The Mirror – Part Two
William M Carter
The Shard
Victoria hadn’t planned to spend her spring break clearing out a deceased woman’s house, but family obligations had a way of changing plans. The apartment smelled like old books, lavender and mold. Everything was covered in dust. She opened several windows to let fresh air in.
The apartment had been vacant since Aunt Evelyn died nine months earlier. Victoria had fond memories when her family visited her aunt as a little girl, and always played with her aunt’s collection of vintage dolls.
Such fun times Aunt Evelyn.
Aunt Evelyn had lived alone for decades. She was a recluse who loved antique collecting, and her apartment was filled to the brim. Victoria was boxing up trinkets in the bedroom when she found a fragmented mirror piece. It was hidden in the back of a velvet jewelry box and she almost missed it. When she picked up the jagged shard it was cold and glowed red.
The shard was the size of a playing card, and when she flipped it over Victoria thought she saw a face. A woman with tired eyes. Her hair was blonde and she wore a nightgown.
The woman in the mirror’s lips moved, but there was only silence outside the shard. Victoria panicked and dropped the mirror fragment. It fell to the hardwood floor but did not break.
I must be seeing things.
Victoria regained her composure and placed the mirror into her pocket, and continued cleaning Aunt Evelyn’s apartment for several more hours.
That night, in her apartment Victoria couldn’t stop thinking about the shard. She had boxed up dozens of keepsakes from her aunt’s apartment, but kept the mirror fragment. Victoria placed the Shard on her desk, which was an arm’s length from her bed.
At exactly 2:13 am the shard flamed red, alternating between a dim to bright glow. Victoria, who never woke up this early sat up in bed. She glanced at the desk and stared at the mirror.
This is just not possible.
Victoria saw three people inside the mirror. She recognized the blonde woman from earlier, someone who resembled the blonde woman, and a man with golden hair.
The man was pounding his fist on the inside of the mirror. Victoria saw him speaking but could not hear him.
“What do you want?” Victoria asked the man.
“Help us,” the man said. Victoria read his lips.
Then, like a flick of a switch the mirror went dark. The three people in the mirror were gone.
Revelations
Victoria didn’t sleep the rest of the night. She sat on the couch, and fired up her laptop, and typed haunted mirrors into the search engine. After several dead ends Victoria found a paranormal blog. She read a comment at the bottom of the blog.
Does anyone know what happened to the person who lived on the third-floor apartment at the corner of Main and First Street? The missing person is my sister Sandra, and disappeared after the earthquake. The only thing that survived is the frame of an old mirror, with missing glass. Nobody knows what happened to Sandra. Odd that everything was destroyed except the frame of that mirror,
Victoria gazed at the attached photo. It was the woman she saw in the shard. She remembered reading about the earthquake. It had been strange that only this particular three-story house was damaged.
That house is only a few blocks from here. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
By late afternoon, Victoria was back at her aunt’s apartment. The building manager had given her an extra day to finish cleaning. On a hunch, she dashed to the back room again, where she’d first found the shard.
Victoria spotted an old vanity tucked in a corner, covered by an old floral sheet. She hesitated for a moment, then pulled the sheet off. She expected to see her own reflection in the vanity mirror.
Instead, Sandra was in the mirror mouthing one word. “Run!”
Victoria, shocked by what she saw stumbled backwards, and almost tripped over a storage trunk. When she looked at the vanity’s mirror again, Victoria only saw her own reflection.
Run from what?
The Mirror Lives
The next morning, Victoria couldn’t bring herself to look at the shard. She wrapped it in a dish towel, stuffed it in a metal box, and buried it in her closet under old textbooks.
But it didn’t help.
That evening, Victoria couldn’t help herself; she grabbed the shard from its hidden location and placed it on her desk. Inside the mirror Sandy and the woman who resembled Sandra, The Reflection, were competing for Ken’s attention. Then Sandra passed a note thru the shard to Victoria hoping The Reflection didn’t notice.
At midnight bring the shard to the park and wait near the water fountain. Do this and I will reveal the secrets you seek.
At midnight, Victoria arrived at the park as instructed. She held the shard over the water, expecting to see the three mirror people.
Suddenly, Victoria’s mind was transported to the inner mirror, but her physical body remained at the park.
“You came,” Sandra whispered.
“Yes, but I don’t understand any of this.” Victoria gripped the fractured mirror, tight.
“Get ready this is an incredible story, Victoria. My Refection forced me into the mirror. She had been warned that she needed to comeback into the mirror and replace me, or there would be consequences.”
Sandra stopped for a moment and took a deep breath.
“When she refused The Mirror Wizard sent my Reflection to The Fire Pit of Snakes for an eternity of sin and torture. The mirror then guided Ken, myself and all the others to Paradise, but it was not yet our time to die. The earth quake was the mirror trying to send us to our permanent destinations.”
“The mirror didn’t die?”
“That’s right.” Sandras’s voice was weakening.
“If The Reflection was sent to The Fire Pit of Snakes, why is she in the mirror? Shouldn’t you be outside the mirror?” Victoria asked.
“The Refection is so evil The Snake Witch would not allow her to enter. Her ability to swap with me is void, because she needs to be outside of the mirror to accomplish it. She needs a new host body.”
“Let me guess, she wants me to be her host?’ Victoria stammered.
“Yes, because you possess the Shard she has become attracted to you. Victoria, she will try and lure your body into the mirror. In return, she will become you outside the mirror.”
From behind a wall of blackened glass, Ken appeared and spoke.
“I’ve seen this happen before,” he said. “The mirror was made to protect love, but it mutated, and began preserving obsession instead. Now Reflections are set free by replacing innocent people to a doomed life inside the mirror.”
“Can I destroy the shard?” Victoria asked.
“If you extinguish it, you’ll trap us all including you.”
Then as if on cue, The Reflection appeared. She began walking toward Victoria with her right arm extended.
Sandra whispered. “She found us.”
“Victoria, do not allow The Reflection to touch you. She will become you outside the glass, and you will become a prisoner inside mirror, forever.” Ken grabbed Victoria’s wrist.
“Leave Now.”
Victoria bolted back into her body in the park. The shard was glowing red and was hot to the touch. Then a ghost-like version of The Reflection appeared in the basin.
“See you soon Victoria.” The Reflection laughed.
Victoria grabbed the still hot shard and tossed it into the basin. The fountain spewed flames instead of water. Fires lit on top of the water, causing the water to boil. The Reflection screamed in agony. Victoria stayed until the cries stopped.
She was sure her action killed The Reflection. Victoria also knew Sandra and Ken would likely spend eternity inside the mirror. Still, she hoped someday she could help them escape their prison.
For now, at least they have each other.
The End
Amazing❤️❤️😍
Continue this series!
I love the plot.
This is great. I read the first part and second part and I think you should write more. I love it.