The other side of the Mirror (boyxboy)

Chapter 4.

I blinked in confusion as I realised that .. nothing had happened. The glass was crumbling from the mirror like dust from the carpet; like ashes from burnt paper. So unrealistic and harmless .. It was almost magical, the way it covered the ground in the form of shiny snow. My eyes noticed yet another thing. There was something behind the "first layer of glass", as funny and absurd as it sounded. It looked like peel .. dark-brown, dirty peel, which seemed to lack the ability to reflect.

Did all mirrors have such a thing, or was it just this one? Why would someone want to make a mirror out of three layers, judging from the first one - crumbled, the second one - brownish-peel-like, and the third one - glass again? It reminded me of .. a sandwich with ham in the middle, the two sides of the mirror being the bread, while the brownish layer - ham .. Wait.

Why am I thinking about food again?

I frowned indignantly, examining the bizzare discovery I had just made. I still don't understand how the first layer of solid glass started crumbling, but now there was an even greater issue. On top of it all, as if things weren't complicated enough, I started hallucinating. Why? Because I saw depth in the brown layer. Like .. like 3D, you know?!

I gasped, my eyes widening in shock, as I got my face near the brown scale. It looked unrealistic, living and moving, as if it was a big, wide and endless pit .. or one of those 3D paintings. I even saw it pulsing for a moment .. until I realised it wasn't that.

I screamed like a little girl, falling on my backside in shock and horror. I didn't want to look, yet I couldn't look away. Like petrified, I watched how an unexplainable human silhouette formed in the background of that brown, 3D layer. It had a thin body, getting closer and closer with each second slowly, albeit for me, it was too fast ..

Around the lifeless form I saw miniature dust particles, while rays of darkness were barely getting through the thick fog. Dark-red, grumpy clouds were frowning in the sky of this imaginery reality, while centipede-like creatures swam in the sky. In the centre of every single one, pulsing was a bright, red light, like the core of the Earth, and it seemed to be serving as a signal to reflect itself in the dark.

I was .. dumbfounded. Never did I thought I would be able to witness such a living world in a mirror, and I still couldn't believe my eyes ..

It was then when I heard a moan - weak and desperate, coming from the heart of the darkness, reflected in that brown layer. I gulped in horror and lifted my gaze towards the source of sound, regretting it immediately .. Why wasn't I able to ignore someone's agony? Why am I like that ..?

I gulped with tears in my eyes. What I was seeing in front of me was a reflection. It was .. my reflection. It moved, it breathed, and it pleaded me for help, as the flying creatures were approaching him from behind. Maybe they were going to hurt him, if I didn't interfeir. But I ..

.. never did.

In the world of books and magic, such a story usually ended the same way - either the boy saved himself, or I did. In the world of reality, well .. people die. No one magically survived from something that deadly .. and everything had its price .. even the priceless.

- W-WAIT! - I yelled with tears on my eyes, seeing how the creatures take my reflection away, making him scream and cry. I .. didn't see him anymore.

My body trembled as I embraced it, hugging myself. I had no one else beside me, so I had to do it myself. Nothing new .. just self-comforting.

I sobbed lon in the room for someone I didn't know; something I didn't understand; something I shouldn't have seen. And I .. don't know .. Don't understand ..

Why didn't I help? Why was I frozen?  Why were my legs limp? B-Because of me, my reflection is now ..

Sudden jolt of realisation and fear shot through me. W-what if the same happens to me? Being more worried about myself, I gulped and brushed away my tears, looking at the mirror.

Perhaps I had to go in that world, to replace my reflection .. To wonder there forever, until those creatures come for me. Maybe .. that's where the dead go? Trapped in a paralel universe .. Where the sky is dark red, and instead of birds, nightmares in the form of centipedes fly in the sky. If that's so .. I-I don't want to go through it .. !

I gulped with dry throat, my blurred, lifeless gaze locked on a single point in the ground. My hands were hugging my knees, pressed against the chest. I was in shock and I felt the need to end my life. Isn't that .. how anyone in my place would react? When you see such a horrifying sight, you can't just forget. You can't close your eyes, you can't ignore the guilt and fear .. It weighted so much on my heart, making it hard to breathe as I kept crying silently. Never have I felt so miserable ..

I was shaking, slowly rocking my body back and forth like a man who had lost his sanity. I couldn't hear anything, because the blood in my ears was flowing deafening-fast. I couldn't see anything, because my eyes were filled with tears, and my vision was smudged. I only felt this unimaginable cold, making my body stiff and frozen, like never before in my life. I was alone .. and I killed a man.

I may be in need of some comforting ..