(AIASP) THE MIRROR REFLECTS

THE MIRROR REFLECTS



The mirror was so beautiful. She knew she must have it from the first time she saw it. How ornate it was. She smiled at it's very presence which now dominated the room in every way. No matter where she stood it demanded her attention.
LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME, LOOK INTO ME.
Surely there had never been anything look into that mirror that could outweigh it's beauty.
How sad that the items we surround ourselves with nowadays have so little value. So easily disposed of and replaced. So simple and bland in design. No heart , no soul, no creativity, no love of the artist put into it. Like each object projects death instead of life.
As she stood in front of it, everything reflected looked different. Not distorted. Not warped as one would expect from such an old looking glass. The colors were more vibrant. Outlines more defined. That which was not, appeared three dimensional.
Sarah blinked her eyes. Gone. The illusion within the ornate frame was gone.Leaving her to believe she was overtired, over imaginative.
She dressed for bed, occasionally glancing at the mirror sitting in the corner of the room.Turning off her bedside lamp, she slid beneath the covers, and rolling over to put her back to the mirror, she drifted off into a peaceful slumber.
As she slept, Annie, Sarah's feline companion, padded into the room. She slowly, cautiously crept her way closer to the mirror. Something new. Curious. Smells funny. Smells awful. Smells wrong. The fur on Annie's tail and back begins to bristle, and she lets out a loud hiss before backing away into opposite corner of the room.
Sarah, hearing Annie's protest, awoke with a start to see the little cat cowering in the corner opposite the new mirror, her eyes fixed upon it....she hissed again.
Thinking that her furry four legged friend was only responding to her own reflection, Sarah giggled.
" Silly kitty, Annie, It's just you!"
She climbed out of bed and walked over to Annie hoping to calm her down.It was then that she saw what Annie was afraid of.
In the mirror...
Like a ripple on a pond...
Or a shadow in the fog...
Both at the same time, and yet neither.

A chill ran up Sarah's spine.
The reflection in the mirror, should be her bedroom, but was not. The image of a garden appeared in the glass. A beautiful garden in full summer bloom.
Bushes and flowers. Birds and butterflies. Trees heavily laden with fruit.
A garden like a fairy tale.
"What in the world?" Sarah looked behind her impulsively, expecting to find where the image could stem from.
"Absurd!" she said to herself. "Of course there is no garden there!"
It was then that she noticed as she slowly approached the mirror, that she herself was not reflected in the glass either. It had become more like a window.
Sarah could feel her heart pounding. Her hands were shaking. Annie hissed again before darting out of the room completely.Sarah was tempted to follow her. Very tempted.
But curiosity got the better of her, and she walked up to the mirror, standing directly in front of it.
The light of the sun warmed her face. A gentle breeze blew her hair. The smell of flowers of a dozen varieties filled her nose.She could hear the calls of birds and perhaps the gentle sound of a small stream. As beautiful as a dream.
"Yes, this is a dream....A wonderful dream."she whispered under her breath and proceeded to walk into the mirror, into the peaceful garden.
The instant she felt the cool grass and damp earth on her bare feet she knew this was real. So very real. All around her the most vivid colors, so full of life.
She stepped back. Once. Twice. Again.
She turned looking for the mirror behind her.
Nothing but an endless display of trees, bushes and flowers.
She walked and walked the stone path throughout the garden. Never reaching it's borders, and never finding the mirror. Never seeing the sign of another soul.
She sat down on a stone bench and began to cry. Never had she felt so horribly alone. Not knowing what to do, or where to go, she sat there for a long time.
The garden never changed from day to day. As if unseen hands were tending to it's perfection. The flowers were always blooming. The fruit trees always in abundance.
Days passed.Weeks. Months turned into years. Sarah kept track of every day by marking lines in the trees.
10 years.
10 years since she had walked into the mirror.
She had not aged a day according to her reflection in the stream, and walking in the garden naked held no consequence when one is alone. She had long since shed her clothing that quickly turned to rags.
It was in the early morning, as she bathed in the stream, that she heard a sound. Distant, yet familiar.
'HELLO! ANYONE THERE?"
Tears of joy ran down her face as she ran towards the sound of the voice.
From her hiding place in the bushes, she saw him.
A man, about her age.He was fully clothed and looking distraught and confused.
Sarah, looking down at her nakedness, realized she could not be seen this way. She quickly fashioned a covering out of some large leaves and wrapped it around her waist. Using her hands to cover her breasts, she stepped out into the open, and he saw her for the first time.
He gasped at the sight of her.
"Um..hello there. My name is Michael. I know this is going to sound really crazy, but I just walked into a mirror..."

