Angels & Shadows

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

They found themselves in a brightly lit corridor with highly polished metal floor, walls and ceiling. There were mirrors on both sides identical in size but differing in styles, many dozens of them. They turned to face their mirror and looked back into the empty hallway of the Robinson’s house. They had no reflections themselves, it was just like looking through a window. They touched the glass and were reassured when they felt the vibration increasing the longer that they did so.

“I think we can get back Ben” Elizabeth said more confidently than she actually felt and added, “but we’re here for a reason and we have to find out what that reason is.”

They explored the corridor. It was open at both ends and they could see the sky at each. There were exactly 100 mirrors but 60 of them were broken, no glass just gaping black holes. They could feel the air rushing into them and sensed that they shouldn’t get too close. Elizabeth took Ben’s arm protectively.

“Stay away Ben, I have a bad feeling about those.”

The others were like windows into rooms of contrasting types, some looking like a bygone era and others futuristic in style. In some there were people going about their daily lives. Ben was waving at two children dressed in cotton smocks in one of the mirrors. They were playing on a scrubbed stone floor in front of an open fire.

“They can’t see us Lizzie.”

Ben touched the mirror and felt the glass start to vibrate. He took his hand away quickly and felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up with the fear of it.

“Don’t touch anything Ben, not until we understand more” Elizabeth could see that the experience had scared him and he nodded back at her in silent agreement.

It was fascinating. They soon concluded that each mirror was looking into a different time and place. There were oriental rooms with magnificent drapes and carvings; a stone hallway with suits of armour and weaponry of the time of the Crusades. Another looked into an Egyptian temple in the time of the Pharaohs, with Priestesses anointing a bearded man dressed in a gold embroidered loin cloth, and many more besides.

It was like living history with a glimpse of the future. One of the mirrors looked into a room that could have been set in a science fiction movie. It was geometric in style with the simple use of black, white and grey decoration. Strong primary colours had been strategically used to create warmth and depth to the room and the furniture was contoured to fit the shape of the human body. The family were dressed in one-piece loose garments in pastel colours and they seemed to be talking to each other with expressions rather than words. Ben was particularly impressed as it appealed to his love of science. He was trying to work out what the electronic game was that the children were playing as they seemed to be in the game themselves not just watching it. Ben looked on in awe.

“I wonder where and when they are Lizzie.”

They continued their circuit of the mirrors, standing well back from the broken ones until they came back to the old ornate mirror. Elizabeth looked in and gasped with shock at what she saw. The colour drained instantly from her face.

“It’s me Ben, it’s me!”

They could see Elizabeth looking back at them in the mirror with her hair scraped back deep in thought. She looked sad and lost, and then began to cry. She was shaking her head, muttering something and Elizabeth already knew what she was going to say. They were the same words that she had used being repeated back to her.

“But who’s there to help me? I was a child too, I didn’t deserve this. I can’t do this anymore I can’t be strong, not for me not even for Ben...”