yellow backpack.

As she walked along, she seemed fidgety, trying to crack her knuckles, but unable to get any actual cracks out of them. Noss had first noticed this habit of hers when his little sister, Norah, first introduced her to him. Hannah herself even joked about it at the time, “I ran out of cracks a few hours ago.”

Noss’ only thought upon seeing her then was how odd it was that she was walking around, all alone, in this part of the city, this late, on a Tuesday night. But given that he was already in a hurry, he managed nothing more than a slight head nod to acknowledge her.

She reacted strangely and didn’t stop to say hello. She only looked at him with a puzzled expression, struck with enough confusion to say aloud, the new word that had spanned the surface of his forehead:

“LIAR?”

Flustered even more now, Noss threw his hat back on, and turned his walking pace into a jog. It didn’t take long to become a sprint.

…

After yet another shower, Noss stood in front of his bathroom mirror once again, his hands clutching either side of the sink. It was time for another meeting.

“We need to talk.”

Within the three panels of his bathroom mirror, his reflections now seemed to have their own sentience. To his left, Noss had a gentle smile, and an agreeable air about him, as if the phrase “not a problem” was his catchphrase. In the middle, Noss wore a finely pressed work suit and held a briefcase. His face was paler than the others, and his eyes looked to be a million miles ahead into the future. To his right, Noss wore a black, button down shirt with long sleeves. His hair was styled in such a way to reveal the name “Lia” on his forehead. From his facial expression, Noss could tell he was just as frustrated as he was, if not more so.

“Damn right we do,” the Noss in the right mirror asserted. “Why’d you say that shit about Ginny’s music being all care free and without consequence?”

“What are you talking about? She wasn’t offended by that.” the Noss outside the mirrors countered.

“Uhh… clearly she was. The evening was a trainwreck after that! And this certainly didn’t help.” The Noss to the right pointed to his forehead. “You know just as well as I do that my job is to get you a girlfriend. Why the fuck would you do this?”

“I didn’t do that! It was some woman that I heard in a dream last night, I swear!”

“A dream? You actually expect me to believe a bullshit excuse like that?” The Noss to the right huffed, looking to the other mirrors for assistance.

“It’s strange but… I don’t think he’s lying.” the Noss in the middle mirror added as he fixed his suit collar, “After all, these letters don’t serve a purpose to any of us, let alone him. I’m not sure if I believe what he’s saying about this ‘dream woman’, but I find it even harder to believe that Noss himself would do that.”

The Noss outside the mirrors sighed in relief, “Thank you for understanding. Also, the way you handled Mr. Gilmour this morning was top notch. Nicely done.”

“Thank you sir.” The Noss in the middle closed his eyes and nodded in a professional sort of way.

“Don’t change the subject, we still have a problem here!” The Noss to the right asserted himself again, “As far as I’m concerned, our main issue here is the fact that we just lost our first girlfriend in two years and after not even two months of dating her. All because you decided to sharpie your fucking forehead.”

“I told you I didn’t do it! It just showed up, letter by letter over the course of the day.”

“Okay, then even if I were to believe you, then how do you suggest we fix this?”

All the while, the Noss to the left remained passive and non-confrontational. This was typical of him, but this time, something was clearly on his mind. Suddenly, he broke into the argument, “Well, I actually came up with this… idea of sorts today. If we can, maybe we should try taking on our roles in a more… independent manner from now on.”

All of the Noss’ were taken aback by this. Now more nervous than he was before, the Noss outside of the mirrors needed an explanation, “What do you mean by that?”

The Noss in the left mirror continued, “Well, to be honest, I was pretty disappointed with what happened today. You saw that concerned look that Mom and Dad gave us towards the end there, right? I was going to do something about that, but I couldn’t think straight with you hemming and hawing like that. As a result, we were too quiet today, and now they probably think that something’s wrong with us. You and I both understand that being too quiet is what sets off their alarms. It’s my priority to make sure that stuff like that doesn’t happen.”

Alarmed, the Noss outside the mirrors countered, “You make it sound like I was throwing a temper tantrum! I only asked you a question, and you didn’t even take the time to answer me.”

The Noss in the left mirror stammered. His emotional state escalated significantly within a matter of seconds, now on the verge of crying all of a sudden, “D-don’t try to spin this on me! I know what you’re trying to do! You know how hard it is for me to speak for myself, so don’t try to stomp on me like you always do!”

Visibly pissed, the Noss outside the mirrors looked to the others for backup.

“Don’t look at me, I think he’s got a point!” The Noss to the right sneered.

“Of course you would.” The Noss outside the mirrors could only roll his eyes.

The Noss in the center mirror interjected, “Noss, this woman in your head that you mentioned earlier. Has she said or done anything else to you since then? If she’s the one who wrote ‘LIAR’ on your forehead, then I’d be curious to hear more about her.”

As if she had been listening the whole time, she now spoke without physical form.

“That voice! Is that her? Can you guys hear her too?” The Noss to the left looked to his two colleagues.

“Yes, I do.” The Noss in the middle answered.

“I do too. And I heard her say that she wants to set us free.” The Noss to the right added.

“Don’t listen to her. She’s… she’s not real! I… I made it all up!” Noss stammered as he needlessly shouted at his bathroom mirror. Even though his reflections could hear her voice, only he could hear the ringing of the bells and their now increasing, impeding volume.

At this, three crimson threads appeared out of thin air, shooting towards Noss’ chest. Wincing from the pain, his eyes followed the threads to their shared destination, where three long sewing needles now punctured into his skin, through his heart, and out the other side, into the bathroom wall behind him. Pinned in place.

Noss attempted to pull the needles from his chest, but they remained stuck in there, as if the blood under his skin had hardened like cement. 

“What the fuck is this? Let me go!”

The three Nosses then took their respective threads and did as they were told. Cautiously, they each pulled at the threads while simultaneously reaching out towards the inner surface of the mirror, as if they too couldn’t believe what was happening.

Terrified, Noss covered his ears and shut his eyes, now unable to do anything to stop this insane, internal coup d'etat. His entire forehead now stung with a burning sensation even stronger than before.

“Stay away stay away stay away!”

One by one, each of the Noss’ emerged from the mirror panels and into reality, carefully stepping down from the sink. For a moment, they each looked around, taking in the surroundings of a new world that seemed incredibly familiar to them, but now entirely inverted horizontally.

“You’ve got some fucking nerve bossing me around like that today. I hope you die there, blubbering on the floor.” The Noss from the right panel spat at his former host.

“I’m sorry, Noss. This was difficult, but necessary. You wouldn’t let me handle things.” The Noss from the left panel spoke in a ‘not angry, but disappointed’ sort of way.

“Sir, I don’t have any complaints with our working relationship, but it would seem as though I must now take on more responsibility here. It’s just the way the game works I guess.” The Noss from the middle panel offered his maker a handshake, but Noss could only glare back at him.

“So be it.” He said as he turned away. 

The last Noss left the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

Noss struggled to look into the mirror again, which now only reflected his own image in the center panel. His eyes were bloodshot and the label on his forehead had changed colors, from an inky, pen-like black to a searing, blood red crimson. He clutched his ears as the bells continued, now face to face with all that was left of himself.

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