THE COLOUR OF LOVE (Wattpadprize14)Completed

Chapter 30 - Mirrors

Looking into the mirror Cole saw a reflection of someone he did not quite recognise.  The eyes were his but the hair was darker and blacker than brown, and shorter, not nearly as long as he remembered, always having previously worn it in a pony-tail.  It was then that he noticed his arms. Where were his tattoos? The lions he had tattooed on his upper arms were gone.

Shocked at this revelation, he stepped back from the mirror, screwing up his eyes tight and then opening them again. But the stranger with his eyes, was still looking back at him from the mirror. He scratched his head and the reflection scratched their head too. He moved his arms in different directions and the reflection did the same. Well it appeared it was him, but the hair and tattoos, it was just all too strange to comprehend.

Cole turned away from the mirror and to his horror was confronted by even more reflections of this strange person he seemed to be. He looked to the left and right and there were even more reflections of himself. He felt weirdly spaced out.  How on earth did he get into a room filled with mirrors?  Regardless of which direction he turned there were images of him. Again he shut his eyes tight trying to shut out this spectacle that was making him feel quite dizzy.  But to no avail, when he opened his eyes he saw this person he did not recognise looking back at him from every angle.

He felt like he was in some sort of horror movie and needed desperately to get out of this room. Without thinking he held up his hand and went forward to push the mirror immediately in front of him, hoping he would find a door somewhere, a mirror that would slide open to an exit.

Cole gasped as his hand went straight through the mirror. Instantly he pulled it back and to his relief saw there were no cuts or blood at all. Cautiously he pushed his hand through another mirror and the same thing happened. Slowly he slid his entire arm through and he felt no pain, so carefully slid his other arm through.  It was not a feeling he could quite put words too, but inch by inch he slid his body through the mirror, only to find more mirrors on the other side and even more reflections of himself, staring back from eyes he knew but in a body he did not recognise. It was then that Cole noticed he was totally naked.

This was definitely not his body. It was slim and athletic looking and very tanned. He was a body builder and remembered having the muscle to prove it and his tan was not nearly as dark, and it niggled him that the tattoos he was so proud of were missing, having had them done on his 16th birthday and all in one sitting.

Cole was at a loss what to do or where to go next when a shadowy figure emerged behind him reflected in the mirror.  When he turned round there was no one there, he could only see their image in the mirror. A soft vision like an angel drew closer just behind his mirrored reflection.

It was then that he heard a soft voice which came from nowhere in particular, but just seemed to hover all around him.

Why did you call me?

“What?” Cole asked, confused.

Why did you call me?

“Why would I call you? I don’t know who you are.” Cole said, anxiously.

You called me ….

It was then that Cole heard a different voice, a familiar voice which sounded like an echo.

“Sarah, please help me find Cherrie. If you want me to love again, you have got to help me find her."

Cole was stunned. He was hearing his own voice this time, an echo from the past, of words he’d said.

“Sarah is that you?”

Follow your heart and you will find her.

“How Sarah? Please tell me how?  I need your help.”

You share the same blood, you are destined to meet"

“What? When Sarah? Please tell me when, how will I know?” Cole said pleading with the angelic vision that was reflected in all the mirrors around him as he kept turning round and round to find where the airy voice was coming from.

I cannot keep coming back Cole, you need to let me go now.

“I will Sarah, but only if you tell me how to find her. She has your heart. You know where she is. Please help me find her. Just tell me where to look” Cole pleaded.

The vision began to fade and Cole fell to his knees and begged Sarah to help him.

“Sarah if you have forgiven me, you will help me, please don’t leave me like this, I will go insane.”

Listen for the bell Cole. When the church bell tolls, don’t turn away.

“Oh God …. Sarah, please don’t go, not yet.  What bell? Sarah, please!” Cole shouted after the disappearing vision.

The vision stopped as if suspended in air, a ghostly hand reached out and touched his head.  Cole felt a warmth he had never experienced before, ripple through his entire body.

Cole you must breathe for her, before the bell stops ringing. It rings only six times …. then her heart must beat again, or you will lose her forever and she will walk with me.

When Cole looked up the vision was gone but written in every mirror in the deepest purple were the words ….. You will find her, it is your destiny.

Cole crumpled to the floor and cried for the longest time.  He knew he had to let Sarah go now, and this realization flooded him with a sadness and heartbreak he had never experienced before. He cried feeling like his tears would fill an ocean and his broken heart would tear the world apart.

As this flood of sadness controlled is body and tore him apart from heart to soul, bearing open every self-inflicting wound of guilt he’d carried for so long, after finding Sarah bleeding, and dying on their bathroom floor, it washed away all the regrets he had burdened himself with since her death.