House of Mirrors and Wonder

Steven loved going to the Delaware State Fair every year. His parents had brought him here since he was a kid, back when all he wanted to do was ride the rides and get cotton candy. Nowadays he is way more mature than that. I mean he was 13 years old and had to act like it. Instead of running straight to the rides and cotton candy, Steven led his parents to the horse stalls and walked through checking out all of the animals. 

His parents looked at each other and laughed, they knew this was new but in the end, he would end up with cotton candy in his hair after riding the small roller coaster. They allowed him his change, mostly because this was the main reason they came to the fair. There was no concert tonight so the fairgrounds were a little less crowded, which made it a lot more enjoyable. 

After they had walked around for about an hour, Steven’s dad said that he was getting thirsty and wanted to get a freshly squeezed lemonade from the stand near the rides. As they were waiting in line to get the lemonade, Steven saw a new attraction in the ride area. It was a huge house with signs all over the front of it “House of Mirrors and Wonders”. Steven thought it looked really fun and asked his parents if he could go by himself. It wasn’t just a house of mirrors it also said wonders. His dad saw that the line was going to take a bit so he nodded and let Steven go to the attraction alone. Steven was so happy he hugged his dad as he ran by to the House of Mirrors and Wonders.

As Steven approached he looked to see if there were any restrictions. When he saw that there weren’t any he walked up to the operator. The operator was a strange-looking fellow, the first thing that caught Steven’s eye was that he was so pale. He guessed that if the guy always worked the night shift it made sense. Steven waved that off but then noticed that the man’s eyes were so light they were almost yellow, like the color of his teeth. Then speaking of his teeth, they seemed to have been sharpened so that all of them ended in points. Steven looked at his parents but they didn’t seem to notice anything off. Maybe it was just a carnival thing. He was wearing contacts and veneers like they do in the movies trying to look menacing to add suspense to his attraction. 

 Steven paid the man the money and went to walk inside. Just then he turned to his parents, they waved and he waved back thinking that this was going to be a very cool experience. 

As soon as the door closed behind him Steven heard a voice over the speakers in the room, “Welcome to the House of Mirrors and Wonders. You must find your way through the maze of mirrors to find the exit. Along the way, be careful of your route. Some paths will let you see yourself in a different light, while other paths will let you see yourself as others see you. Few other paths may lead you to a place that you don’t want to go.”

It was a disconcerting statement to start a carnival ride but Steven thought that it was just an ambiance to set the mood for a scary time. The inner door opened and Steven walked into a room full of thousands of Stevens. All of them dressed exactly like him. It was fun to see himself duplicated like this so he spun around and around to see all of the versions of himself throughout the room. 

On his final rotation before trying to find a way to the next room, Steven thought he saw one of the reflections stop spinning before he did. He stopped and looked at the reflection. It seemed normal now that he had stopped, maybe he had gotten a little dizzy. He brushed it off and stepped forward to find a path to the next room. 

Steven bumped his head three times before he stopped leading with his head and used his hands to find the vacancy. He found a pathway to the left of the main door and started to walk through it into the next room. As he stepped in he thought he saw the reflection to his right shake its hands and make a stop motion, almost like warning him to not take the path he had found. Steven went to stop to see what had caused this when he was pulled forward into the next room. 

Steven spun around quickly and tried to go back to the previous room. When he did he found that the opening was now another mirror. Had he gotten turned around that quickly? Or had a door closed behind him? Steven wasn’t so sure he liked this place any longer, he wished one of his parents had come with him. 

After a second or two of self-pity, Steven turned back around and noticed that the reflections in this room were all different. He had seen mirrors before that made you short and fat, or stretched you to be tall and thin but these weren’t like that. The room was a polygon, Steven had just learned that in algebra. As he looked around, Steven appeared to be a different age in each of the reflections. He looked to his far left and saw himself as a toddler, barely able to stand and walk. Even the motions that it mirrored from Steven were awkward and wobbly, like a toddler. As he looked from his left towards his right the ages of the reflections got older and older. 

There were thirteen reflections in all and the one directly to Steven’s right showed him to be about 80 years old. It took a while for this to all sink in. How was this done? Were they projections on the backs of the mirrors? They mimicked him perfectly though. Wow, he thought, this was some great illusion stuff. Steven smiled and began to enjoy himself with this. According to this, he grew to about six feet tall and even in his aged reflections he seemed to have stayed in shape. The ones to his right made him look frail and weary but that came with age didn’t it?

After taking a couple of minutes to look through these reflections Steven started to look for a way out. As he turned to the right again he didn’t see his 80-year-old reflection any longer, he jumped when he saw that it was now a headstone with his name on it. The rest of the reflections mirrored the look of shock on his face as he saw the headstone. That was when Steven realized that he could see a couple of reflections out of the corner of his eye. As he did he could still see their faces. How was that possible? They should show his back or his side. There was no way for them to reflect his face. Then he also noticed that they didn’t reflect the other reflections either, like the ones in the last room where his reflections went on forever. These just had one version of him standing there always looking forward at him. 

As he made this realization the floor beneath him dropped and became a slide. Steven screamed as he slid down the tile flooring. After a few seconds of free-falling, the floor suddenly leveled out. Steven kept sliding on his butt until he hit the far wall. He was scared now, he no longer liked this place and wanted to get out. 

