CHAPTER 7 - MY REFLECTION SUCKS

Placing the mirror in the corner of my bedroom, I started to unwrap the cover. With this thorough of a job hiding the mirror underneath so much cloth, it was probably broken and the mustached salesman just wanted to throw it away.

At least, that was what I was hoping. If it really was an intact mirror, what would this mean?

Was he just a nice guy? I doubt it.

A creep like that has got to have some ulterior motives. So was it a smart idea to bring in a strange item from an even stranger man into my relatively normal house?

Probably not, but if it was something dangerous, then it didn’t do a very good job of endangering me on the way home.

One more pull and the fabric cover would be off. However, a part of me just couldn’t pull it right away.

This is it. I either reveal what’s underneath or I keep it hidden and throw it away.

I was never one for believing in the supernatural, but what if, ya know?

What if it’s all real?

Then I’d be a real idiot to pull the cover off.

But what if it’s just a normal mirror?

Then I’d be a real idiot to throw it away.

I hope it’s just broken. It’s the only thing that would make sense unless I’m missing something crazy.

Just do it, William!

I pulled the cover all off and it was… just a mirror.

Not broken at all.

Completely intact.

But not completely normal, either.

A mirror reflects and shows your reality reversed. That’s what it’s supposed to do. That’s what every mirror out there does, and that’s what it was doing now.

It was doing what every mirror normally does… for the most part.

There was only one thing wrong. Blatantly wrong. Reality-changing wrong.

I can see my bedroom in the reflection, including my bed, drawer, and unlit candles. It was the exact same.

There was only one thing missing– No, one person missing in the reflection.

Me.

The supernatural was real.

I didn’t know when I grabbed it, but, in my left hand, I could feel the familiar grip of my six-shooter. I already had it aimed toward the mirror, ready to shoot.

Most people would reason that if a person didn’t have a reflection, it meant only one thing.

You’re a vampire.

This would be a slightly cool revelation to learn if it was true, but it wasn’t.

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I’m no vampire.

And that’s no regular mirror.

I hoped it would at least shatter like one.

Pulling the trigger, I shot. My accuracy may have significantly dulled, but, the mirror being this close in proximity, I knew my bullet did not miss.

But, unlike what I hoped for, the bullet did not break the mirror. It didn’t even bounce back and ricochet somewhere in my room. It did the second strangest thing I’ve seen all day.

It went through the mirror.

Not through as if the mirror was some ghost, unable to be touched, but through– as in directly into the reflection, like it was a portal to another world.

Before I could dwell on it any longer, I heard footsteps.

Footsteps coming from that other realm.

No sooner than I heard them did the door in the mirror bedroom swing open and in came rushing–

My reflection.

As if they had the same instinct as I, they immediately opened their drawer and swung a gun in my direction.

“Stop!” I yelled, diving behind my bed.

Evidently, my reflection did not listen and fired a round from his side to mine. I couldn’t help but wince at past me for thinking it was a good idea to buy an isolated house away from most of the town. I guess I really wanted my privacy, but who could’ve guessed my reflection would come shooting?

“What are you?” The question came from inside the mirror. “If you’re some type of demonic being, you best tell me now. I’m the best shot in town, and I won’t miss again.”

Is that what I sounded like?

“I’m not a demon!” I said from behind the bed. “At least, I don’t think I am. I don’t even know what’s going on. I just bought a mirror, and apparently, it’s not as normal as I assumed.”

“Apparently, so.” I could hear him cocking the hammer to his revolver. “But I don’t got much reason to trust you. I’ve had this mirror since I got the house, and it’s never done anything like this before. So, I’m surmising that you’re the problem. Now come out and let me shoot you, buddy. I don’t got all day.”

“Listen!” I shouted. “Clearly, you aren’t some supernatural being trying to mercilessly kill me for no reason, but–”

“Maybe not supernatural, but I’m definitely trying to kill you.”

“Okay, I misworded that. My fault, but how bout we just calm down then. I don’t know what’s going on, and, by the looks of it, you don’t either.”

“By the looks of it, there’s a man in my mirror. So how bout this. Let me shoot you one time, then. If you really are a man and not some type of demonic monster, you’ll react like one.”

“How do you know I wouldn’t just be a monster that’s pretending to be hurt once you shoot me?”

“Cause I’ll be shooting you in the head. If you move, you’re a monster. If not… oh well. My bad, I guess.”

Am I this blatant about wanting to shoot people, too? My reflection sucks. I responded, “Okay, nice negotiating, pal.”

There was no way for me to reason with this guy. I couldn’t just leave the room, either. By the sounds of it, my reflection seems to still have his aim, unlike me.

If I couldn’t shoot the mirror and break it, then maybe I could destroy the frame? No, that wouldn’t do anything either. The mirror itself would still be intact, which would mean the portal would still technically be present.

“If you’re really me, you wouldn’t back down from a shootout, so you’ve got to be a monster,” he said.

It was obvious this was just bait to lure me out. He wanted me to come out and try to prove my innocence. Knowing him, though, he’d just shoot me the moment I came out of cover.

But if he was that anxious to shoot me, then he was probably watching any movement that would come out from behind the bed.

Easy.

I knew what I could do right then and there.

I tossed my gun out in the open, and I heard an immediate shot fired from the mirror. With no delay, I dove over my bed and rushed behind the mirror.

“Where’d you go?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, kicking the mirror over, covering the portal with the floor.

“What the hell did you just do?”

“I blocked the mirror. Now we can’t shoot each other. You think a monster who could survive a headshot would need to do all this?”

“I don’t know how monster biology works, buddy.”

“Can we just talk, now?”

It was silent for a few seconds before I heard him reply, “Fine.”

I could already tell this was going to be a long talk.