The Mirror World Keep On Asking Me In
The world inside mirrors always terrified me. For some reason, I am the only one who seems to see that world, making it extra difficult for me to be calm when someone pokes their head out of a mirror and waves at me, and no one else can see that happening.
For the longest time, I spent all of my time in rooms and houses with no mirrors, which was especially difficult in as time went on and mirrors became ubiquitous in homes. At that point, I tried to remove all the mirrors in my room and the bathroom at the very least. I hated it when I would wake up in the middle of the night, because someone in the mirror world was scratching at the door trying to get my attention, or get into this world. It was even more annoying when I would wake up in the middle of the night to go pee, and would be terrified at the idea of seeing a person inside the mirror when I looked in the mirror, rather than my own dark face.
When I was younger, everyone assumed that I was just interesting in getting attention. That’s why I speak about this invisible world that exists only for me. I wanted to yell at these misinformed people. Why would I make up something so terrifying if I wanted to get attention? I would just do what the other kids do — drugs, or sex, or rock and roll. Why mirrors? Why invisible worlds?
So frustrating.
As I got older though, I tried to look at it as a gift of sorts, rather than a curse that has been dumped on unwilling and uninterested me. A gift, right? What kind of a gift? A gift that terrifies. A gift that keeps me from sleeping through the night. A gift that is always asking me to enter the mirror world, never to return again. That kind of gift, huh? Okay, then.
Gifts were never my thing anyways. Hate them. Just like I despise surprises. I like a stable life. A steady life. No surprises. Boring, really, is my thing. Having led a life filled with surprises and mad encounters, I want peace. Peace and quiet. Nothingness. A life where nothing ever happens. A deadening sort of life. That’s my kind of life.
But, I’m sure you don’t want to listen to me rant and rave about my troubles for the entire story. This story isn’t about me. It is about the mirror world. The world that only a few of us are privy to. I think, or hope, or believe that there must be others like me. Others like me who can see into the mirror world. I have never ever met anyone like me, but I am sure there must be some others. There have to be.
The entire world cannot be blind to all of those creatures who live in the mirrors that occupy all of their homes and lives. It can’t be so. I refuse to believe it’s only me.
The story starts off as it always does with an alarm clock. What? Stories don’t always start off with alarm clocks in your world? Well, they do in mine. Alarm clocks are the bane of my existence. I hate them. Why? Because I never ever get to sleep until an hour before the alarm has to ring, and then I just want to throw it against the wall.
Ahem, so as I was saying, the alarm rang, and I woke up dreading another day of life. Another day of not peace and quiet. I had no mirrors in my room at the moment, even though, I fought every single day with my mother. She says, I need to look in the mirror more often. “You never comb your hair, and your face is a complete mess. If you had a mirror in your room, you would pay more attention to your face. Just one tiny baby mirror, hmmm?”
Poor mother of mine.
She would put a mirror in my room, and the next day, she would find it smashed on the floor of my room, as I had woken up in the middle of the night, seen a random blue or black or white creature emerging from the mirror, trying to get into my room, and the only way to prevent them from making it through is to smash that damn mirror, that portal to bits. She wanted to send me to therapy. She had never known anyone with such a dire abhorrence of mirrors. She worried about me.
I got up out of bed, and looked around at my mirror-free room and sighed with pleasure.
I didn’t want to wash my face. I didn’t want to see the mirror in the bathroom that I couldn’t remove no matter how hard I tried. It was as if it were super-glued or something. I had tried for months now, unsuccessfully, to get rid of that thing. My mother thanked the Lord everyday that at least I had one mirror that I had to look at on a daily basis.
I got out of bed, placed my feet into my warm and cozy slippers. I stood there. The door to the bathroom was closed. I dreaded going in there. I didn’t want to.
I didn’t really have to brush my teeth, did I? I felt around my teeth with my tongue and saw how icky they were. Okay, I have to brush my teeth.
I gritted my teeth, took a deep breath, and opened the door to the bathroom. The gilted mirror was there against the wall as it always was.
What did you see when you see a mirror? A silvery reflective surface, right???
