Jackson's Journey

"Jackson! Go clean your room before bed!" his mother yelled.
Jackson stood up and trudged down the hall to his room. It had been a rough week already, but today just made it even worse. He didn't know what had been going on with him recently. He dutifully cleaned his room, and eventually collapsed on his bed. It wasn't even Friday yet. His week had just been one disaster after another, crisis after crisis. He didn't know what do, and today it all just collapsed on him.
"I can't do this," he muttered, just before going to sleep.
-
He opened his eyes, in an unfamiliar place. It looked like it was his room, but he knew in his heart it wasn't. Everything looked slightly bigger than it was. He rolled out of bed, and his feet touched the cold floor. He looked down at the floor, and saw his reflection staring back up at him. As he looked back up, that was all he saw. More and more reflections. The walls were mirrors, the furniture pieces were mirrors, and it went on and on. He walked to one of the walls, and examined himself. Looking up and down, he noticed something.
"Oh my god, when did I gain that much weight?" he exclaimed, grabbing at his stomach, feeling at the abs that weren't there anymore.
He backed away from the mirror and decided to examine the rest of the room. He walked up to another mirror, and realized his hair was messed up. No matter what he did to fix it, it always looked worse and worse, until he finally gave up. Another mirror showed that his teeth were so noticeably yellow that he wanted to brush them with bleach to fix it. He sat down on the floor, unable to find a way out.
"I'm sure you've realized by now, but these mirrors show flaws," Jackson heard a thunderous voice say. "If you want to find a way out, you have to find your true reflection."
Jackson looked around. He saw his weight gain, his bad hair, his teeth, his big ears. All of these things were true.
"This one," Jackson stated, pointing at the first reflection.
The mirror shattered, pelting Jackson with small pieces of glass. It stung, but didn't cut him, luckily.
"Incorrect. Try again."
He kept looking, pointing at different reflections. These flaws were obvious, there was no way that they were false. They shattered over and over, pelting him with their shards. He sat on the floor, crying and out of options. He looked down. His reflection stared back at him. Jackson pulled up his shirt, seeing that the reflection had no fat on him. His ears were normal-sized, his teeth were not completely white but they weren't yellow at all, and his hair looked good. Jackson shook his head, disbelieving.
"This one?" Jackson inquired, pointing at the floor and bracing for the pain of shattered glass.
The reflection instead shifted, projecting itself on the wall.
"This is you, Jackson. Start believing it. The quicker that happens, the easier it'll be to deal with the glass."
A door swung open behind him, and Jackson, still crying, stepped through it.
-
There was a new room in front of him. There was a large man standing in the middle, dwarfing Jackson. The man turned as Jackson stepped through the door, and approached him.
"Sir, can you help m-" Jackson was cut off as the man hugged him tightly. Too tightly. Jackson could feel his ribs cracking, and he struggled to breathe.  The man dropped him, and punched him on the arm jovially, laughing at a joke Jackson couldn't hear. The punch hurt, as the man was much bigger than Jackson. He tried to move past the man and through the door behind him, but the man blocked him again. The man struck Jackson across the face, bruising him. Again and again, the man hit Jackson. He kicked him in the runs, the legs, and anything else he could reach. Jackson lay on the floor, crying in pain. Suddenly, the man stopped, and Jackson grew taller. The man attempted to punch Jackson, but Jackson blocked the man's punch. He punched back, and the man sat down, not trying to hurt him anymore.
"Why?" Jackson said, blinking back tears of pain. "Why did you hurt me? What did I do to you?"
The man didn't answer. Jackson limped towards the door, still in immense pain.
-
An unfamiliar scene awaited him as he stepped through the door. He didn't recognize the forestry around him, nor did he recognize the lavender sky that he saw above him. The pain had faded to a dull ache, and Jackson did his best to bear it. He saw people off in the distance, and began jogging towards them. He saw, as he approached, that there was a race being set up. The runners all looked tough, and he knew immediately he could never race them. The race official approached him.
"Good afternoon, sir! Are you going to participate in the race?"
"Oh, uh, no. I'm not. If you could point the way out of here, that would be amazing, though."
The official gazed at him through milky eyes. "Son, if you want out, you have to run the race," he said in a familiar deep voice.
Shaking his head, Jackson questioned the official. "But I'll never win this! It's not fair!"
The official crossed his arms and waited. Finally, Jackson conceded. The official gave him a number, and Jackson stood in line, waiting for his number to be called.
"25?" The official called. Jackson stepped forward. "Do you know your previous time?"
Jackson racked his brain for a moment, and realized he had a time before this. He told the official, and was allowed to proceed to the starting line. He looked at the other racers, terrified of losing. Then, he heard a voice.
"Number 25, please step forward. You will be the first race."
"Who am I racing?" Jackson asked.
"Just yourself, sir."
