Mirrors and Shadows

Chapter Three

I wake up in a white room, Alastair and Christoph are looking at me worriedly.

"What happened? Where am I?" I croak.

Then it hits me. I was training. I was succeeding. Then the pain hit me and I blacked out.

"It was so scary!" Christoph says. "You just froze there, and your shadow was pulsing and pulsing. Ms. Clarke freaked out right then and there and used her shadow to knock yours back into your body. She said you had almost faded. We rushed you to the hospital ward."

Alastair grins. "At least you're not gone, eh? Wouldn't want to lose my ally, would I?"

I manage a smile. Alastair always manages to cheer me up. "Thanks for taking care of me. How long was I out for?"

"You broke the record!" Alastair says, waving his hands around. "At least 24 hours!"

Mr. Ramble, who was just passing by, glares at Alastair and says, "I think it was only 12 hours in the most, Mr. Taylor."

"Um, maybe," Alastair says sheepishly. "But hey, that's still cool."

"Wait," I say. "So you two have been sitting here for 12 hours?!"

"We've been switching with Timothy and Benjamin," Alastair says. "Three hours at a time. We just switched, when you woke up."

"Oh. So what happened while I was out?"

"Nothing much," Alastair says. "I managed to communicate with my mirror self through the mirror. He's such a cool guy."

Benjamin laughs. "That's like bragging about how cool you yourself are."

Alastair goes red. "Um... maybe..."

Ms. Clarke comes over and says, "Ms. Johnston, you ought to rest for one more day. In the meanwhile, the others need to train. Is that okay with you? I mean, will you feel bad being left out?"

"Nah, it's okay. I say." I'm cool and won't let myself get in the way of the others' training.

Oh wait. I said I'm cool. I'm bragging like Ally.

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He watched the footage of his robbery, sitting in the heart of his newly formed base. He cursed himself for not thinking of cameras. Now that annoying William would put Plan B in action and train the children he had found. If they were trained properly, they could overthrow him.

He needed to strike a blow now. Before it was too late.

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I'm let out of the hospital ward a day later. Ms. Clarke tells me to rest for yet another day until I start to train. I watch as the others make progress.

Christoph has overcome the pain and can move his shadow around for a few seconds.

Alastair is able to jump into the mirror and talk to his mirror self. He's still unable to overcome the pain that comes with the shadow though.

Benjamin, who has mirror and fluid shadow Gifts, can slip into his shadow and reform with no problem. He can interact with his mirror self but not pass through into the mirror realm.

Timothy, who has the fluid shadow Gift, is able to slip into his shadow and pass through walls. He's able to keep this up for almost a minute.

A day later, I join the training. Mr. Ramble teaches me how to interact with my mirror self (which was fairly easy, considering I just wave into the mirror and my mirror self winks at me). But when I try to reach into the mirror, purple fire dances over me and I recoil in pain. I didn't realize the mirror department contained pain too.