The Mirror

“Alright, what do you think?”

“I don’t know…” I was looking around the single room apartment. There was a bed in one corner, at the foot of the bed was a T.V. On the far side of the room, right next to the door, was a kitchen which included a stove, a fridge, and a sink. 

Sean stood behind me, his arms wrapped comfortingly around my waist. I rested my head on his shoulder and fingered his new wedding ring. 

“Sammy, we’ve looked at about twenty different apartments, you have to have liked one of them.”

“No, I don’t know. They just… none of them are what I want.”

“They’re apartments, none of them are going to be perfect.”

“Right.”

The floor was a dark wood tile throughout most of the room. The area near the kitchen was tiled with black and white squares. 

“We’ll have to repaint it…” The walls were dark blue, the ceiling was white. 

“We’ll have to repaint it wherever we go.” 

“How expensive is it? The apartment.” I turned around in his arms and looked up at his face. He was smiling gently but I could see in his eyes that there was a little bit of doubt. “Is it bad?”

“No… it’s actually one of the cheaper ones as far as I can see.”

“Then what is it?”

“What is what?”

“Something’s wrong, I can tell.”

He didn’t respond, he just made one of those annoying groaning sounds that guys make and expect us to understand what they are thinking. 

“Sean, you know that I can’t understand your groans. Use your words.”

Instead of answering my question he turned and pointed towards a door near the bed, “How big is the closet?”

“I don’t know… but- ah, never mind.” I wasn’t going to push. Instead I walked over to the closet and opened the door. Much to my surprise the room was big. When the door opened a cool breeze flushed out. “Whoa.” I said. 

“Huh?” Sean walked up behind me and poked his head over mine curiously. “What’s in there?” His voice echoed hollowly off of the walls that we could not see.

“I don’t know.”

Before I could grab my phone for a flashlight he moved me slightly out of the way, then walked into the room. As soon as he was through the doorframe he vanished into darkness, the shadows devouring his figure. 

I quickly shuffled through my legging’s pocket and pulled out my phone, turning on the flashlight. “Sean?” There was panic in my voice. 

Looking inside I saw a room with a table. On the table were a few half assembled teddy bears. Their stuffing sticking out of different places where limbs should have been. An old clear tote with white cotton spilling out sat in one corner. Brown thread and a rusty needle sat in front of an old folding chair. 

I, without thinking, pulled out the chair and looked around the work space. 

There was what appeared to be a business card sitting in front of me. It said, in bright blue letters, You rip, We rep-air! Bring us your stuffys and we’ll fix ‘em up good as new for you!

The car was tattered around the edges and appeared as if someone had spilled something on it. 

“What happened here?” I wondered. 

I picked up one of the old bears and looked around it. There was a lot of care put into the stitching but I was left to wonder, was that factory stitching or was it done by the person who used to sit here?

I turned behind me to make sure that the door was still open only to find that it wasn’t. In fact, behind me was nothing but a dark abyss. Now light was coming from an old bulb above my head. There was a silver pull string dangling down, it tempted me to pull it but I resisted. I wanted to be able to see this.

I noticed that there was a series of notes on yellowed paper. 

I picked one up and read it:

Dear Sean-

What a coincidence…

How do you know that we can manage this? Moving into a bigger facility? What if we go under? What if we run out of money or if we come to a disagreement that we can’t pass? What if someone else comes into the picture? How can we commit to something so new so wholeheartedly?

The next letter, I assume the reply, said:

Dear Doubtful Self,

I know that it is scary, doing new things. That the fears are real. But we have a passion for what we are doing! As long as we hold onto that passion nothing can get in our way.

The Doubtful One’s reply was:

Dear Sean,

You cannot hold a passion forever. What happens when you burn out? Are you just going to quit halfway through? You know what, I’m coming to you. I’m gonna talk some sense into you face to face.

Sean said:

Dear Reader,

My Doubtful Self is here, he is trying to kidnap me. He is going to convince me that I should back out. I won’t. I can’t let him catch me. 

Reading this I grew fearful. My Sean had been kidnapped, what if he had been mistaken for the other? I stood up to start looking, my hand shooting deep into my hoodie pocket where I’d stuffed my phone, and I turned on the flashlight illuminating only the floor around me whilst also turning off the light above me. My light also illuminated a small box that I decided to pick up. I don’t know why.

