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Imported Mirror |
Lucy came to live with her aunt when she was twelve years old. Her parents had been institutionalized, a word that twelve-year-old Lucy didn't quite understand. Her aunt Martha didn't make it any easier, telling her it was "better to forget the whole thing, Lucy, dear." When Lucy when back to school after a six month hiatus, she found out what had happened to her parents through the cruelty of the other students. They wanted to know if she, too, was crazy, and why hadn't she been locked away with her parents? The capability of savagery in the young is immense.
Lucy finally bullied her aunt Martha into telling her at least some of the story when she was fifteen. "They aren't insane, dear. They're just overtired. They're resting," her aunt said, busily knitting.
"But what made them overtired?" Lucy wanted to know.
"Life," her aunt said mysteriously.
"Am I going to be that way?" Lucy asked.
"No, dear," said her aunt with a sigh. Lucy gave up.
It seemed to Lucy that her aunt knew more than she let on, and not just about her parents'...problems. But more about <em>life</em>.
But where could she find such crucial information? Where did one's strange aunt hide family secrets? Lucy knew there was an attic in the house, but her aunt never went up there. It seemed that any mysterious 'files' would be a little bit closer to the ground floor.
After a few days of furtive searching, the attic was the only place left to look.
"What's in the attic, Aunt Martha?" Lucy queried.
"Stay away from there," Aunt Martha replied. Lucy was startled; it was the only time she'd ever seen her aunt upset...and afraid.
"Just wondering," came the innocent voice of a mischievous young girl.
"Hmmm," her aunt said, casting a beady eye up from her knitting. Lucy smiled meekly. Satisfied, Aunt Martha continued to purl.
The next day happened to be a school day. Lucy dressed, ate breakfast, and left like usual. Aunt Martha didn't work, but this particular day happened to be Aunt Martha's 'errand day'. The day when she bought groceries, more yarn, gossiped with the ladies at that hair salon. It was the day that Lucy planned to go up in the attic. With her aunt's reaction, she knew <em>something</em> had to be up there.
Calling ahead at the school-she wasn't that stupid-Lucy waited her aunt out in the bushes near the house. Right on time, her aunt came tottering down the porch steps and into the trusty old station wagon.
The minute her aunt's car was out of sight, Lucy let herself in with the spare key and gently closed the door behind her. Her aunt was quiet, but with her gone, the house's silence was even more oppressive. It made Lucy want to jump and shout like a ten-year-old, but that would bring attention. Better to just get on with the search.
Lucy wandered into her aunt's bedroom. There was the square in the ceiling signifying an attic. She pulled down the retractable stairs and heaved herself up into the darkness.
Luckily, there was a pull-string for a light. Lucy pulled it, and it flared into bright life. No dim attic for her, apparently. She smiled to herself and observed her surroundings.
Boxes, cobwebs, trunks, old lampstands and furniture. Just to make her creepy attic visit genuine, Lucy thought with a grin. She peered at some of the marked boxes, but unfortunately, none proclaimed 'FAMILY SECRETS' on their dusty flaps.
Lucy continued her prowling. The attic was larger than it appeared; perhaps it went over the whole house instead of just a section. She was on her second lap when a faint glimmer caught her eye.
"What's this?" she breathed softly to no one. The thing in question was a mirror. Old, filthy, dull silver flaked at its edges. A small florist-type card was taped to it. Lucy flipped it over and read:
'To my beloved, from Federick.' It was dated 1895, from China.
"Hmmm," Lucy said, much in the manner that her aunt had a few nights ago. She let the card fall and it spun slightly in the attic air before settling. Lucy wiped her hand across the mirror's surface, dragging the thick brown dust away. She saw her reflection.
Lucy knew that back in 1895, China was relatively unexplored by England, or anyone else for that matter. Except for maybe the Chinese, she giggled to herself. It was known as simply 'The Orient', and it was said that many strange and wondrous and terrible things came from there. Lucy wondered if there was any truth to such things, and if the proof was here in front of her, reflecting her image back?
