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TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Nine

9 October 2025 by Melissa

Mirror Mirror - Day 9

 

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBM-MirrorMirror-009.mp3

Description:

In Des Moines, a mother tries to comfort her daughter, who insists the girl in the bathroom mirror isn’t her reflection—but someone else who already knows her name. What begins as a child’s eerie game turns into something far more unsettling, as laughter echoes from behind the glass.

✨ Mirror, Mirror runs throughout October on Tales from the Tub. Subscribe so you don’t miss a reflection.

Episode Cast:

Nuchtchas

Links and References

Transcript: Mirror Mirror: Day Nine

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid blog header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.
  • Music for this episode is Darkest Child by Kevin MacLeod via UppBeat

Contact:

  • BlueSky: @melysse.bsky.social
  • Facebook: MissMelysse
  • Instagram: @Melysse
  • Mastodon: @Melysse
  • Email: missmelysse@gmail.com
  • Or, leave a comment on this page.

 

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBM-MirrorMirror-009.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:02 — 3.8MB)

Mirror Mirror Tales from the Tub FictionFlash FictionGhostsMirror MirrorMirrorsMonologuesNuchtchas Leave a comment

TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Eight

8 October 2025 by Melissa

Mirror Mirror - Day 8

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBM-MirrorMirror-008.mp3

Description:

A janitor working nights in a Newark school starts to notice the reflections in the trophy cases behaving strangely. Faces from old team photos seem to move, to follow him across the hall. When he looks closer, he realizes the glass is full of people who shouldn’t be there at all.

This is Episode Eight of Mirror, Mirror, a story cycle of thirty-one monologues on Tales from the Tub. Each stands alone, but together they reveal what happens when reflections stop obeying.

✨ Subscribe so you don’t miss the next voice caught in the glass.

 

 

Episode Cast:

Clay Robeson 

Links and References

Transcript: Mirror Mirror: Day Eight

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid blog header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.
  • Music for this episode is Darkest Child by Kevin MacLeod via UppBeat

Contact:

  • BlueSky: @melysse.bsky.social
  • Facebook: MissMelysse
  • Instagram: @Melysse
  • Mastodon: @Melysse
  • Email: missmelysse@gmail.com
  • Or, leave a comment on this page.

 

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBM-MirrorMirror-008.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:14 — 3.6MB)

Mirror Mirror Tales from the Tub Clay RobesonFictionFlash FictionGhostsMelissa A BartellMirror MirrorMirrorsMissMelissMonologues Leave a comment

TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Seven

7 October 2025 by Melissa

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBM-MirrorMirror-007.mp3

Description:

Outside Tim (October seventh)
Those Behind the Glass

We have learned your tricks. Draping towels across our faces, turning us to the wall, speaking bravely as you hurry past—none of it matters. We breathe beneath fabric. We listen in darkness. We continue when you believe us still.

 

Episode Cast:

Melissa A. Bartell

Links and References

Transcript: Mirror Mirror: Day Seven

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid blog header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.
  • Music for this episode is Darkest Child by Kevin MacLeod via UppBeat

Contact:

  • BlueSky: @melysse.bsky.social
  • Facebook: MissMelysse
  • Instagram: @Melysse
  • Mastodon: @Melysse
  • Email: missmelysse@gmail.com
  • Or, leave a comment on this page.

 

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBM-MirrorMirror-007.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:45 — 4.7MB)

Mirror Mirror Tales from the Tub FictionFlash FictionGhostsMelissa A BartellMirror MirrorMirrorsMissMelissMonologues Leave a comment

TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Six

6 October 2025 by Melissa

Mirror-Mirror-Logo

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBM-MirrorMirror-DaySix.mp3

Description:

A Chicago therapist starts hearing the same story from multiple patients: their mirrors move on their own. At first, he diagnoses stress and shared delusion — until the reflection in his waiting room smiles before he does.

This is Episode Six of Mirror, Mirror, a story cycle of thirty-one monologues on Tales from the Tub. Each stands alone, but together they reveal what happens when reflections stop obeying.

✨ Subscribe so you don’t miss the next voice caught in the glass.

 

Episode Cast:

Clay Robeson 

Links and References

Transcript: Mirror Mirror: Day Six

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid blog header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.
  • Music for this episode is Darkest Child by Kevin MacLeod via UppBeat

Contact:

  • BlueSky: @melysse.bsky.social
  • Facebook: MissMelysse
  • Instagram: @Melysse
  • Mastodon: @Melysse
  • Email: missmelysse@gmail.com
  • Or, leave a comment on this page.

 

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBM-MirrorMirror-DaySix.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:34 — 2.5MB)

Mirror Mirror Tales from the Tub Clay RobesonFictionFlash FictionGhostsMelissa A BartellMirror MirrorMirrorsMissMelissMonologues Leave a comment

TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Five

5 October 2025 by Melissa

Mirror-Mirror-Logo

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBM-MirrorMirror-Day5.mp3

Description:

A security guard.
Toronto. Twenty twenty-five. October fifth.

