Through The Mirror

𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐀𝐌 𝐈 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄?

    We were now standing outside the small shop in the middle of the street. People stood everywhere, in all the kiosks that spread across the street, under the pieces of cloth that were hung over the roads to protect against the scorching sun and inside the stone houses that followed all the edges and corners of the street. Everyone did everything to stay away from the sun, but it managed to penetrate the cloth and give everything a yellowish hue.                                    I looked at the surroundings. Everything seemed to be in harmony with each other, but something felt wrong, as if something bad or negative could happen at any time. But Millie took me out of these thoughts when she once again pulled me through the crowd.

    "Stop zoning out now!" she said a little frustrated. "We actually have to move on!". I just nodded in response but just before I managed to take the first step towards Millie's friends' place, a scream was heard. The sound rushed through the street, but no one noticed. Everyone just kept going. "I must've just imagined it," I muttered to myself. But there it was, once again. The same screams spread and this time it was louder than before. Everything around changed, The pleasant warm light the sun just a few seconds ago gave off, had been replaced with a cold feeling. I tried to ignore it, but a bad feeling welled up inside me. Without having time to think, I ran towards the sound. Millie screamed at me, but at that moment I could not hear her.

    I ran and ran without an actual goal. The screams got louder and louder. People were watching me as I was pushed to get through the crowds. I could not see around me, it was only what was in front of me that mattered at that moment. The adrenaline was pumping when I stopped quickly. In front of me lay a bruised little girl. Her black hair was tangled, but she was alive. Breaths could be seen as the chest slowly rose and sank. I walked towards her. Slowly I took her in my arms and lifted her from the dirty ground.

    "ROBIN!? THERE YOU ARE!" I heard MIllie's voice scream from a short distance away. I quickly turned around to look at her. The purple eyes met mine, but they quickly changed focus to the girl in my arms. "Oh my God!" said Millie in despair with an undertone of disbelief. She stepped forward and gently removed her hair from her face. I looked at her and opened my mouth only to close it again when Millie started talking.                                                                                                 "Where did you find her?" she asked sternly. I just stared for a while before answering.            "Right at the edge of the forest, she was like this when I found her," I replied quietly. There was a short pause before Millie continued.                                                                                                                "Robin, this girl has been gone for a week or so," she said seriously. "People everywhere have been looking for her day and night," she continued. A sigh, then she continued again. "The fact that you just ran away, and then found a lost person in half an hour without even knowing where she was..." she paused and took a breath. "I do not understand anything, you came from nowhere, we are with each other for a maximum of three hours and then you behave strangely before you run away and find... her..." Millie's face was something I could not be read in that moment, she just looked exhausted.

    "I -..." I began. "I heard her scream for help," I said quietly. Millie looked up at me from where she was sitting hunched over on the ground. At that moment, you could see that the pieces of the puzzle were being put together in Millie's brain. She quickly stood up and grabbed my shoulders in a tight grip."You- You are," she began, but abruptly stopped herself. A cough was made before she took her hands off my shoulders, stood up straight and turned around.                                  "Come on, we have to get her to her family so she can get some help," she said. She tried to hide the anxiety in her eyes. But I wanted to know what it was.                                                                      "What am I, Millie?" I asked firmly, ready to get an answer. But instead she took me by my arm and began to pull me towards the city again. The little girl still safely in my grip.

    The girl was safe and her mother had cried so much. We had received so many thanks and hugs. Honestly never thought we would get out of there. But here we were again, out on the street. The warm light from the sun was still back and it felt like no one but me had even noticed that the atmosphere had changed so quickly before. But here we were again, a hot afternoon that did not start quite as it should but will end as it should. On the way to Millie's friends. Everything was just as before, except for one thing. It was a question that did not leave my head. It was stuck in there chewing but I could not get an answer to it.

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    What did Millie want to say?