Behind the Glass

~A continuation of Mirror Mirror~

It’s been 2 hours and I’ve decided that there’s nothing wrong with the mirror. I didn’t look that way. The glass couldn’t have shattered around my reflection only to mend itself perfectly again. It was merely a delusion concocted by my mind. A startled, silly reaction and nothing less. I’d been getting too little sleep and reading too many fantastical stories in my spare time, longing for a life of freedom and magic someplace else as someone other than myself. Clearly, my imagination had been running wild. 

With a quick step of courage, I reached for the mirror again, sweeping it off the ground. See? It was just an object…or so I thought, until I looked into it again. Placing the mirror at an angle meant to avoid my face, I surveyed my room cell through the mirror and found it to be quite different from what I could naturally perceive with my own eyes. The furniture was the same, everything a perfect reflection except… for the faces haunting the dark. Creatures of smokey black and gray with twisted smiles and filmy white eyes laughed at me through the mirror. They clung to the corners of the room with hands like a spider’s webs, attached to bubbling bodies of varying shapes and sizes that breathed with sulfurous yellow breath. 

“Look at your reflection,” One taunted, crawling up on my shoulder and squeezing its webbed fingers into my shoulder blade. “Oh, you’re an ugly one, aren’t you? An ugly body for an even uglier soul.” 

Another phantom creature laughed in response. “That’s right. We know what you’ve done. We know what happened that night. It must have been something like 152 days ago, wasn’t it?” It laughed maniacally. “I won’t let you forget.” 

“You’re to blame,” the phantoms whispered in unison. “Just look at yourself. See who you really are.” 

Forcing my eyes to peer into the glass surface of the mirror, I saw the same reflection as before. The face looking back at me was shattered, but the glass wasn’t broken, the girl was. 

No she wasn’t, no, no… 

She’s fine.
I’m fine.

But the mirror said otherwise. My heart caved in, shivering in misery, and before I knew it, my hands moved on their own and the mirror was thrown into the air. It twisted and turned, my broken reflection passing by once, then twice, the phantoms laughing with each spin before the handheld mirror shattered against the wall. Only then did it truly crack. A ripple spread across the glass, revealing a glowing light underneath the surface. For once, the light was golden, not gray. Something about it felt magnetic, and I found myself leaning into the glow, reaching for the light beneath the surface, the hope that lay behind the mess I’d made of myself. 

The light exploded outward, painting the walls of the room gold and bringing the world back into color. But along with the currents of gold came the world within the mirror. The glass shards flew at me, striking my face one by one with each palpitation of my heart. And in my heart I felt the sting of its pain as the pieces aligned themselves into a moon-like curve along my face, from the tip of my hairline to the bottom of my chin, covering the scars that textured my face. It felt no different from when the surgeries were taking place, a silent pain gone unnoticed, stitching together my imperfections to mirror the shattered reflection I had once seen. The floating phantoms laughed even as they were pushed back by the light of the mirror’s day. 

“This is who she is,” they jeered. “See her shattered face! See the monster she made herself into!” They called as they dissolved into the currents of gold, the last of the mirror’s strength pushing them away. Each word felt like yet another jab to the heart, and as my hand rose to feel the newly textured side of my face, I couldn’t help but believe they were right. Sharp fragments pushed against the fragile skin of my fingers, drawing a single drop of blood from my pointer finger. This part of me hurt everything it touched. It was cursed. I was cursed.  

Maybe that’s why I couldn’t save her that night. 

A voice cut through the thoughts circling around my head. “You shouldn’t listen to that.” 

Looking over to where the remnants of the mirror lay, I saw a spirit like that of a golden dove resting atop of the mirror’s face. Small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, it glowed with light brighter than day. With wings like sunbeams and eyes as bright as the moon, it didn’t take me long to realize where the golden glow of light within the mirror came from. This spirit hid behind the glass the entire time, and its glow now basked my room in light. With a flutter of its wings, it raised its small body into the air and came to rest on my shoulder where it plucked a thin, wormlike phantom from behind my ear. 

“This one nearly escaped,” it said, before swallowing the creature whole. Strangely, once the phantom was gone, I felt like a weight lifted off of me. I was suddenly far more comfortable than I remembered ever being, and in this moment, my heart felt like it was at peace. 

“What is all of this? And what are you?” I whispered to the dove, astonished by all I saw, and hardly able to make sense of it. 

The dove titled it’s head and looked at me with gentle eyes. “Calm your heart; looking into the Beyond takes everyone by surprise when they first see it.” 

“The Beyond?” 

The dove nodded at my exclamation. “Yes, it’s a plane of existence beyond what your eyes can naturally see. Some would call it a spirit realm, others an alternate dimension within your own. The mirror your grandmother gave you allowed you to gaze into this realm, and now it is a part of you. You will continue to be able to see into this realm until each piece of glass falls from your face and you allow yourself to heal.” It replied, raising a gentle wing to grace the side of my face where the glass still lay in fragmented shards. Two pieces fell off into its wing, shining like mosaic tiles. 

“It looks like you’re healing already, now that those dark phantoms you saw are gone,” the dove explained. “The ones you saw earlier are what we in the Beyond call Shrouds. They are dark creatures that feed off of the worst of human emotions. They taunt people by keeping them in a cycle of misery where they continue reliving their worst fears, worries, and despairs. The more you hate yourself, the worse you feel, and the harder it becomes to distinguish your own thoughts from their words, the better the Shrouds feel.” The dove explained. “As for me, think of me like a guide. My purpose is to help you, just as I have done for generations before you.” 

“Help me with what?” I asked, feeling my voice fill with emotion. “You want to help me heal? Well, I’ve been trying and nothing has worked. Nothing can fix what happened to me.” 

“I know what happened 152 days ago,” the dove stated with a boldness I didn’t expect. “The question is, are you willing to face it?” 

I wavered. I didn’t want to face it. I wanted to avoid it for the rest of time. The guilt of what happened, of the blood on my hands, was too much. Yet, away from the presence of the Shrouds, I felt like I finally stood a chance. “Sure,” I whispered, barely able to say any more. My eyes surveyed the walls around me, trying to remember the last time I stepped outside of them, the last time I tried to face my fears. I kept count of everything, everything but that. It was shameful to think of how long I’d been there. Trapped. Cornered. Locked in. So maybe, just maybe, it could be nice, learning to live again. 

~To be continued~

Written By: Naomi Hernandez
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