Mirror image

The mirror showed a reflection that wasn't my own.

At first the images confused me as much as horrified me. Sometimes the images blurred, sometimes they were pin sharp. Different people, different scenes and different worlds, or so it seemed.

Then , as I looked closer I started to understand what I was seeing. It wasn't my face, as it should be, it was what was lurking behind. My thoughts, memories, worries and insecurities shown on a fragmented screen.

If I thought of someone who I should tell about this their face appeared. If I thought of the people who wouldn't believe me they appeared. Whoever was central in my thoughts appeared front and centre, they pushed all the other images to one side. If I thought of a person for a second time their face bled back into my vision.

I tried to trick the mirror with random thoughts, even with thoughts of people whose names I knew but hadn't met. Whatever witchcraft or entity controlled the mirror was ready for my mental tricks, it simply showed a face with no features.

The jet black apparitions simply floated there, faceless. I had to try and focus on people I knew as the ghosts were somehow worse then the real people.

In case this was all a warning or a message of some sort I began going through faces of my family. I was able to mentally tick off my wife, children and siblings quite simply. My parents appeared when mentally requested, but for some reason the image seemed slower to focus.

Next I tried for people who had passed on, people I remembered well enough for clear images. Again there was a difference, this time the faces appeared alone . Nobody was pushed away, the dead simply appeared alone. It was almost a run through a stream of photographs, flicking through the dead but remembered.

I was by mow past wondering if this was real or not, I was on to what did it mean. The dead appearing differently from the living made a modicum of sense, parents appearing more slowly then other family was a stranger aspect of this otherwise very strange time.

I had tested the visions as best I could, the faces appeared as if beckoned from a file stored within my head. One question was who was controlling who?

Was my brain telling me I needed to see these visons? If so why?

Was there something controlling the mirror and giving me visions for my mind to interpret and sort?

The only thing i knew at this point was nothing. I had even accepted this could be a very long and lucid dream. Even that everything was real and I was wide awake.

Was picture quality decided by love, by how often I thought of people, how often I spoke to them?

I lived with my wife therefore she should be most clear, family I would think occasionally about what they were doing. My parents were in my thoughts just as often, or so I thought.

Maybe I should test the mirror some more. I decided to think of every memory of time with my father. As I started to choose him for the experiment the mirror again showed his face, once again slow to focus. As I remembered times together, trips together and even phone calls his face seemed to become even more highly defined around the mirrors cracks and fissures.

I repeated the test with my mother , remembering all I could. Her image also intensified. I went back to my father and his face remained clear and bright. Obviously the image was powered by recent thought and memory.

Although I had sussed the mindset of the mirror or the dream, the question of why remained. Maybe it was a subliminal reminder to keep everyone important to you in your thoughts, maybe to keep in contact more. I decided for one final experiment and made contact with all family to see if that helped.

Indeed after making the calls in a different room I came back to check the results. As I had surmised , everyone I had called was know showing in crystal clear and blemish free glory. If this mirror lasted till I woke or if it remained with me always I decided to embrace it.

I would use it as a reminder to keep in touch, to keep thinking of everyone close to me equally. I presumed if I didn't consider or contact anyone for a while they might blur and then fade. What worried and then scared me the most was what happened if the images faded too far? If the mirror showed them with no detail and a black face. This was something I promised to myself and too everyone i knew would remain a mystery and would never be tested,