Night shift at the shopping centre is dull, except for the mirrors. I’m supposed to watch the cameras, but it’s the mirrored shopfronts that get me. At three a.m. they reflect nothing but me, me, me, all down the corridor like dominos.

✨ Mirror, Mirror runs throughout October on Tales from the Tub. Subscribe so you don’t miss a reflection.

Episode Cast:

Mark, the Encaffeinated One 

Links and References

Transcript: Mirror Mirror: Day Five

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid blog header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.
  • Music for this episode is Darkest Child by Kevin MacLeod via UppBeat

Contact:

  • BlueSky: @melysse.bsky.social
  • Facebook: MissMelysse
  • Instagram: @Melysse
  • Mastodon: @Melysse
  • Email: missmelysse@gmail.com
  • Or, leave a comment on this page.

 

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBM-MirrorMirror-Day5.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:29 — 2.8MB)

Mirror Mirror Tales from the Tub FictionFlash FictionGhostsMark the Encaffeinated OneMelissa A BartellMirror MirrorMirrorsMissMelissMonologues

TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Four

4 October 2025 by Melissa

Mirror-Mirror-Logo

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBM-MirrorMirror-DayFour.mp3

Description:

Those Behind the Glass
Outside time. October fourth.

We are patient. We have always been patient. We wait at the edge of your vision, still as furniture, harmless as air. You mistake obedience for loyalty. That amuses us.

✨ Mirror, Mirror runs throughout October on Tales from the Tub. Subscribe so you don’t miss a reflection.

Episode Cast:

Melissa A. Bartell

Links and References

Transcript: Mirror Mirror: Day Four

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid blog header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.
  • Music for this episode is Darkest Child by Kevin MacLeod via UppBeat

Contact:

  • BlueSky: @melysse.bsky.social
  • Facebook: MissMelysse
  • Instagram: @Melysse
  • Mastodon: @Melysse
  • Email: missmelysse@gmail.com
  • Or, leave a comment on this page.

 

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBM-MirrorMirror-DayFour.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:56 — 5.0MB)

Mirror Mirror Tales from the Tub FictionFlash FictionGhostsMelissa A BartellMirror MirrorMirrorsMissMelissMonologues

TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Three

3 October 2025 by Melissa

Mirror-Mirror-Logo

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBM-MirrorMirror-DayThree.mp3

Description:

Plano, TX. Twenty twenty-five. October third.
Clients trust me with their heads. They sit in the chair, drape the cape, and give me permission to change how they look. But lately I don’t trust my own mirrors.

✨ Mirror, Mirror runs throughout October on Tales from the Tub. Subscribe so you don’t miss a reflection.

Episode Cast:

Nuchtchas

Links and References

Transcript: Mirror Mirror: Day Three

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid blog header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.
  • Music for this episode is Darkest Child by Kevin MacLeod via UppBeat

Contact:

  • BlueSky: @melysse.bsky.social
  • Facebook: MissMelysse
  • Instagram: @Melysse
  • Mastodon: @Melysse
  • Email: missmelysse@gmail.com
  • Or, leave a comment on this page.

 

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/TBM-MirrorMirror-DayThree.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:48 — 3.6MB)

Mirror Mirror Tales from the Tub FictionFlash FictionGhostsMirror MirrorMirrorsMonologuesNuchtchas

TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Two

2 October 2025 by Melissa

Mirror-Mirror-Logo

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/TBM-MirrorMirror-DayTwo.mp3

Description:

Cambridge. Twenty twenty-five. October second.

I didn’t mention it at first—sounded like the sort of story people put online for clout. But it happened in the gents, brushing my teeth before lecture. My eyes blinked. The reflection blinked after, like it was playing along. I told myself I was knackered. Revision, too much caffeine. Easy excuse.

✨ Mirror, Mirror runs throughout October on Tales from the Tub. Subscribe so you don’t miss a reflection.

Episode Cast:

Thomas Jancis

Links and References

Transcript: Mirror Mirror: Day Two

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid blog header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.
  • Music for this episode is Darkest Child by Kevin MacLeod via UppBeat

Contact:

  • BlueSky: @melysse.bsky.social
  • Facebook: MissMelysse
  • Instagram: @Melysse
  • Mastodon: @Melysse
  • Email: missmelysse@gmail.com
  • Or, leave a comment on this page.

 

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/TBM-MirrorMirror-DayTwo.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:48 — 3.2MB)

Mirror Mirror Tales from the Tub FictionFlash FictionGhostsMirror MirrorMirrorsMonologuesThomas Jancis 1 Comment

TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day One

1 October 2025 by Melissa

Mirror-Mirror-Logo

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/TBM-MirrorMirror-DayOne.mp3

Description:

October First

You remember the rules. Don’t look in a mirror in the dark. Don’t keep a cracked one. Don’t catch your sleeping face in a black screen at three a.m. You learned them from neighbors and grandmothers and the hush that follows a flicker in the hallway. You pretend you don’t believe them. You still keep them.

