The Silver Mirror

Prologue

It began in the year 1692, in Massachusetts.

The year of the Salem Witch Trials.

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Sarah, Elizabeth, and Susannah had been best friends since their families had moved into the same communal residentry, when they were 8 years old. They shared a bathroom in their house and were inseparable. Their bathroom was nothing special; it was just like any other bathroom in the colony. Sarah, Elizabeth, and Susannah were now 13, living life together, sharing secrets, giggling without a care in the world.

But there was a silver mirror on the wall, opposite of the sink. It was a large, elliptical, ornate mirror, with a silver gilding along the intricately carved border. It hadn’t always been there, it had been a new addition. Everyone loved it, especially the three who had found it. They had a kind of strange attachment to it, even though it was inanimate.

~1 week ago~

“Hey Lizzy, look what I found!” Susannah called. She, Elizabeth, and Sarah were playing along the banks of the river, stepping on large, slick, moss-covered stones and shrieking with glee as they pretended to push each other down. Susannah had wandered further than usual today, almost to the village gates. The gates were only 7 feet high, but they kept out unwanted visitors and others. A gleam in the sand had caught her eye.

“What is it?” Elizabeth almost fell in her haste to turn around. Sarah turned too, but still wary of Elizabeth.

“Come see!” Susannah began waving her arms around enthusiastically, and they reluctantly stepped down from their stepping stones to go see what the matter was. Susannah bent over, brushing off the sand on the object. It was a large mirror, with a glittery sheen at the edges.

“Woah,” Sarah said softly, gazing at it. Elizabeth looked at it too. She felt…compelled to look at the reflecting surface. Susannah picked it up gently, and tucked it underneath her arm where it would be safe.

“Can we bring it home? I don’t think our parents would mind,” Elizabeth asked, chewing her lip. She really wanted to get another look at it. Were her eyes really that large and beautiful? Or was it a trick of the light? She glanced at Sarah. Sarah almost seemed to be thinking the same thing. She was glancing at her fingers, studying them, as if she wondered exactly what Elizabeth was thinking.

“Sure,” Susannah said. She hadn’t gotten a good look at herself the mirror either.

~back to the present~

Susannah looked in the mirror for the third time that day. Her reflection stared back knowingly.

Her short neck seemed strangely elongated as she stared. She looked down, but her neck seemed the same as usual. Short, and not the length she wanted it.

Susannah looked back. There was her neck, gracefully curved as she twisted her head around. There was no way she actually looked like that in real life. I wish I looked like that. Her neck had been stubby as long as she had known. People teased her, and the occasional snide comment popped up from Sarah or Elizabeth every now and then. Susannah sighed, mentally shaking herself. She had also seen Elizabeth staring obsessively at the mirror, too.

“Suzie, time for dinner!”

“Coming, mother!” Susannah scrambled out of the bathroom, not looking back. Her reflection in the mirror, however, stayed, and its eyes followed her out of the room.

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That night, at 12:00 AM, the town door gate shortened slightly. It was only a tiny difference, just about two inches. But the misbalance caused it to tip over, silent as the night. It made no sound when it hit the floor. At that moment, a bandit party who had been watching the village for some time for supplies who was currently scouting, entered, with loud yells of triumph. The headman woke with a start, arousing a small force of fighters who quickly disengaged them, but not before several colonists had been severely wounded.