Lucy lifted her arm and touched the glittering surface with light fingertips. Nothing magical happened. In fact, it was rather boring. Lucy sighed with frustration. She hadn't found out any family secrets, and when she did come across something interesting, it turned out to be a dud! Lucy turned away, smearing her hand on her jeans to wipe off the dirt.
"Lucy..."
She turned. Did she really hear that? She wasn't afraid, just curious. Was it her aunt Martha calling her from downstairs? Did she know she was up here?
"Coming, Aunt Martha!" Lucy called. But nothing responded back to her from below; in fact, Lucy was pretty sure whatever had said her name had come from the mirror's direction. She faced it again and saw herself.
No, that's not right, she thought and she came a bit closer. It was her mother.
Lucy and her mother looked like twins. Her father was fond of calling them 'mirror images'. "My beautiful mirror images," he would say with a smile. They would laugh. That was a long time ago, when she was younger.
"Mom?" Lucy asked the glass. She tried to suppress the feeling of absurdity.
"Lucy..." the woman in the mirror's lips had moved, not Lucy's. She stepped almost right up to the mirror.
"Mom, I'm here."
"Lucy, darling," her mother said. No ethereal voice for her. It was almost as if she were in the attic with Lucy.
"What is it, mom?" Lucy asked. "I thought...I thought they put you away."
"We are away," her mother replied sadly. "We are."
"Why, mom? Why did you go?" Lucy was going to get the whole story, and straight from her mother!
"There's something you need to know," her mother began, her eyes dark and serious.
"What?"
"Lucy, this mirror is dangerous."
"But you're in it!" Lucy said, frowning with confusion.
"It seems like it," her mother agreed. "But we are not truly here. Rather, our minds are."
"Dad, too?"
"Yes, honey. But listen, Lucy, your aunt...she's not what she seems."
"She is a little nutty," Lucy agreed with a nod. Her mother gave her an exasperated smile.
"No, no dear...far more dangerous than that. A long time ago, your father and I had discovered something about your aunt. She's evil, Lucy, but the explanation is more simple than devils and witchcraft. She wants our money. Her plan is to kill us, and keep you alive until you inherit. Then, she wants you to die too. When we confronted her...things got out of control. She had us sent away."
Lucy gasped. Her harmless aunt Martha, a murderer?
"But, I don't understand. The mirror...?"
"Lucy," her mother said urgently. "I don't have enough time. Our lives are almost at an end...darling, my Lucy, my mirror image, listen. The people at the institution are on her side. They're going to overdose us and tell everyone we committed suicide. But your father and I have found a way to...leave, if you will. We found this mirror not too long ago, and we figured out how it works. We will escape this fate."
"What about me, mom?" Lucy asked desperately.
"Come inside, sweetie. We can be happy together. This is no lie. It's magical, wondrous, like so many things from the Orient were. Trust me, darling. Soon we will have left our earthly shells behind. Instead of a physical fortune, we will have each other. But neither will your aunt succeed.
"Okay, mom. What do I have to do?"
"Just give yourself a little prick, and smear some of your blood on the surface. When it vanishes, you can step through. But if you're going to, do it quickly."
Lucy looked around for something sharp and found a rusty nail on the floor. Lockjaw? She smiled. Who cared at this point?
"Just a little," her mother said, and smiled. Lucy raked the nail on her palm and smeard the upwelling crimson on the silver surface. It marred her mother's face and made it look as if she were bloody, too. But then it vanished, and so did her mother.
"Mom?" Lucy called.
"Step through, darling," came the disembodied voice. Lucy hesitantly put her fingers up to the surface and they went through! Like Alice through the Looking Glass, Lucy thought. She walked boldly in.
Her mother appeared before her, and she took Lucy's hand. "Now we're all together in this alternate reality."
