I see a man who's sleeping peacefully in his bed. He is at an age where he enjoys the fruits of his life's work, when his daily life stays somewhat repetitive, and when he values small and tiny moments that only a child who is very young would.
There is a tiny little clock placed by his bed, indicating 3 o'clock in the morning.
He suddenly wakes and finds himself sitting on a comfortable chair in a dark and cozy room. The only source of light is a candle which is lit and isn't disturbed by wind or any kind of movement, placed at a corner of the room; though the man thinks the room should be warmer if the candle was burning for quite a while. The room has a slight scent that the man isn't sure he likes or does not. After a considerable amount of time looking around, he settles his eyes on the candle which, according to him, hasn't moved a bit.
The candle flickers for just a moment before returning to its peaceful position again. The man frowns, and his eyes wander around searching for the source of the sudden movement. Suddenly, a figure appears to the left of the candle.
He isn't sure whether it's a male or a female, or an animal for that matter. It wears a dress that is filled with mirrors. A thousand small, tiny mirrors reflecting the surroundings.
In it he sees most of the things he had seen in the room, but when he spots himself, he stills. For it wasn't the old and wise man that he had become, it was the small 6-year-old boy he had been.
The boy in the reflection is at first sitting on the same chair the man is sitting in. Then, magically, he is sitting down on the ground, eyeing a small, pretty little rose plant. The boy is at a garden in an orphanage he is growing up in. His 3 best friends stand in the park shouting his name, asking him to come join them. He doesn't budge, and continues eyeing the plant with deep interest.
Then, he is eyeing the same plant a week later, and tears up looking at the dying rose flower. People come to comfort him, but he keeps crying...
The boy in the next scene is about 18 years of age, with the same friends he grew up with, handing paperwork together to another man with a tight coat and a military official's badge.
From this moment on, the events fast-forward.
The mirrors portray how him and his friends were recruited into the military, how they discovered more of friendship and care than they had ever had before, how he silently cried by his bed for days after one of them died- shouting and hitting himself while no one was seeing, more depressed than he ever was. Then a happier set of events- his marriage with the most beautiful woman in the world, how he taught his children to fight using pillows and tree barks, his rise in the ranks of the officials in the military.
As the mirrors portrayed the events of the old man's life, he feels plainer and calmer. The bad and the good emotions slowly slide out of him, while the memories keep getting distant.
The man almost has no memories or emotions left in him.
But one feeling remains.
Happiness.
As the mirrors kept working their magic, the figure had moved closer to the man. The mirrors slowly stop showing his life's events and now mirrors his features, like any normal mirror would. The man in the mirrors is now the small boy that he was again, staring at his reflection with wide eyes.
When he looks around, his surroundings change. Now it is brighter, and he is sitting in a familiar garden, his legs crossed. The rose flower from the plant he was so interested in was long gone, but he sits in the place it had been anyway.
Just then, another boy of his age comes and seats himself near him, and smiles.
He smiles back at him, but hesitantly. Somewhere inside him, he gets the feeling that this other boy shouldn't be alive. That he once craved to see him one last time when he couldn't. That he once cried and wasted himself for him.
He keeps smiling at the boy and nothing changes for a while, until to his surprise, he pulls out his favourite rose flower from his pocket and gives it to him.
If he was the old man that he was, he wouldn't have reacted much.
But now he is the young and curious boy, filled only with happiness.
He bursts out with joy, looking at the flower and the boy next to him joins in as well. They remain there, laughing for some more time, until the sun begins to set.
The boy suggests that they go home, and helps him up. They join their hands, nudging and hopping playfully, into the bliss of the unknown...
.
.
.
.
Far away in the world of the living, the man's heart stops and the clock ticks another second...
