Roll With It Short Stories

Day One

Day One

Prompt 11: A journey to find a fabled mirror that shows one's true path to love. It reflects a barren wasteland.

Word Count: 2000

Love had never been a priority to Angelique. She had had her share of romance and first confessions but in her heart she was a skeptic. Love in the short term was a chemical reaction and long term what really kept people together was luck or instability. Even the most ideal couples were just two imperfect beings facing all the stigma and chaos of the world. The anthropology professor knew the evolutionary and sociological advantages to long term companionship, and why society had given love such a rosy complexion, idealizing to the point of obsession. The whole 'true love' thing only brought unnecessary pressure. Being happy or just content was a matter of probability and infinite environmental circumstances beyond one's control. True love did not exist, yet, for some reason, she had been chosen for a project that potentially proved otherwise.

Four months ago a promise had come to Angelique Summers, a promise of the most profound discovery of this or any century. Invasive vetting process aside Angelique never lost the hunger that followed her across the seas to the coast of Algeria. In the small dossier she received all promises were delivered from a single photograph of a full length mirror with a black pane. Her small amount of renown and position as tenured professor at her university would never have been enough to earn her such a position on this highly classified, international project, but academic connections had given her this holy opportunity.

Her associate and dear friend Nathan Carver had made the discovery, he had spent decades hunting an artifact that anyone else might dismissed as legend. For reasons that escape the average unimaginative person a single mention of this mirror had been enough to send Nathan into a near obsessive state. His fervor escalated to the point that all his colleagues had worried after his health. Carver had been fired and all but ostracized from the community, but in the end, he had found it. Using his personal wealth he had uncovered a secret that had been dead to the world.

"You're so thin." Angelique pulled away from his embrace shaking her head. Years had passed as they do, Carver was too thin and his umber skin had an anemic undertone, his hair receded, new lines folded across his face, but he had also changed in a different way. Puzzled Angelique could only think of it as something buried deep that had finally come to the surface, yet even as it was before her, it was entirely unrecognizable. She swallowed, "Carver I wanted to say-." He raised a hand.

"The years have been kinder to you, come let's get you inside before you get soaked." The man looked up to the heavy clouds and out at the choppy seas before following her into dining quarters of the Naval Ship. They exchanged pleasantries, Angelique gave strained smiles and managed to keep her foot from tapping, it was all she could do to keep from begging. Instead Carver denied her impatience for the length of their meal. Right as she was approaching her limits he asked, "Do you know why I requested you?" He left her no time to answer, his mouth a straight line, "They allowed me to only choose three." He held up his fingers and repeated the number again. Angelique had only met soldiers and government agents her entire trip and she never been briefed on any others that would be joining her and Carver on this project although she had assumed that there would be others. Again he left her no time for questions, "After everyone had turned their back on me, I had few friends in our field. Fewer in my personal life. I lost respect, my wife and years; and yet what I have found is beyond me. This discovery may be classified but it hasn't gone without notice, a number of my old colleges were inspired to try and return to my good graces. I know who my friends are but more importantly, I knew who would be able," He paused and his lips crinkled before he continued. "Be able to handle this. You've always been stoic, you're affectionate but you're strong Angie." His eyes never left hers and her gaze darted away from the intensity. "What do you think of the brief? Summarize what it is you think you about to see." She thought on that for a moment scratching between her brow.