Jackson shook his head in disbelief. He readied himself on the line the official had designated. The official fired the gun, and Jackson sprinted to the finish line. The official told him his time, and he was told to wait until the medal ceremony. He watched each of the other racers come in, and though he tried, he couldn't hear their times. Eventually, it came time for the medal ceremony. Jackson was called up and given a gold medal.
"What place did I come in?" he asked.
"Son, the only person you were racing was yourself. Did you beat your time?" Jackson nodded. "Then you won. Proceed that way to leave this area."
He felt as though a weight had been lifted as he left the race, walking along the forest path.
-
He walked quietly along the forest path, listening to the sounds of the birds. He heard nothing, which made him jump that much higher when he felt a hand tap him on the shoulder. Three people stood in front of him, both about his age. One had bright pink hair, which was surprising and almost distracted from his kaleidoscope eyes, and had a wild expression on his face. The second had dark blue eyes and black hair, and looked somber. The third, the one who had tapped him on the shoulder, had red hair and green eyes.
"Hi, I'm Solli! This is my brother Tris, and my cousin, Al. We're walking this road, too. Would you mind if we walked with you?"
Jackson hesitated. Something about these three put him off. "Actually, um-"
"Great, then we'll come along!" Solli said.
Jackson grudgingly allowed them to follow.
"So where are we going?" Solli asked.
"I don't know."
"Shouldn't you know?"
"Well, maybe, but-"
"Oh god, we don't know where we're going. This is not good. What if we're lost? We could die." Solli began looking around warily, searching for a sign.
"Maybe it would be better to stop at this point," Tris said, the first time he'd spoken.
"What do you mean?" Jackson asked.
"I mean, if you're lost on this path, then there's no reason to keep going. Just stop here."
Jackson shook his head. These two weren't going to be fun to travel with. Al, on the other hand, wasn't doing much. They continued walking. Solli continued to go on and on about how they needed to know where they were going and begging Jackson to figure it out. Tris just kept moaning and asking to stop, or at least take a break. Much later down the path, Al walked up to Jackson.
"Dude, do you see that?" Al asked.
"See what?"
"DUDE LOOK THE TREES ARE CLOSING IN ON US!" Al screamed, drawing the attention of his cousins.
Sure enough, the trees had started to move. They were closing in on them, stretching their branches out in an attempt to capture the travelers. Jackson started to run, but Solli and Tris grabbed at his legs, asking him to not leave them, and Al continued screaming at him, telling him about the trees. Jackson realized if he wanted to get anywhere, he needed to get away from those three. He kicked away from Solli and Tris, pushed past Al, and sprinted through the ever-closing trees. He reached a clearing, and on the clearing sat an iPod with headphones. He didn't know what they were doing in the middle of a forest, especially one as terrifying as this, but he gratefully accepted them, and started listening to music. He took a breath, and began forging his way through the forest again, realizing that the trees had never closed in on him in the first place.
-
Jackson kept moving, but the pain came back. Every time he took a good stride, it would come back and stab him in whatever spot the man had bruised. He limped a bit, but he found a good stick to help him walk. Occasionally, the stick's branches would hit a bruise that he had and hurt him again, but it was a good stick. It helped him get down the path. He found a new clearing, but this one was the end of the forest. He saw, at the end of the path, a mansion. It was beautiful. He walked up to the mansion, and saw that there were two stunning doors. One was light blue, inlaid with silver, with a silver knob. The second door was pink, with gold designs on it, and a gold knob on it as well. There were windows in each of the doors, and Jackson could see his family inside the pink door.
"Pick a door, Jackson. It's time."
Jackson stared at both of the doors. He immediately reached for the knob of the pink door, but saw that as he did, the blue door started to disappear, as well as the window inside of the pink door. He walked over to the blue door, and noticed that there was no window, but he heard the same music that he loved inside, and people laughing and talking. He wanted to go in that door as well. He reached for that knob, but the pink door began to disappear.
"Voice! This isn't fair!" he yelled.
Jackson heard his family calling from inside the pink door. "Come on, Jackson! Be like everyone else! Everyone else loved the pink door, why can't you?" Jackson walked towards the pink door, listening to his parents. "Don't choose the blue door Jackson, we won't love you anymore if you do."
Jackson looked at the blue door again. He heard the laughing and the music, and heard that inside the pink door, there was also good music, but that the blue door was just as good.
"Voice, please. I like both doors. Why can't I just like both of them without one of them disappearing?" he said through gritted teeth.
"Just to be clear: you want both doors?"
Jackson nodded in affirmation. As he did, both doors disappeared, and a new door appeared in the middle. It was perfect. It had both colors on it, with a lavender color in the middle,  was inlaid with both silver and gold, and had a black stone knob on it. Jackson could hear the beautiful music inside, and the laughing. He could no longer hear his family inside, but he didn't know if they were still there or not. He opened the door to a dark room and stepped inside, both fearful and hopeful at the same time.