Reflections of the Past | Ghost and Pals fanfic

14# Anywhere Anytime

{Term explanation: Reality shifting is when the awareness shifts to a different reality, but their body remains in their current reality and continues acting as their true self, going on "autopilot." If you're interested in knowing more, I recommend doing research. Enjoy the chapter.}

Tamari was lying in their small artificial cave they had built as shelter months ago. It was lukewarm and filled with blankets and pillows, just enough for human comfort. Just enough to feel human.

Their mind was filled with impulsive thoughts they would never come up with by themselves. Something along the lines of returning to their mother and obeying, and asking her to fix their flawed program. Why would they be having ideas like these in the first place? He was doing well, discovering the different universes and crossing borders his mother would never allow to even think about. Besides that, he was already searching for a new universe. A new universe where they could have an actual loving family to support him for the way he is. Reality shifting could also be an option, but their attempts never succeeded no matter which method, and if Tamari was already in the dimension where all universes meet, why waste the opportunity and not go to a different reality with not only their consciousness, but also their body?

Their mind shifted back to the memories of their mother. All the teachings, all the help she had provided, why was Tamari so ungrateful?

They shook their head. What was he even thinking? As desperate as they were for some motherly love, they weren't that desperate to return to that hellhole and repeat the story, or rewrite the story into something worse. Anywhere but there. But if they were to ever set foot on that place again, then only for their sister and for no one else.

Wait, their sister. Mariyam was being brainwashed, she didn't even know what free will was. Even if you asked her for the definition for it and she recited it, she would still not understand. She didn't know a world outside of that therapist's office and her own room.

He should save her.

~~~

Cakey woke up on one of the mattresses, covered in a thin blanket and with the plush mammoth in her arms. Her heart was racing from the nightmare she had just gotten out of, yet it was deleted from her mind the moment she had opened her eyes. That uneasy feeling remained however, and she felt the strong urge to leave.

She sat up and looked around, finding the other girls still asleep. The clock on the wall showed the time 3:33 AM, but there was no point in going back to sleep again. Cakey knew that if she were about to go back to sleep, she'd either experience a lucid dream that would last for a short time or another nightmare.

After slowly getting up and collecting her stuff, she silently snuck out of Libelle's house. The black sky above her were sprinkled with tiny glowing stars, and the moon was invisible. She walked along the empty streets, passing by weirdos like crackheads or random homeless teenagers eating dirt.

While she was waiting at the bus stop, a black elder with dark clothes stood next to her, their white pearl necklace reflecting the streetlights. From the wrinkles on their face and grey roots sticking out of their hair, as well as their glasses sitting on their nose, they must've been in their mid nineties. The senior turned to look at Cakey, and she quickly lowered her gaze. But they were still staring, slowly grabbing into their grey bag. They pulled out a photo and purposely dropped it, letting it sway slowly in the cool air before finally touching the ground. And with that, the stranger left without a word.

Flower bent down to pick the black and white photo up, dusting it off before examining further. The picture showed the two actors of the movie she had watched the evening before. The actor Lilia Parkinson looked oddly similar to the elderly stranger she had just met. Flower looked back up, just to find that they were long gone. On the back of the photo was written in cursive: "There is more to discover in the darkness."

She stared at the message left for her. Even when she later entered the bus and took a seat, she still couldn't keep her eyes off it.

Once she arrived at her grandma's house, her own home, she inhaled the comforting smell to calm her nerves and collect her thoughts. Okay, the actor from the late 1920s that worked together with the oddly familiar man had given her a photo, but for what purpose? Was this a hint?

She couldn't help but check that one movie again, so with the large cup of her hot beverage in her hand, she pulled out the cassette again and shoved it into the old VHS recorder, watching as the movie started playing. She didn't pay much attention to the main plot at all, but rather the lines, and took notes of the weirdest lines that sticked to her the most. The first line she had to write down was already in the first scene of the movie.

Police man:

- "We are unable to identify you"
- "no documents"
- "a nameless man won't go to court"

She continued listening and scribbling down whenever she heard something interesting.

The pale man who was being interrogated still kept eyeing the policeman. "But the you did not see her dead body in the mirror, did you?" he asked calmly, raising an eyebrow.

The policeman stared at him with a puzzled look on his face. "Pardon?"

Flower's expression matched the policeman's. She noted everything, her handwriting messy from the fast pace when she rushed to have every single word on paper.

"I asked if you saw her dead body in the mirror. Let me take a guess... you didn't even bother to check, correct? Well, I'd recommend you to do it next time. The mirrors tell nothing but the truth, since all they do is reflect. But you've searched in the dark, haven't you? Consider yourself lucky you didn't bump into anything."

Flower stared at the screen with wide eyes, realization hitting her like a truck.

The phrase "There is more to discover in the darkness" from the elder's note had a connection to the line "Consider yourself lucky you didn't bump into anything" in the movie.

When light shines onto a reflecting surface, in this case the magic mirror, it easily reflects, then the reflected image gets into the mirror dimension. And so, when a person from the original world tries to enter the mirror dimension, they would be unable to, since their reflection would be in the way and touch them back. However, if there is no light to begin with and the room is in complete darkness, the mirror has absolutely no light to reflect, and so the person can easily enter the mirror dimension without creating a reflection.

And... that's how she was turned into a traveler. She was told to keep the lights off when the voice was calling out for her, when it was trying to pull her into the mirror.

Her heart was beating against her chest. It was all making sense.

Could Christopher be a traveler? If yes, had he gone through the same mirror as Flower always did? She had to tell the others about this.

All of a sudden, just as she was about to take the VHS, it vomited the black tape all over the floor. Flower gasped and immediately grabbed it, trying to fix it. "Nononononononono-! Anytime but now!" She panicked trying to fix it, but to no avail, she accidentally ripped the tape. She sighed and held the broken VHS in her hands. "Why can't I do anything right...?"