CLICK!

A bright light turned on above my head. I blinked hard a few times trying to adjust my eyes. Before I could see I began shouting, “Sammy! Sammy!” I tried to stand up but my hands were tied tightly behind my back.

I looked down at my feet seeing that they too had been tied. 

The bright light above me only illuminated a stark white floor around me. Slowly I saw a figure step into the light, he was wearing all black except for his face which was hidden by a purple full-face mask. There were orange and yellow triangle designs around the eyes along with where the mouth should have been. The figure moved slowly, and in jerky ways. His head always seemed bent in some odd direction, though never in an unnatural one. 

“Do you have it?” the masked figure asked in a deep, muffled voice.

“Have what?” I spat angrily struggling pointlessly to get closer to him.

“The valuables.”

“Man, the most valuable thing I’ve got on me is this tie, it cost fifty bucks. Do you want it? You can have it.”

“No, what I’m looking for has more value than money.”

“What are you… no- no, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Do you know this man?”

He held up an old balck and white photo of me. 

“No.” I said, fear clawing its way into my voice despite my best effort. “Why?”

“I’m supposed to stop him.”

“Stop him from what.”

“Changing.”

“Is change bad?”

“He might fail.”

“Is that so bad?”

The mask was silent, it started to walk away, but before it was totally gone it asked, “I’m not supposed to stop you?”

“No.” I used as much confidence as I could muster even if it was very little. 

The figure was gone, as was my chair. I was now standing on nothing, surrounded by nothing, only a doorway in the distance that led back out to the apartment. 

“Thank goodness. I thought that I would never get out.” as I walked through the doorway I said to Sammy, “It’s a good thing you didn’t follow me in there. That place is crazy.”

But as I walked out and looked around I saw that Sammy wasn’t there. I turned around to go in after her, only when I looked at the closet this time it was normal. There were shelves and a coat rack. “Sammy!” I called knowing that nothing would happen. 

The darkness seemed to go on forever and my hands were tired of carrying the box. I wanted to take a break, to stop, but I couldn’t. I had to find Sean and warn him. If it wasn’t too late that is.

Out of nowhere I bumped into someone, a shadowing figure wearing all black. When we crashed into each other we both wound up on the ground, my box breaking open. 

My hands fumbled for my flashlight which eventually found the shadowed man. On the floor next to his face was a shattered purple and orange mask. Next to this was a picture of a man I recognized. That wasn’t the weirdest part though. The man wearing all black was the man in the photo, the man in the photo was Sean, my Sean. I’d never seen that photo before though, and I’d certainly never seen this odd man. 

I worked my way to my feet and looked as the man, who laid on the floor, stared into a mirror that had apparently fallen from the box. He grabbed the picture meekly and stared for a second at the resemblance. His eyes appeared transfixed, confused, amazed, and awestruck. Then he stood up and scrambled into the shadows sobbing, taking the mirror with him.

I looked around again, the box was gone, my phone had apparently died, but there was a light in the distance. 

I sprinted towards it, wanting so badly to get out of this open labyrinth. If nothing else, if I never found Sean, I would be okay. If I could just get out everything would be find. 

In a second I was through the threshold and was standing on the far side of the room, Sean had his arms wrapped around me. 

I heard my own voice say, “Sean, you know that I can’t understand your groans. Use your words.” But I had not moved my lips.

Then it was as if reality snapped back into itself; my ears became hypersensitive to the noise of traffic outside. I suddenly heard all of everything, realizing that I hadn’t been hearing the whole time I was in the closet. I could feel every inch of my body, smell the dust in the room, taste the age of the air, see every small detail in front of me. All of my senses being activated so suddenly at the same time hit me like a truck. 

Sean helped me stay up straight, he was breathing heavily, a slight look of confusion flashed across his face; but only for a very brief moment. I was wondering if we would talk about what had just happened, but he did not. 

Sean looked down at me filled with confidence, something that was so much more valuable than anything else I could have seen him have, and he said, “Sorry, I just… for a second there I doubted that we could make it. Never again though. I believe in us Sammy. Let’s do this, let’s do it  together.”

“Alright,” I was happy that he’d been honest with me and explained his groan, “But um… maybe a different apartment? I get a feeling that there is a monster in the closet here. If you know what I mean?”

He laughed, and nodded. Then we walked out.