Somewhere in a government facility hidden in Italy, a woman walked towards a computer terminal.
It was a small monitor connected to a server that would probably put to shame even google’s own. In fact, these beauties of modern technology had been sourced from them. Never let it be said that the people’s tax money was spent on useless things.
The state of the art equipment booted up with the whirring of fans. The screen lit to life and the logo of the Mirror Containment Bureau appeared: a simple mirror, with a crack going from top to bottom, light coming through as a chain made sure it didn’t fall apart. A moment later, the logo disappeared and a screen requested her credentials. She swiped her identification card on a small card-reader on the screen’s left, and the screen lit green. It asked for her personal password, and she input a long string of seemingly random words and numbers: Harlequin.13.Groundhog.06.SunAndMoon.02.
Again, the screen flashed green, going to the home screen of the central database.
She rubbed her eyes and sighed as all the entries loaded under the words “Mirrors can’t eat you, but those beyond can.” The Bureau’s motto. Every time she read it it made her cringe a bit in embarassment, because that was a big fucking understatement. But then again, she wasn’t one of the higher ups who had started this whole thing. She was just one of the many doctors that worked around here. Sure, she was one of the very first that had ever joined, and sure, she’d been one of those that had helped the most, but in the end she was just a doctor. She didn’t care about making the decisions. Too much responsibility.
She looked at the screen, then sighed again.
Today had been a bad day. No, that was another understatement. Today had been a catastrophe. And she had done nothing to stop it. Could do nothing to stop it.
So here she was, about to make another entry on the steadily increasing database. Sometimes it felt like not a single day passed that a new Entity was found.
She clicked around on the screen, found what she was looking for, then hit record.
----------------------------------------
Mirror Containment Bureau
Incident Report: Eu – 0019
Date: 14/05/2013
Codename: Continentwide Mirror Detonation
Redactor: Dr. Ballista ■■■■■
Begin Recording:
On the date of May the 12th 2013, at 1200 Local Time, Operation: Silverer was put into action. Mirrors that had been placed all over Europe at points of interest were unveiled in an attempt to stabilize the Mirror World on a continent-wide scale. The attempt was, initially, a success, with surprising reductions in readings from Quantistic Instability Locators, hereby referred to as QIL. Exactly thirteen hours later, on May the 13th, at 0100, all mirrors placed during Operation: Silverer and an approximate of 91% of mirrors all over Europe imploded into, we suspect, the Mirror World.
There were no wounded, but in the following hours an exponential increase of Quantistic Instability was registered by QILs all over the continent, with the appearance of no less than thirteen new Entities, all malignant in nature.
Researchers are still trying to understand if there is any kind of significance to the constant appearance of the number thirteen. So far investigations have been inconclusive.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
As of 0013 of the 14th of May, readings have stabilized, although at an increased level of Instability. The Commission of the Bureau is currently deliberating if the distribution of mirros to the population is an acceptable risk to be taken in exchange for a reduction in Instability.
More updates soon.
Dr Ballista out.
----------------------------------------
Addendum Eu – 0019 – 01:
On further investigation, it was discovered that exactly thirteen individuals have disappeared from their homes during the events of Eu – 0019. It is presumed they were in the vicinity of the mirrors when they imploded. Researchers theorize that these individuals have ended up in the Mirror World.
Here is a list of their names. [Begin Bullet List]:
* Garcia Daniel, 42 Y.O.
* Fisher Hans, 24 Y.O.
* Ballista Antonio, 36 Y.O.
* Scognamiglio Tina, 14 Y.O.
* Smithson Carter, 67 Y.O.
* Kowalski Blanca, 28 Y.O.
* Muller Thomas, 7 Y.O.
* Salmon Angelique, 35 Y.O.
* Salmon Jesse, 34 Y.O.
* Theodoros Dimitriou, 50 Y.O.
* Romanov Mariana, 22 Y.O.
* Slovacek Alfred, 43 Y.O.
* Kazlou Artur, 33 Y.O.
[End Bullet List]
As per Standard Protocol 03-10, all these individuals have been declared dead.
May God have mercy of their souls.
Dr Ballista Out.
----------------------------------------
The night when Operation: Silverer backfired spectacularly, Antonio Ballista was on the toilet.
In stories people never write about someone going to the toilet, unless they’re about to be killed from behind by the monster as they evacuate their bowels or simply empty their bladders. They never write about it because there’s nothing important or remotely interesting about someone sittng on a toilet and regretting their life choices and, in particular, ordering takeout from that new chinese restaurant.
Antonio had done just that that night. For the first time in his life, he had decided to try sushi. But, instead of doing so by going to a chinese or japanese restaurant like most people do, he decided to order it as takeout and walked home with the bag under his arm.
Turns out, shrimp wasn’t friendly to his bowels. Or, at least, he thought it was the shrimp.
He flushed the toilet as he sighed in relief.
He walked past the mirror.
And at that moment, the clock struck one in the morning.
His mirror made a strange sound. He looked at it, confusion and fear mixing together as he remembered reading stories about… things, coming out of mirrors, causing devastation and wonder in equal measure.
He stared.
And that was his mistake.
Had he moved away, he could’ve escaped that destiny. But he hadn’t. Maybe it was the fear and confusion. Or maybe it was the hope his daughter would be coming out of that mirror. Whatever it was, it had him rooted in place.
So, when the mirror imploded, warping into itself, it took him and a few other objects with it to the other side, in its own cursed version of “Alice Through the Looking Glass”.
----------------------------------------
Romanov Mariana was a russian student who was currently studying law in England. She’d managed to get herself a scholarship, and had moved here as soon as she could. It wasn’t that she disliked Russia. It was her home, and it had plenty of beautiful things. It’s just that the education system there wasn’t any good. You didn’t understand something? The teacher didn’t stop and explain it again. No, instead you had to pay him to tell you again… after the lesson was done. And that’s without taking into consideration the bribes. Or the fact that you had to donate to your school a good amount of money every year for things like paper, repairs and all the likes. And if you didn’t donate enough, the teachers knew and remembered.
All in all, she disliked school in Russia. She liked it much better here in england. Even though they had uniforms.
The night of the 13th she was at a party.
She, too, was in the toilet when, as the Bureau agents liked to put, shit hit the fan.
Unlike Antonio, though, she wasn’t there after an unfortunate encounter with shrimps. No, she was crying. Not because her boyfriend had dumped her or anything like that. No, it was because she’d drunk too much punch or whatever it is that was in that bowl and she’d discovered that, apparently, she was a sad drunk.
She wiped away at tears in her eyes as the clock struck one in the morning.
As she remembered another sad moment in her life when she was just a child, the mirror in the room shook. She didn’t notice.
Truth be told, she also didn’t notice the passage from her world to the Mirror World.
No, she realized she’d been brought there only when, after opening the door to the toilet, wondering why the music had stopped, she walked out not into her friend’s house, but in this strange mansion where she couldn’t hear even her breathing.