Michelle had a talent for turning annoyance into a theatre production.
She became annoyed when —
People stood on the wrong side of escalators.
People sent more than a single voice message.
People sent reminders — even gentle ones.
Aggravation was her middle name.
Work had been particularly irritating, so Michelle wasn’t in a giving mood.
A new phone app manifested itself.
Annoyed? Report them.
“A new complaint service,” she thought. “About time.”
A passenger shared music — at an unsolicited number of decibels — on the train.
Another sang off key.
Another occupied two seats.
On went her phone camera — and the app.
Like all apps, it consumed.
She reported the off-key singer again.
The lady —
Vanished.
The two-seat passenger, too, disappeared.
As did the music enthusiast.
Michelle was delighted. The world was quiet.
At last.
She started a voyeuristic search.
A notification hovered.
“The perpetrators are at the complaint department of Annoyed. They will remain here until you withdraw the complaints.”
Before she could register this, another notification.
“You have been reported.”
Within seconds, she found herself at the complaint department.
Dripping taps.
Mosquitoes.
Too-bright screens.
She glanced over her shoulder.
The off-key singer. Still off-key.
They had used the app.
“Now…perhaps an agreement?”
Mirrors of the Mind by Michelle Liew is a collection of psychological and supernatural short stories that explore the quiet unease beneath ordinary moments. These are not tales of spectacle, but of subtle fracture — where memory distorts, silence speaks, and the self is not always singular. In these stories, what is unseen often carries the greatest weight, and what lingers is not what is shown, but what is felt.
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