Reflections of Light

The Adventure

They exited out of a bathroom mirror, Alysha unceremoniously stepping out over the sink to hop off the ledge onto the floor; reaching up to help Nyx down behind her.

"Where are we?"

Alysha broke into an wicked grin. "London."

Nyx's jaw dropped. "London. London? Wha... Why are we in London?"

"Because it's fun." Alysha said, pushing open the door and stepping out into the busy hotel, Nyx following at her heels for lack of choice to do anything else.

"Come on, Pancakes this way!" Alysha called, leading them out onto the street; slinging an arm around Nyx's shoulders as they walked into the city.

Nyx woke up the next day in a strange bedwith a thumping headache and someone jumping on the end of her mattress.

"Wakey Wakey, lazy bones!" Alysha giggled, sitting on the end of the bed and bouncing with exuberance; before crashing herself forwards to lay up alongside Nyx, and poke her face until she fully opened her eyes.

Nyx jerked back reflexively at seeing Alysha's face so close to her own, nearly falling out of the bed, only to be caught by a quick action of her current companion.

"Whoa there!" Alysha chuckled. "You still a bit wobbly?"

Nyx glared at her, and turned over; pulling the duvet up over her head.

Alysha tugged it out of her grasp, and then off her body, making Nyx shriek and pull her limbs into a ball as the cold air hit her skin.

"No, no, no!" Alysha squealed. "You can't sleep now. We've got stuff to do! Ugh, you were much more fun last night!"

"You got me drunk."

"Technically, you got yourself drunk." Alysha said, giving up on trying to rouse her from the bed to flop down next to her instead. "And it's not like you didn't have fun. It was a party! You're fine!"

"My splitting headache says otherwise." Nyx griped. "Good God, what did we even do?"

"Oh, that reminds me. Here." She handed Nyx a slip of folded paper. "That guy last night gave you his number."

Nyx blinked in confusion, expression turning severe. "Guy? What guy?"

"The cute one you told to not to wear yellow, because it didn't match his eyes. Apparently he was impressed."

Nyx squinted her eyes against the light, thinking about it. "Oh yeah. Oh God..."

"... Oh, and that one's from the blonde woman at the bar." Alysha continued, handing her another slip. "She says to ring her when you come back in the summer."

"What... The actual...?"

Alysha threw her hands up in surrender. "You said it, not me. Besides, you might come back. Who knows?"

Nyx groaned, and buried her head in the pillow.
Laughing, Alysha patted her arm. "Oh come on, you didn't do anything seriously embarrassing. It was mostly just cute. We hung out with people, chatted, girl talk, you know the stuff. You drew a flower on my hand, and told me all about your current relationship issues. It was adorable."

Nyx glared at her out of the corner of her eye.

Grinning, Alysha sprung up off the bed, clapping her hands joyfully. "Come on now, we've stuff to do. Chop chop! You into the shower, I'll source some coffee!"

Nyx wanted to object as she was dragged forcefully out of bed, but didn't have the mind to form a coherent sentence of complaint.

"Hey, smile!" Alysha called as Nyx stepped out of the clothes shop later that day, sporting an new top of cerulean blue Alysha had talked her into buying.

Turning around, Nyx only just caught the camera in time to put on a smile that wouldn't scream 'I'm in pain' upon looking back at the photographs.

Not that the day had actually been that bad. In most ways, it could probably be considered one of the best; and it would have been, if not for the layer of suspicion, confusion and even somewhat curiosity she was viewing this other woman through.
This woman who wore what was almost her face, her face as she knew it in the mirror.

The camera flashed, and Alysha giggled gleefully. "Love it! I want this one- I can put it in a picture frame! I've never had a picture frame."

Nyx couldn't help but chuckle at the almost adorably strange innocence of that statement. "If you like."
She narrowed her eyes in exaggerated suspicion at her companion. "Is that my camera?"

"Yeah, I grabbed it to bring along." Alysha chirped happily. "You haven't really used it yet, and I figured you gotta use it now, you got it like years ago."

"As a birthday present, yeah." Nyx nodded. "It's my birthday soon, actually."

"Yeah, tomorrow."

Nyx stopped. And then thought about it. "... Oh yeah, I guess it is. Huh. Well, that came around fast."

"Yup!" Alysha chimed, popping the 'p'. "You're gonna be Twenty ! Aww, you're so little!"

"... It's not little. I'm practically an adult."

Alysha shrugged. "Depends who's scale you're measuring by, I guess! Some of these people have awfully short lives." She frowned at the thought, pouting sadly before recovering.
"Anyway, I think your other friends-and-family-people will want to do something tomorrow, so that's why we're doing this today! Our own, secret, big-girl celebration! Shh, don't tell." She mimed shushing, then dissolved into giggles. "Come on, let's go do some sight-seeing! I think the obelisk... Cleopatra's needle, is somewhere... Ugh... That way!"

She grabbed Nyx's hand, and tugged her along, pulling her across the road at a run as crossing lights beeped.

"... I don't see why it's called Cleopatra's needle. " Alysha said, skipping down the stone steps besides the huge bronze sphinx that adorned the walkway alongside the obelisk. "It's way older than Cleopatra."

"Marketing, I guess." Nyx shrugged, taking a photograph of Alysha as she posed besides the statue. "She's famous, so it'll catch people's attention."

Alysha wrinkled her nose. "I don't see why she's so popular. She wasn't even pretty."

"How'd you know? Wasn't like you were there."

"Was too!"

"Wait... Are you serious?"

"Yeah!"

"What...? That doesn't make sense . You're... You're my... What are you?"

Alysha chuckled, swinging her arms by her side almost childishly. "You think I'm your reflection. But reflections don't talk. Reflections don't walk. Reflections don't do anything but copy; copy, always copy, just in case. They don't do anything independent from their counterpart. That's not how it works. Unless I want it to."

"I'm not kidding, who are you?!"

"That's a long story." Alysha finally said, stepping towards the wide-eyed Nyx. Then, she dropped down to sit on the step, patting the stone next to her. "Come, sit. I'll tell. I have nothing to hide from you anymore."

Aaaand, dramatic cliffhanger! Because I'm evil. XD Mua ha ha ha.

Also, sorry if it suddenly being Nyx's birthday seems unnatural, I tried to lead up to it earlier in the book, but kinda got distracted by everything else.
My time line is generally really skewy in these books anyway, but I figured realistically at least a year has to have passed by NOW. And it just seemed dramatically appropriate to have Alysha's story precurse Nyx's birthday. XD