Bad Company (Seven Deadly Sins #1) ✅ Completed

Chapter Twenty-One: Return to the Mirror

Return to the Mirror  

I stood in front of the mirror, alone on the shop floor for the first time that day. Aunt Celeste still hadn’t returned and Dante had enough of hanging around the shop with me. He’d jumped into his truck and left only a few minutes before, probably in search of some real food.

I couldn’t blame him really – we’d eaten all the decent stuff for breakfast and now the only thing left in the mini-fridge was some Tupperware that bulged out in weird angles along its sides. I was figuring nothing good could possibly come from opening it, so I’d just walked to the drug store for some Coke and a few Slim Jims. I even offered Dante one of the spicy ones, but he just rolled his eyes and said something about poisonous, processed chemicals in the guise of meat shaped sticks.

Whatever. I didn’t care. All it meant was more for me. 

He’d finally cracked though and gone in search for some real food. That meant I was really all alone for the first time ever. More importantly, it meant I had at least a few minutes to see about finding Dawn and getting her to spill her guts before either one of them waltzed back to the shop. I had a sneaky suspicion she was a little reflection that knew a lot more than she let on.

Making sure the coast was clear, which of course it was because it was so dead, I ran to Dawn’s mirror. Looking at it, it didn’t look any different than any other mirror. Ok, so it was large and part of the edges were clouded over from age or something, but it was still just a regular mirror. The frame was pretty big, ornate even. If I had to guess, I’d say it looked a little French, but I wasn’t any kind of expert. It did look on the old side, but so did everything else in this place.

Taking a deep breath, I leaned in close, my lips practically touching the shiny reflective surface. “Psst. Dawn, are you there?” I don’t know why I was whispering…it just seemed like the right thing to do in this situation.

When I didn’t get a response right away I tried again, this time a little louder. By the time Dawn finally appeared I’d been shouting her name at full volume. Thankfully, she’d appeared by the third shout. I was a little worried someone might actually hear me as they walked by and stopped to see who I was shouting at, only to find me shouting at my own reflection. That would be a little hard to explain.

She was wearing the same clothes as last time, her hair in the same style. Again I was struck by how young she appeared. Maybe it was her ruffled dress or her plaited hair that looked like her mom had just combed it. I couldn’t begin to imagine what could’ve happened to her that she got sucked into a mirror before she was even old enough to get her first pimple. It just didn’t seem right at all.

“Eliza! What are you doing? If Madame Celeste sees you…” she gasped, looking all sorts of freaked out.

I dismissed her warning away easily, “She’s not here. She went to Jefferson City for the day, or something. I’m not really sure. I didn’t pay much attention after she told me she was leaving. Listen, I need to ask you a couple of questions.”

“No, I really don’t think you…”

I went on like I hadn’t even heard her, “You know my friend, Chase, the boy I had you show me when he was upstairs with my aunt in her showroom. Ok, see he came by today, but he wasn’t acting like his usual self. He was kind of all over the place, and his eyes….”

“Eliza. I can’t,” she pleaded.

Her face was pretty pale, even for being a reflection, and she looked ready to cry but I just kept talking. If I stopped now she might think I would let her off the hook and I just couldn’t do that. I hated being this way but I really needed her help, and if that meant I had to knock a little girl ghost out of her comfort zone, then so be it.