Before he even got up off the ground, Steven started screaming for someone to get him out. He needed help. He screamed for what felt like an hour but was more like 5 minutes. No one came to help him. After he stopped screaming he noticed that all of the panes around him were blank. They seemed to be glass, not mirrors. Slowly Steven got up and walked over to a pane of glass to his left. As he looked at it he could see something moving behind the glass. Slowly the picture came in and he saw himself standing there in a full cap and gown. It looked like he was graduating high school. Then his parents were behind him, beaming with pride. But how could that be? 

The next pane showed him in another cap and gown. Was he graduating college? This time it was just his mother behind him. Where was his dad? As he went to the right he saw himself get married, have kids and even grandkids. First, his mom stood up at his wedding, Even with the first child. But then she was as absent as is father in the panes. He looked at the panes and to his right he stood there, in his 80s again, all alone. No one stood with him or behind him. Did that mean everyone left him? Why was he all alone at the end?

He went to lean against this pane, just to hang his head with the questions that these images showed him, but as he did he fell through the pane and into the next room. 

God, how could there be more? 

He stumbled into the next room as a bright light came on over his head. He couldn’t see anything, the light was blinding and reflected off every wall around him. As his eyes adjusted he saw what looked like angels surrounding him. They were all white with huge wings of light streaming off behind them. Steven guessed that this was the wonder. Maybe the angels were here to save him or show him the exit. Maybe they were just images reflected from the light overhead. Steven wasn’t sure of anything anymore. 

Then a voice came over the speaker again. 

“Little Steven, you seem to have chosen the wrong path. It showed you that no matter what you do with your life, you die alone. Those around you leave until in the end, you are all by yourself. Is that what you want Steven? To die alone?”

“No!” Steven yelled while trying to see where the speakers were. The angels were getting brighter and making it harder to see. 

“No one dies with you, Steven. You lose your father, then your mother even your wife and children. You saw it. That is what happens, it is not a trick. But I can help you stop that. I can let you die surrounded by others that love you. I can let you die surrounded by angels.”

Steven had no idea what the voice was talking about. Then it dawned on him. These angels were here to kill him. He looked closer at the faces of the angels. They were dressed in white but they were very pale, their eyes were as yellow as their teeth and those teeth were all sharp as points on a sword. These weren’t angels they were demons sent to take him, body and soul. 

Steven closed his eyes and wished it all away. He wished he had never seen this House of Mirrors and Wonders. He wished his dad had been stingy and not let him come alone. This wouldn’t be happening if his parents were with him. Would it? He closed his eyes and waited for the demons to come. But just before they did, Steven jumped up and ran straight at the angel directly in front of him. He crashed through the glass and ran down a long hallway. 

At first, the hallway was dark, but it slowly illuminated as the demons fell in behind him, chasing him along the narrow hall. Steven was always a fast runner and now with demons on his heels, he ran faster than he ever had before. 

As he ran he could see the images pass by on the mirrors beside him. On one side it showed his past. Everything he had ever done wrong. The candy bar he had stolen from the store when he was six. He lied to his parents about how the glass table got broken on the back deck. As bad as it was to relive everything he had ever done badly, the other side of the wall seemed even worse. He saw his dad getting sick and then lying in a hospital bed. His mother was too tired and drug out to make the call so Steven had to tell the doctors to pull the plug and let his father die. Then his mother lying in her bed with a bottle of booze and a pill container in her hand as the police and paramedics cover her face. 

Then he saw who he assumed was one of his children fighting for their life in a hospital bed, not more than three years old. His wife was racked with loss. Then his wife, dead in the garage of their home inside the car she had left running with the doors shut, with Steven holding their two other children as the police take her out. 

The last images were of Steven fighting for his own life in a hospital bed. No one was around to help him get a drink of water or help clean him up when he had an accident. No one was around. 

“See Steven your life is wrought with tragedy. I can end all of that. You just need to STOP!” as the voice said the last word there was the operator of the attraction standing directly in front of him. He looked meaner now and definitely madder. 

Steven skidded to a halt and spun around to run the other way, forgetting about the demons behind him. Steven tapped on the walls to his left and his right. They were solid. All he saw was his reflection showing a scared kid with tears streaming down his face and snot coming out of his nose with wild hair and terror in his eyes. Steven laughed a little when he realized that this was probably the first reflection that was honest and true. This is what he was, a scared little kid. No matter how hard he tried to be grown up, he screamed for help and cried for his parents each and every time he was scared. He knew this was also how the operator saw him. Steven took this realization and faced the operator head-on. He forgot about the demons behind him, even though he could feel their hot breath on his neck. 

“No, you cannot take me. I will live my life to the fullest I can and take what comes. No one's life is fully happy, nor fully sad. I will take the time I have with each and every person in it. Some may be too short, but that is what life is about. Now move so I can rejoin my life and leave you behind!” Steven had stood taller and taller as he said these words. He pushed out his chest and talked with a confidence he had never felt before. 

The operator in front of him seemed to take offense to what he had said, then moved aside and opened the door behind him. As he did the room was lit by the sun and filled with the sounds of the fair. Steven could hear the rides and game operators calling for customers. This was truly the exit. He glanced back and saw that the demons shied away from the sun. Steven ran forward away from them and past the operator. As he did he saw the operator smile. As he walked through the door exiting this maze of horror, Steven saw his reflection in the mirror with a look of horror on his face, waving his hands to stop.