Reflections

Something about that mirror had her intrigued. It wasn’t the opaque sheen of clouds and tarnishes from centuries of living but it wasn’t the crystal clear reversal from whence the debris coats.

She turned to the old woman behind the counter and said “Excuse me, Miss” in her English accent.

“Yes, love?” The old woman manning the cash register replied. Her name tag read Cynthia Livingstone; a fine Scottish name indeed. “What would you be needing?”

“Well I was wondering, how much would this mirror be worth if it had a good scrub down?” Alisa asked. “I mean with this crud all over it I-“

“Oh you wouldn’t want to wash the dirt and grime off of that, my dear” she interrupted.

Yet more intrigue within Alisa’s intelligent mind. “Why would a mirror need tarnish and stains?” she asked.

“You wouldn’t believe me… but just trust me; the grime should stay on.” Cynthia stated.

Alisa turn her head back to the mirror. The imagination of this girl had broken free with the whimsical ways the mirror could need grime. Maybe it was a magic mirror and if you cleaned it you would receive three wishes! The thoughts were endless but her rational side took over her thought process. There’s no reason why a mirror would need tarnish, none. I’ll just get it and wash it off later.

“How much is it?”

“Well I’ll sell it only if you promise not to wash it off.” Miss Livingstone replied, “We don’t want anyone getting hurt now do we!”

‘Did she just say I’d be hurt?’ She asked herself. She turned to Miss Livingstone with a perplexed look and exclaimed “I won’t wash it off, just I want to know why I shouldn’t.”

“Well, it’s a family heirloom, from the 16th century if I do say so myself!” she responded. “A lot of old folklore in my family from way back when. Just some old traditions, that’s all. Just don’t wash it and you can have it!”

“Fine, I’ll let it be dirty! How much is it now?”

“About £20 Deary!”

Alisa purchased the mirror and put it in the back seat of her car; mirror’s face towards the front of the car. As she drove home back to the small English village she had lived in her entire life she ever so often found herself drawn to this perplexing mirror. Something about it was attracting her. Periodically she would stare into the reflection of her stare from her car mirror to the mirror.

When finally she got home she took the mirror into her estate and put it on the wall directly in front of her bed set. She decided to wash it the next day. The sun had set several hours ago and the clock read 10:37 PM.

Alisa laid down in her four post mahogany bed under he blue comforter and white under sheets. Something about the mirror kept catching her eye. Sleeping for several minutes or hours (she could never really tell, she only knew she was waking up often) she would sit up and stair at her reflection.

What fascination did she have for that mirror?

                                                     ~~~

Her alarm rang at 7:00 AM sharp but she was already awake. She had her coffee on the table, half empty and stained from several previous cups.

She had been sipping it since about 4:00 AM.

At first she hadn’t noticed the buzzing of her digital clock. It took her 10 minutes of the ringing before she finally caught on. In a state of delirium she had been staring into her own eyes through the dirt of the mirror.

It was Sunday so she didn’t need to go to work that day. Instead she went into her foyer and down a hall that led to her kitchen; walking silently across her stained wood floor (her socks helped keep her anonymity).

When she got to her tea pot on the green counter top she went to refill her mug. She hadn’t even realized it was still half full. “Oh.. that’s odd,” she said to herself. She topped her mug off and went back to her room and changed into public worthy attire.

When she went to her closet she found her clothes from yesterday still on her. “Okay.. I’m going crazy” she said with a giggle but she had doubts in the back of her mind.

She took off her top and pants and put on a blouse and jeans. When she looked into the mirror mounted on her door she saw something petrifying. Her reflection from the mirror she had bought from the antique shop was staring back at her but there was no way she could have been in it.

She quickly whipped around and peered into her new mirror; white blouse half buttoned. Her reflection was gone.

“I’m really going crazy.” This time she said that in honestly with a worrisome undertone. She was truly skeptical of washing off the mirror now. What would happen if… ”No, no, no nothing will happen it’s a bloody mirror!” But even she didn’t believe herself.

She finished buttoning her blouse and walked down the halls of her family’s estate; she was the last living member of her family since the fire burned her mother and father in their sleep while she was in her dorm. The old Victorian, yellow clad home was almost too large for one person.

She went back into her kitchen, grabbed the glass cleaner, wet her blue sponge, and took some sheets of paper towels. *THUD* “What the…” she said startled.

It came from my bedroom… What was it?

Still carrying her cleaning supplies she ran into her bed room to see nothing out of the ordinary. Alisa walked throughout her room; searching for something that seemed to have fallen. Finally she looked at the wall for which bore her mirror.

A small crack had erupted from where the mirror’s bottom edge met the wall. “The hell…” she exclaimed.

Did someone lift the mirror up and slam it back down? No that’s insane… I’m the only one in the house. What the hell is going on!?

She tried to settle herself by spraying the glass cleaner on the face of the mirror. While doing so she looked into the reflection of her eyes with a straight face. It was grinning.

She fell back onto her bed. Stumbling and tripping back over her foot board and onto the bed all the way back to her pillow and head board. When she got to the wall the reflection was of reality. “Okay I’m going bloody nuts!” she said with yet another giggle but she knew she was being serious.