That was really cool Access! I liked the way you described your kitty and the way it hissed at the mirror. Then for 10 years or more you were in a garden that never changed at all. To be in a place where everything is the same and there's no change would drive me to hoping that one of those plants are poisonous and I'd find out which one. Then to bring Michael into it at the end with you being alone for ten years was definitely sexy. Good job AD,

Thank you Solarskye. You took me from tears to smiling!

wow. great story access i thought you were going to steal my ending with the garden of eden XD lol seriously...never aging...leaf clothes...lol i really liked it, most descriptive story I've read so far, brilliant.



Roswell.

Hey Ros, this is a snippet of a longer story that has been swimming around in my head for a couple of years now.
thanks buddy.
For what it's worth man...I think you are an awesome writer.
Well beyond your years.

Originally posted by AccessDenied
For what it's worth man...I think you are an awesome writer.

Well beyond your years.

Originally posted by AccessDenied
Hey Ros, this is a snippet of a longer story that has been swimming around in my head for a couple of years now.
thanks buddy.

hope you find the time to write the full story up, i would really like to read it.



Roswell.

reply to post by roswell1


Ros..even if I did..it would be far too long to post here. It equals a full length novel. But thank you.

Oh, Access - you sent my heart aflutter yet again...

How I wish, how I'm sure we all have wished at one time or another, for a magic mirror such as yours.

If I ever am lucky enough to find such a mirror - I hope I find Sarah on the 'other side'...

Beautiful...

reply to post by Outrageo


Why thank you Outrageo. I believe you are right..we all have wished for such a mirror.

Another great story AD! When I was a young girl many moons ago.
I used to sit in front of a large antique mirror and imagine going through it. I would be alone in a most beautiful place and Superman would come through the mirror. lol

starred & flagged

Originally posted by MountainStar
Another great story AD!

When I was a young girl many moons ago.
I used to sit in front of a large antique mirror and imagine going through it. I would be alone in a most beautiful place and Superman would come through the mirror. lol

starred & flagged

Ah yes..MountainStar, when I was a little girl I would sit in front of the full length mirror in my mother's bedroom and imagine another world beyond. It was never the same though..just whatever was on my mind that day.

WOWOWOWOW

I LOVED it AD. Great story Short but effective.

Moreeeeee we want MOREEEeeeeeeeee...........



I really need to get back into writing stories - maybe the next contest hehehe - but alas, converting docs has stolen me from this world and trown me back to August 1964. lol

reply to post by shearder


Ah yes..the busy man returns to reality if only briefly. Yes Shearder when you find the time you must write again.
Thanks for the compliment.
Don't be a stranger!

Fun story AccessDenied. I like the concept of the character becoming trapped in this pocket dimension, and possibly becoming fey-like in her appearance (sans clothes, natural-looking) over the years there. I especially liked the last line of the ending, as it both reminds you of the real world and the mirror's place in it, and perhaps the idea that more people will become trapped there in time.

It does lead one to wonder though, why there are not previous tenants in the woods, unless the mirror is not that old. Or perhaps previous tenants died somehow (maybe through suicide since they do not age), and she might discover their remains. Or, maybe all tenants turn into a part of the forest over the decades somehow, and the character feels the woods are alive and watching. It might also be interesting if the cat went with her and also started to change.

I would love to see this in a larger format...not novel length...but in a longer short story format.

Good description, but I think what would improve the story-telling is if you metered out that description with the movements of the character as she interacts with things, as opposed to just describing as much as possible all at once, like you did with the grass.

Good job, thanks for the read.