Mirrored

"Help! I'm trapped!" I screamed as I tried thrashing on the mirror. Then all at once I was being forced to mimic her. Who is this mystery girl? How long has she been standing there? She resembled me with her long blonde hair and grey eyes. Why? As if understanding she replied, "I'm your reflection. Now you will know what it's like to be controlled." She spun around and exited the room I was exploring.

All I did was touch it. Is this the reason every mirror had been destroyed? When she disappeared from the room my surroundings vanished. In an instant my world ceased to exist.

I grew up listening to my grandfather tell exaggerated stories about the threat mirrors posed on society, but I never imagined this. His stories were composed of life lessons and how mirrors inflicted vanity. Not one mentioned them being a prison. Suddenly a cold rush of air chilled my spine. Light and color flooded my confinement as the world I once knew resurrected. Someone else appeared, but not the girl that replaced me. It was my friend Ansel. His tall, slender silhouette made my heart flutter with joy. My best friend came to rescue me.

He quickly glanced around the room in search of me. "Becca?" his voice strained with worry. He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror. Just as he saw himself, I noticed a similar silhouette. No, it was an exact copy of him. Puzzled I watched as Ansel slowly walked to the mirror entranced. When he reached out to the mirror, I panicked. He was about to suffer the same fate as me. Then, his clone began to back away forcing Ansel to do the same. His motions confused us. How was he defying his instructions to mimic him? Ansel finally gained control and scurried out of the cluttered room. When the door closed behind him our world was a grey abyss.

Terrified Ansel's clone fell to the ground. He never noticed me in the background so I startled him when I approached. "What's wrong? Why did you back away from my friend?"

"You must be a human. If he touched the mirror, I would replace him in your world." He said with a trace of fear.

"I thought the goal was to escape. I haven't been here for very long, but it seems like a prison." I said in utter confusion.

"If I hadn't taken control of our actions, he would have ruined everything. Once the human trades places with their reflection they begin the Fading." He said trembling in fear.

"What is the Fading?"

"You humans are so ignorant. The Fading is when the reflection takes the place of their human. Our skin is fragile. Your atmosphere is too dense for us to handle." He paused recollecting how close he came to the Fading. "It takes three hours to take effect. How long have you been here?"

"According to my watch I have been here for about an hour."
"Good that means it hasn't taken its course yet. You have to conjure up a plan to break out of here. If you don't, you both will cease to exist." His face strained with worry lines. "The only problem is no one can touch the mirror without their other."

"How exactly am I supposed to lure her back in here? She wanted out. Why would she risk coming back?" My heart raced with possibilities. "Okay, so if I did conjure up a way to lure her here, how do I force her to touch the mirror? The last time I couldn't fight whatever was controlling me and was dumbfounded when you could."

"You're referring to the Clasp. I guess that does pose a problem. Humans aren't used to being controlled, at least not physically." Glancing toward his feet he ran his fingers through his hair in a way I only thought Ansel was capable of. I guess it makes sense, him being his clone and all. He then looked up at me and confessed. "Honestly, I surprised myself when I defied the Clasp. I think the reason I was able to disregard it was my will to live. I took control and saved me and my human."

I giggled at how he referred to Ansel as his human. It reminded me of a dog referring to his owner. I shook it off because this was not the time for childish thoughts. "That still doesn't solve our problem. How do we change places?"

"I'm sorry I don't have the exact answer you are looking for, but I have only heard stories. The stories always involved the person on the inside breaking free." His eyes filled with sympathy. I could tell he desperately wanted to help, but he could barely help himself.

Suddenly the Clasp was controlling us as our other halves entered the cluttered room, hand in hand. Apparently Ansel found my reflection and brought her to the mirror. She seemed terrified to be in the same room. Ansel brought her closer and closer until he stopped mere inches away from the mirror's surface. She tried coaxing him away, but her attempts failed. He refused to let her leave. "Come on Becca just look. It won't hurt you."

"I refuse to look I don't want to end up like our ancestors." She whined. I couldn't bare it anymore. I had to regain my life. Ansel's clone said ancient stories ended with the image on the inside breaking free. I knew then I had to break the mirror. I pushed aside the forces trying to control me and lunged for the glass. My fists collided shattering the glass into millions of pieces.

Then, I was lying on my back surrounded by shards. Ansel was lying beside me. I couldn't help but ask, "Was that real?" Before he could respond an image appeared in each shard, my image. She spoke, "As real as you and I."