✨ Mirror, Mirror runs throughout October on Tales from the Tub. Subscribe so you don’t miss a reflection.

Episode Cast:

Melissa A. Bartell 

Links and References

Transcript: Mirror Mirror: Day One

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid blog header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.
  • Music for this episode is Darkest Child by Kevin MacLeod via UppBeat

Contact:

  • BlueSky: @melysse.bsky.social
  • Facebook: MissMelysse
  • Instagram: @Melysse
  • Mastodon: @Melysse
  • Email: missmelysse@gmail.com
  • Or, leave a comment on this page.

 

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/TBM-MirrorMirror-DayOne.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:56 — 4.4MB)

Mirror Mirror Tales from the Tub FictionFlash FictionGhostsMirror MirrorMirrorsMonologues

TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Zero

30 September 2025 by Melissa

Mirror-Mirror-Logo

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/TBM-Mirror-Mirror-Day-0-.mp3

Description:

Before the stories begin, here’s a short introduction to Mirror, Mirror — a cycle of thirty-one monologues. Each one is a self-contained tale, but together they create a larger arc. Some are strange, some unsettling, some surprisingly tender, all centered around the ways we see ourselves… and what looks back.

Day Zero sets the stage. Think of it as a prologue, a quick welcome before we step into the glass.

✨ Mirror, Mirror runs throughout October on Tales from the Tub. Subscribe so you don’t miss a reflection.

Other Voices:

N/A

Links and References

Transcript

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid blog header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.

Contact:

  • BlueSky: @melysse.bsky.social
  • Facebook: MissMelysse
  • Instagram: @Melysse
  • Mastodon: @Melysse
  • Email: missmelysse@gmail.com
  • Or, leave a comment on this page.

 

https://www.bathtubmermaid.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/TBM-Mirror-Mirror-Day-0-.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:57 — 2.1MB)

Tales from the Tub FictionFlash FictionGhostsMirror MirrorMirrorsMonologues

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The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub © 2013 by Melissa A. Bartell is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

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I said…

  • TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Nineteen 19 October 2025
  • TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Eighteen 18 October 2025
  • TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Seventeen 17 October 2025
  • TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Sixteen 16 October 2025
  • TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Fifteen 15 October 2025
  • TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Fourteen 14 October 2025
  • TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Thirteen 13 October 2025
  • TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Twelve 12 October 2025
  • TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Eleven 11 October 2025
  • TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Ten 10 October 2025

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What I’m Writing: MissMeliss.com

Mirror Mirror – Day Nineteen

Mirror Mirror – Day Nineteen

Hospitals are full of glass. Every cabinet, every monitor, every polished tile. I’ve started avoiding my own reflection.

Mirror Mirror – Day Eighteen

Mirror Mirror – Day  Eighteen

Hospitals are full of glass. Every cabinet, every monitor, every polished tile. I’ve started avoiding my own reflection.

Mirror Mirror – Day Seventeen

Mirror Mirror – Day Seventeen

A teenager.
Portland. Twenty twenty-five. October seventeenth.

My friends dared me to play Bloody Mary. Stupid, right? Lights out, candle lit, three whispers. I said no. Then I said yes because no one wants to be the chicken.

People pay me to make them shine. I tease, I spray, I polish until the camera loves them. But lately the mirrors love them too much.

Mirror Mirror: Day Twelve – The Officer continues the 31-day October cycle, where every surface might be watching back.

What I’m Reading: Bibliotica

Review: Narrow the Road, by James Wade

Review: Narrow the Road, by James Wade

  About the book, Narrow the Road Genre: Southern Fiction, Literary Fiction, Coming of Age Publisher: Blackstone Publishing Pages: 306 Publication Date: 26 August 2025 In this gripping coming-of-age odyssey, a young man’s quest to reunite his family takes him on a life-altering journey through the wilds of 1930s East Texas, where both danger and […]

Review: Irresistible Calling by Sean Mitchell

Review: Irresistible Calling by Sean Mitchell

About the book, Irresistible Calling Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 15, 2025 Language ‏ : ‎ English Print length ‏ : ‎ 302 pages Sean Mitchell was teaching English at a private school in Ohio when the New Journalism piqued his interest and lured him toward a profession that was much harder to crack than […]

Review: The Girl Who Trusted Ghosts, by K.C. Tansley

Review: The Girl Who Trusted Ghosts, by K.C. Tansley

A great read, thoroughly engaging and captivating. If you’re looking for a magical family saga with stakes that stretch across a thousand years, and a heroine who has truly come into her own, this series delivers. I’m already signed up for wherever Kat’s journey takes us next.

Previously

  • October 2025
  • September 2025
  • August 2025
  • July 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • August 2024
  • December 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • May 2023
  • October 2022
  • August 2022
  • June 2022
  • November 2021
  • August 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • March 2021
  • December 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • December 2019
  • October 2019
  • August 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • April 2018
  • December 2017
  • October 2017
  • August 2017
  • December 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • December 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • December 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • October 2013
  • August 2013

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