Not me. I wish I saw that. That would make my life easier. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see that silvery surface. It was that it wasn’t what I saw at all. There was no silvery surface for me. I looked up with dread over to the mirror and saw what I always saw.
Each mirror showed a different part of the mirror world. Each mirror was a portal to a different part of the mirror world. I don’t know if they all went into different dimensions, but I do know that they all went to different places in the mirror world. How far apart from each other, I don’t know.
This mirror always showed me the same scene. It was beautiful, if you really thought about it. It was a swampland. There was a black, dank, dark, and slimy swamp that dominated the picture. That was not the beautiful part. But behind the swamp was the gold structure. I call it structure, because it was one of those conundrums that shouldn’t really exist. It was an upside down pyramid. A golden one. And I mean, that the structure balanced itself on the pointy edge without falling out of balance. It just stood there balanced, reflecting the sunshine, in gold, pink, and orange rays of light.
Gorgeous. Freaky.
The scary part wasn’t the odd balancing act. No way — that would be tame compared to what else was in there.
The swamp was filled… with things. I don’t know what they are. They never speak. They only hiss when they see me approaching the mirror. I wanted to yell at them, “I don’t want to be able to see you guys anyways, so stop hissing at me, you evil good-for-nothing creatures.”
I don’t know how they knew that I could see them. I tried to pretend every single time that all I saw was the silvery reflective surface as everyone else did. But somehow I could never fool the mirror people. They always knew. They can always tell that about me.
I stood there, as far away from the mirror as I could. I saw the creatures, the things in the swamp, dark, smelly, slimy, they moved about the swamp water as if they were made of light, air, and silver. They were light and airy. I didn’t know how to describe them. I just knew that they didn’t like me and I didn’t like them. The only good thing about this mirror is that the swamp creatures must be defending the gold structure, because they never ever tried to come out of the mirror into my room. Ever.
Thank god for that.
There were about 30 of them. As soon as they saw me, they started hissing loudly.
I don’t want to come near your stupid gold structure, so leave me alone. I just want to brush my teeth. I thought to myself.
The gold structure was still there, reflecting gold, orange, and pink rays of beautiful lights. It wasn’t as if it enticed me in anyway. It was beautiful, but I knew that once I moved into the mirror world, I would be stuck there forever. I didn’t want that. I liked my human life. I didn’t want to go in there, whatever that meant.
The hair stood up on my arms, as I noticed something different about the scene today. There was a human in the swamp. He was drowning and calling out for my help. He was calling out my name. “Crystal! Crystal. Help me!”
I was standing there in my pink fluffy slippers, and my pyjamas. I felt highly inadequate to whatever was going on in the mirror world.
“I can’t. I can’t help you. I’m sorry. I can’t do it.” I said out loud, as loudly as I could without alerting all of my family members that I was talking to myself. They already thought I needed to be hospitalized. I don’t need more reasons for them to put me away.
“Crystal, please. You are the only one who can save me. Please.”
“But, I can’t leave the mirror world, once I go in there. I am afraid to be stuck there forever.”
“I promise you, you can leave. You are the only one who can come in and out as you please. Please help me.”
I debated with myself. I had my toothbrush in my hand, and I debated with myself as I brushed my teeth. At least if I went into the mirror world, I would have clean teeth to go in with.
The man was really drowning now. The swamp creatures, the things, whatever they were, were now pulling him in deep. I was afraid for him. Who was he? Why was he in there? I was so confused.
I touched my head to see if I had my chopsticks in there. I used these silver pointy chopsticks to keep my hair out of my face. They were strong enough to be used as a weapon if need be. I spit out, gurgled, and washed my face. I was ready.
I had decided.
I would go in.
I didn’t know if I would ever be able to come back home, but it would be the worst act ever if I just stood there and watched while a man died.
I took another deep breath. Counting to ten, I stepped closer and closer to the mirror. I reached out my fingers to the mirror and instead of touching solid glass, I touched nothing. My fingers protruded into the mirror world as if it were right there. As I pulled my arm back, I noticed that I could do that easily as well.
Perhaps, he was right. I would be able to come back as I pleased.
I used the sink as a jumping off point and swirled and shimmered into the mirror world. It was time to see why I was the only damned one who saw the mirror world.
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