Mirroring

Makura

Makura sat on the bed, mulling over the new red book she had made, as her thoughts lingered to Kimberly's "clone". She wondered what happened to her, as her mirror was thrown away. She had a hundred possibilities about what happened, but she seriously didn't want to scare herself. She was so immersed in her thoughts, when she suddenly remembered she was supposed to be following Crystal's movements. She jumped up, and since she was already dressed from following Crystal, hurriedly ran out of the room. She saw Crystal almost reaching a puddle of water, and ran towards it, determined to not let Crystal see anything amiss. But just then, Crystal quickened her pace a bit towards it, her gaze widening.

Oh no, oh no, oh no!

Makura ran the last few crucial steps just as she saw Crystal start blinking furiously. She looked nervous, and Makura mimicked her expression. She was more nervous than Crystal now.

Good. Crystal thought it was something with the puddle. Maybe I could trick her into thinking it was just the murky water blurring her reflection, Makura thought, relieved.

Whatever Crystal decided was the problem, she couldn't know it was Makura. She never would, probably. Luckily Crystal didn't have a big imagination. She'd probably assume the most logical explanation - that the puddle was too muddy to see through.

Crystal gave one last squint - Makura squinted back - and then shook her head and turned, walking away.

Makura sighed with relief once she was sure Crystal was gone for good. Luckily you got here in time, before you made a big screw-up. She reprimanded herself. You're way too old to be messing up like this. She ran her hands through her blonde hair and sighed, and slowly walked back to Crystal's house in her dimension. But although she knew she should be more focused on getting to Crystal in time, the consequences of failing the Mirroring Ceremony kept popping into her head, making her heart beat a little faster and harder each time.

Makura sighed. She was too nervous and tired to think about the rules in her world, so she quickened her pace and pulled out the image of Crystal at school. Crystal was in trouble for forgetting to bring her homework. Of course she was. Makura always thought Andromeda was Kimberly, when their backs were turned. They had the same eye colour, the same body shape, and even the same skin colour. Yet nobody seemed to notice in the human world, since their personalities were completely different. But then, Andromeda looked nervous and indecisive, more than ever like Kimberly when Kim was nervous. She backed to the wall. Makura knew something was wrong, so she watched more closely. Then, Andromeda slowly walked from the wall to a nearby empty desk, where she erased something on another red book she pulled from behind her back - and Makura was sure it wasn't there before. She scribbled something using a pencil from her pocket, and went back to the wall, where she was standing seconds ago, completely unnoticed by Crystal, Kimberly, Ms Hawthorn, or the rest of the class. She tried to put on a show when suddenly pulling out the same red homework book with Crystal's name scribbled on it from behind her back. Makura sharply turned her head - but the real red book was still there, lying lifelessly on Crystal's desk. Crystal went back to her seat and sat down in the image, looking as shaken and amazed as Makura of what Andromeda had done.

Why? And How? Makura thought, absolutely dumbfounded. Andromeda never liked Crystal - or ever treated her any different than any other one of her classmates. And how could she make a complete duplicate of Crystal's homework? But then... Makura's eye twitched as a strange thought tingled through her mind. What if, what if the similarities between Andromeda and Kimberly weren't a bare coincidence? What if Andromeda was the true "Kimberly" in the mirror who had disappeared? Otherwise, how else would Andromeda be able to duplicate the homework book? Illusion was a power only people in Makura's world had, the humans - normal humans - won't ever get the power!