"What is this place?" Lucy asked. She didn't see anything but a dim, grey hallway.
"This hallway runs between this mirror and the other world. Like a science fiction portal. We're almost there."
Before the two women appeared a door. Through it Lucy could see a city, bright and shiny as a new coin. They walked into it together, and the door closed up, leaving only the city and the women in the focus.
***
When Aunt Martha came home, there was no school-worn Lucy sitting on the steps. And that could mean only one thing.
Aunt Martha smiled, then repeated the process that Lucy had used to get into the attic a few hours previously.
The attic glimmered in its corner, once again dusty as Lucy had found it. She smiled. Within a few hours, Martha would get the call from the institution, saying their two most difficult patients had committed suicide. And of course, once she received that call, she would place one of her own, reporting Lucy missing.
The mirror had been a trap all along. How it worked was still a mystery to Martha, but her beloved Frederick had taught her how to use it, before he vanished into its depths as well.
Aunt Martha just seemed to keep getting richer. She went downstairs and sat in her chair, waiting for the phone to ring.
"I told you not to go into the attic, Lucy, dear," she said softly. From upstairs, she heard a forlorn cry.... |
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| Alias | Date | Reply |
| *Cass* |
9/30/2007 10:07:00 PM |
This was a fun read, thanks for sharing! |
| Sexy Jessie |
9/30/2007 10:59:00 PM |
wow! that is a great post! I wish I could hear more...Hugs, ~Sexy Jessie aka Jasmyne |
| ladyspiritguide |
9/30/2007 11:19:00 PM |
Eek...!!! I LIKED that one!!! Nice & spooky. |
| neesha1 |
9/30/2007 11:48:00 PM |
Great read! I was stuck to every word!!! Thanks for sharing!:) |
| Royal Furriness |
10/1/2007 3:41:00 AM |
Fantastic...great story...thanks for sharing this master piece hugs |
| screen_writer |
10/1/2007 5:27:00 AM |
CHEESY! Are you kidding me? This was great! You’re work flows very well. I love the attention that you give to detail. For example how Lucy and her aunt both said Hmmmm in a similar way. And the suspense in this story was incredible. I thought that Aunt Martha was going to catch Lucy in the attic for sure, but no, a great twist at the end proved me wrong… and then another twist after that. You are one talented writer with a spectacular imagination. I loved this story:) |
| 6Ball |
10/1/2007 6:54:00 AM |
This was a GREAT read! I never expected this ending and you had me hooked from the start! Keep it up, Starlit Bunny! |
| ~Watcher |
10/1/2007 7:51:00 AM |
Cool, I really liked this :) |
| starlit.bunni.child |
10/1/2007 8:48:00 AM |
*giggles* well, with the NONWORKING html, everyone will know to put the right emphasis! right?? hahah!! |
| Bunny Mom |
10/1/2007 9:48:00 AM |
That was awesome had me held in its grip!!!!! I liked it very much! - Bunny |
| AshleyMacarooni |
10/2/2007 8:19:00 PM |
That was really good! Very spooky!! |
| Garnet |
10/10/2007 2:06:00 PM |
Wicked story! I really enjoyed it. |
| emopizzaguy |
10/28/2007 9:01:00 PM |
cheesy?that story was great |
| forgotten child |
1/16/2008 4:36:00 PM |
i thought it was very good though if you wanted cheesy you should have had the aunt check the mirror and have it fall on her that woulda been cheesy :P |
| starlit.bunni.child |
1/16/2008 9:33:00 PM |
hahaha angel of death, i'm having a hard time figuring out if you're complimenting me or insulting me :] just kidding~ |
| Leigh aka *lil mama* |
3/14/2008 3:40:00 PM |
ok please please please tell me there is going to be more :) |
| starlit.bunni.child |
3/14/2008 7:52:00 PM |
hahaha nope that was it, sorry!! |
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