Out Of The Looking Glass

The first mirror was an antique, something that Miriam had found when she first moved into this house, covered up by a sheet and thick layer of dust. The second mirror was from Ikea. Brand new, very minimalist, nothing to stand out next to the ornate, hand-carved frame of the antique. Which, of course, was the entire point. The idea for the piece had seemed to spring to Miriam’s mind as soon as she had found the old mirror. The old reflecting the new, the past contrasting with the present and vice versa. If she could get the angles right, it would make for some great photographs.

The mirrors were situated upright, held vertically by a couple of stands. Miriam had somehow managed to find a room in the old house with enough lighting to get some good shots, but not so much that it would cause issues with the mirrors. She had spent hours cleaning the dust from the carved frame of the antique mirror so that it looked almost new again, as opposed to something that had been sitting in an empty room for who knew how long.

Finally satisfied, Miriam moved the two mirrors into place. Each was positioned perfectly opposite the other, with enough space between them that the full mirror could be seen in either reflection. A few slight adjustments to the angles and Miriam felt she was ready.

She didn’t notice anything strange for the first few shots. Maybe she was too distracted by making sure the camera focus and settings were where she needed them to be, she wouldn’t feel confident saying one way or the other later on. After several shots of both mirrors, however, she started to think she was seeing something through her viewfinder. Just a speck, at first. Like there was a smudge on her lens that wasn’t there when she went to clean it off. Then it seemed to grow and shift as she changed angles and took more pictures. As it grew, it also seemed to begin to take form, like something coming towards her from a nonexistent horizon.

Something or…someone?

It sounded impossible, but it was happening before Miriam’s eyes and presumably captured on her camera. As the thing grew closer, it seemed to take on the form of a young woman wearing an old-fashioned dress. Somehow, she was running closer and closer to Miriam from inside the mirror!

Miriam froze, not fully believing what she was seeing. She couldn’t seem to pull her eyes away as the woman in the mirror came closer and closer, a look of both fear and determination becoming clear on her face. It was only when more distant specks seemed to begin appearing behind the woman that Miriam came back to herself and found the ability to move again. She dropped her camera and ran towards the mirrors, spinning the antique (where the figures seemed to be closest) away from her just as the young woman came to be right in front of her and tumbled out of the glass!

Miriam shrieked, completely at a loss for any other response. She waited a few moments to see if anything else would emerge, but it never did. Cautiously, she walked around to face the mirror. It seemed normal again. So did the other mirror when she chanced a look over at it. No figures in the distance, nothing but her, the room she was in, and the strange woman kneeling on the floor and trying to catch her breath.

Neither of them spoke for a while. The woman looked exhausted - like she’d been running for her life - and Miriam simply didn’t know what to say. How do you address someone who stumbled into your house from out of a mirror? All she seemed able to do was stare in a state of confusion until the woman slowly got to her feet, her eyes scanning the room slowly. She also looked confused, but also eerily calm. Like this was somehow completely normal for her.

“How did you –?” Miriam started when she found her voice again, cutting herself off as all the questions she had began to tumble out of her mouth and overtop of each other. “Who are you?”

The woman turned to look at her, seemingly studying her or possibly trying to decide how to answer.

“I’m Alice.” She answered. “What are you doing in my house?”

This story was written as part of the Author Avengers initative, an online writing group that I am a part of. Each month, we all tackle the same prompt to share and promote each other's work on our ko-fi pages. You can see a list of the other pieces written for this month's prompt here.

This month's prompt was: One day, you decide to put two mirrors in front of each to find out what that looks like; it was cool at first, but then you notice SOMETHING in the reflection, and it looks like it's coming right towards you...

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