Subject Zero: Mirrors (Book 2)

Chapter 7: A Joker's Card

Sunday, May 19, 1985
10:15a.m.
Norman's House / the Snicket Household

Third Person's POV
Alio, Anne, Jesper, Klaus, Norman, Naomi, and Rei were in the basement, just scattered across the room. Zero wasn't with them this time.

"So, Jesper, what'd you wanna show us?" asked Anne.

Alio looked around. "Yeah, and where's Zero? I need to tell her, that even though she's my friend and all, I'd push her off a cliff to meet Batman."

Naomi just stared at him and blinked. "Understandable, but don't tell her that."

"That's the thing — Zero." Jesper whispers, "Have any of you noticed how strange she's been acting since we found Klaus?" He was rummaging through his backpack.

Rei furrowed her brows. "What do you mean?"

Jesper sighed. "I know we only knew her for almost two weeks when shit started happening, but during those almost-two-weeks, did any of you ever see her just stare at you, avoid mirrors, or just mention weird things?"

"...Now that you say that, I do always see her just stare at me while I'm just sitting there, like she's expecting me to do something. And she's also been more quiet than usual," explained Norman.

"And you told me that, while Lele and I were in that... weird place, Liam kicked you guys out of that nowhere-everywhere-void-thing after saying, 'How can you stop me if you don't exist?' Then her body collapsed, and when she woke up, she immediately said that he's gone."

"What are you getting at?" asked Anne, looking confused.

"You know, all this could just mean she has a crush on Klaus, avoids mirrors because she's insecure, and is quiet so she doesn't say anything to embarrass herself around him?" said Alio. "I dunno about the thing with her collapsing like that, but... Yeah."

Klaus and everyone else were just looking at him as if he was a moron or just said something that wouldn't make any sense at all.

"Hey, it's a possibility-"

Norman explains, "Maybe she still hasn't gotten used to not being in the lab. I remember Jesper didn't seem to get used to us until, like, May last year, even though we met him the March before."

Klaus nodded his head, agreeing to what Norman said. "Yeah."

Rei and Anne had also agreed.

"What are you trying to tell us, Jesper?" Naomi asked Jesper.

He looked back into his backpack. "I found something." He pulled a handheld mirror out of his backpack. "At first glance, it's just an ordinary mirror. But then you actually try to look at your reflection, only to see this woman."

All of them looked into the mirror, able to see the woman in the mirror. Naomi and Norman both recognized this mirror.

"Norman and I both saw that mirror fall out of the treehouse the other day. It was faced down, so we didn't see her and didn't wanna even hold it since it fell out while we weren't in the treehouse," stated Naomi.