The mirror still had it’s sprays of glass cleaner dripping down it’s face. The whole house was quiet while Alisa sat there staring into the reflection of her. She sat there for a total of 6 hours.

                                                     ~~~

By the time she came back from her conscious comatose she didn’t take her eyes of the mirror. She got up (continuing to peer at the mirror, not even blinking) she walked out of the room facing the mirror. When she backed out the door she turned and ran out of the house. She hopped into her Toyota and drove back to the antique shop 12 miles away paying no attention to stop signs and red lights nor even speed limit signs.

She stopped right in front of the door. She got out (without closing her car door) and barged into the shop. An old man was behind the cash register now. Alisa shouted “Where’s Cynthia!?”

The old man grunted and said “Who?”

“The old woman” Alisa stated frantically “The one who was manning the cash register. Here. Yesterday. Sold me the mirror.” He shook his head in a negative manner. “Come on you’ve got to know her! Cynthia!”

“I don’t know anyone named Cynthia besides my wife.” He began to explain but he cut himself off in sincere manner;

showing obvious sorrow, “She-“

Alisa looked at the old man as if both of them were equally insane.

He started again, “She has been dead for several years now. She disappeared and we-” He cut off again. “We never found her body.” He started crying now.

What is going on? I just saw Cynthia less than 24 hours ago! SHE WAS IN THE STORE! I’m going insane!

“No she was here. She was right where you are now,” Alisa exclaimed. “I know she was I got a mirror from her!”

He looked up from his silent sobs and tearing cries and stared at her for several seconds, “Mi- Mirror?” His face went from sorrowful to distraught and panicking. “You have the mirror?”

Alisa was now completely and utterly terrified, intrigued, enthralled, and confused. “Yeah… A mirror.”

“Was it covered in dust?”

“Yeah; Cynthia kept saying not to wash it of but I-“

“You didn’t wash it off did you?” He asked.

“I started to and-“

“Get out!” He yelled. He was panicking now; near hysterical. He seemed terrified, he was shuddering and shivering. “Just get out!” He shouted!

She backed out of the antique shop startled and more confused than ever before. She stumbled back to her car and drove back home. Again ignoring realities rules on driving for she was lost in the snow banks of thought. Is it cursed?

She couldn’t stop thinking about the mirror. When she got home she walked straight to her room and sat on her bed staring into the mirror. Her reflection wasn’t there.

                                                     ~~~

Staring into the mysterious mirror for hours without moving, Alisa had come to the conclusion the grime and dirt that coats the mirror must have kept the spirit of the reflections within the mirror. The glass cleaner had made a hole in the grime about a three foot radius in the left side.

Where is my reflection, where am I? Where did I go?

Finally Alisa’s reflection walked in and sat on the bed in the exact spot Alisa had in reality. Alisa’s reflection stared at her for several minutes until finally Alisa got up and walked to the mirror. “Who are you?’

The reflection simply looked at her and tilted her head slightly to the right. Grinning.

“Answer me who are you!” Alisa said heatedly, “Why are you in this mirror!?”

The reflection again simply tilted her head to the right. This time she opened her mouth (with a slight smirk) and said “You”.

Alisa heard it as if she said it. Not out of the mirror but as if she herself said it. “You’re not me; I’m me!” She stated.

The reflection got up now. Standing only a few feet from the mirrors reflective face she leaned forward and whispered “You are me.”

Again Alisa heard it as though she herself said it. She was shocked and mortified now. She leaned forward only an inch from her nose touching the actual glass of the mirror.

Suddenly her reflection get’s closer and closer to the same position as her reversed. Alisa’s reflection lifted her hand and moved it forward as if to rest it on the glass. When she got to where Alisa thought the glass would stop her her hand kept moving through the mirror.

As it got closer and closer to Alisa she was to petrified to move. The hand reached further and further; closer and closer, her reflection grinning more and more as she grabbed Alisa’s collar and jerked her head into the mirror. Her head passed right through.

Alisa’s reflection dragged Alisa further and further into the mirror until she fell to the reverse of the stained wood floor she remembered from her world. “You are me and I am you” Alisa’s reflection said. Now Alisa heard it as though her reflection had said it.

Her reflection hopped through the portal of the mirror. She left Alisa debilitated from the fall on the floor. After going through the mirror entirely her reflection turned around and said “Goodbye.” Alisa still on the floor rolled over and looked at her. She kiss her hand and blew it toward her through the mirror.

Her reflection turned around and grabbed a cloth and draped it over the mirror in reality. The feeble cloth held the worlds separate much as the dirt had done. Her reflection walked out of her room and rummaged through her house.

“So a reflection got you too?” Cynthia said from the corner of the bedroom. Alisa looked at her perplexed. Her features were reversed from what she remembered.

“I-” Alisa said, too mortified but the previous moments to continue. She got up from the floor and approached the mirror and the wall and started shoving on it; trying to find a weak spot to get through the the really world but she couldn’t find one. She pushed with her hands, then her shoulder; she used her entire body to create force. Nothing worked. The entire mirror was sealed.

                                                     ~~~